Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, October 6, 1996

Weekend Australian October 5-6

By Don Greenlees, Forein affairs writer

For all the defiance of the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, over the threats from China about his meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the Federal Government went to great lengths to avoid upsetting Beijing.

Just how far they went is evident in the hectic negotiations that ultimately scuttled a Senate motion calling for an end to human rights abuses by China in Tibet and self-determination for the Tibetan people.

The notice of motion, drafted by the Australian Democrats foreign affairs spokeswoman, Senator Vicky Bourne, recalled the criticism of China's rule in Tibet by the German parliament, which plunged the relationship between Bonn and Beijing into crisis in June.

Senator Bourne's notice of motion was put to the Senate on September 9 to concide with the start of the Dalai Lama's visit to Australia five days later. By then, China had already made clear that giving a high-level welcome to the Buddhist leader and political activist against China's Tibetan rule would damage the bilateral relationship.

Although Senator Bourne's notice of motion simply mirrored one she had succeeded in winning Senate support for in 1990, the prospect of it re-emerging on the eve of the Dalai Lama's visit was the cause of some worry within the office of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Downer, and his department.

"They suffer mild strokes with every foreign affairs motion," Senator Bourne told "The Weekend Australian".

Senator Bourne and her advisers became the target of vigorous efforts by a senior Downer adviser, Mr Bill Tweddell, to remove clauses from the notice of motion that could potentially be of offence to China.

On September 10, the day after the motion was put into the Senate, Mr Tweddell warned one of Senator Bourne's staff that if the motion was formally adopted there would almost certainly be a backlash from China affecting commercial interests.

He cited National Mutual and the ANZ Bank - both of whom were trying to expand their business in China - as two likely victims of China's wrath.

The principal concern was a clause in Senator Bourne's motion endorsing three United Nations General Assembly resolutions passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965 that acknowledged Tibet's "right to self-determination" and the deprivation of the "fundamental human rights and freedoms" of the Tibetan people.

Although Mr Tweddell did not object to strong concern being expressed on human rights, Mr Downer's office and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not want the Senate pushin for Tibetan independence.

That evening, with negotiations dragging on, Mr Tweddell sugested Senator Bourne speak to the first assistant secretary in DFAT's north Asia division, Ms Penny Wensley.

There is no question of Senator Bourne's passion when it comes to the political future of Tibet or human rights abuses by China against the Tibetan people.

"I am absolutely convinced that China is engaging in a deliberate plan of cultural genocide in Tibet," she said in one recent press release.

Her 1990 notice of motion, adopted by the Senate, was a strongly worded condemnation of Chinese human rights abuses. It endorsed the UN resolutions and called on China to start negotiations with the Dalai Lama "without preconditions".

But her conversation with Ms Wensley late on the evening of September 10 was enough to convince here that the words supported by the Senate six years ago were no longer appropriate.

In particular, as Ms Wensely pointed out, the Dalai Lama was no longer advocating independence from China, only a form of autonomy. Ms Wensely pointedly went through the German resolution that had provoked the crisis in the relationship with China.

Senator Bourne decided to redraft the motion. Copies of a new draft were sent to Mr Downer's office and the department for further negotiation.

Finally it was agreed the Senate should simply "recall" the motion of 1990 and "note" a list of human rights issues, including the Dalai Lama's requests for dialogue with China.

"Recall" and "note" in the language of bureaucracy are next to meaningless: the Senate had quietly dropped calls for self-determination and was not even expressing concern about the state of human rights in Tibet.

The motion went through the Senate on September 17. Labor signalled plans to toughen the wording but its only speaker, Senator Chris Schacht, was unavailable on the day it went through the Senate.

Instead, Labor accepted the compromise motion. There was no vote, no debate.

If the Chinese had noticed, the outcome would have made them smile: compared with the tough words in 1990, the Senate had gone soft.