By Tibet Support Committee, Denmark - 20-9-1996

During the 96th Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Beijing, the Inter-Parliamentary Union's 12+ Group, consisting of parliamentarians from most European countries as well as from the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, yesterday passed a memorandum on Tibet. According to a press release from the Danish Social Democratic News Service, the Danish MP Mr. Henning Gjellerod, leader of the 12+ Group's Ad Hoc Group on the Tibetan Issue, expresses satisfaction with the result. Mr. Gjellerod has been working as chairman of the Ad Hoc Group since it was established during the last IPU meeting in Istanbul in April.

In the memorandum the 12+ Group expresses its "deep concern at the violations of the Tibetan people's human rights and recognises the people's right to preserve its cultural and religious identity" (unofficial translation from Danish).

The memorandum calls on all parliamentarians in the Union to support the efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people to solve the Tibetan problem non-violently and urges representatives from the Chinese government to meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama without preconditions and at a neutral site.

The 12+ Group finally calls on parliamentarians to join a Tibet Friendship Group established by the 12+ Group, and to form similar friendship groups at a national level.

The problems of the Tibetan people have also been mentioned in other fora at the IPU meeting. During the IPU debate on 17 September, four parliamentarians raised the situation in Tibet in their personal statements.

The Norwegian MP Mr. Harald Ellefsen, who has worked for Tibet in the Norwegian parliament for many years and chairs its Parliamentary Group for Tibet, referred extensively to Tibet and mentioned the UN resolutions.

An Estonian, MP Mrs. K. Kilvet, called on the Chinese government to respond positively to the initiatives of the Dalai Lama relating to Tibet and expressed inddirectly the hope that the 11th Panchen Lama would be released.

Following Chinese criticism of the statement by Mr. Ellefsen, Mr. H. Vos, a Dutch MP, voiced his dissatisfaction with Chinese intolerance of the diversity of views represented by IPU delegates.

The Austrian MP Mr. J. Hochtl called on the Chinese to explain their abduction of the Panchen Lama and expressed his desire that the people of Tibet should receive greater freedom.

Submitted by Anders H. Andersen, anders@cybernet.dk