EP/South (Inner) Mongolia

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT APPROVES BY A MAJORITY VOTE A RESOLUTION ON THE SITUATION CONCERNING HUMAN RIGHTS IN INNER MONGOLIA, WHICH IS OCCUPIED BY THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.

Strasbourg-Brussels, Friday, September 19th . The European Parliament yesterday approved a resolution condemning the grave violations of human rights in the People's Republic of China and Inner Mongolia, a territory which China has occupied Since 1947. The resolution was passed as a result of the initiative of the Radical group with the support of the PPE, Liberal, Green and UPE Parliamentary groups (the socialists and communists opposed).

Declaration by Olivier Dupuis, European Deputy and Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party:

"Just as the conclusion of the congress of the Chinese Communist Party apparently end on a delusory note, yesterday's adoption of a very precise resolution concerning the tragic situation in Inner Mongolia on behalf of the EP constitutes not only an event without precedent in the parliamentary annals of democratic nations, but also completes at the same time, only a few months after the approval of the Mcmillan-Scott report on the long-term politics between the European Union and the People's Republic of China, the definition of a coherent outline for the politics of the European Union in relation to China based on the respect for democratic principles and the development of a legal state."

All of the persons interested in actively intervening may send us their articles or essays conforming the format noted below. In previous issues we have published the writings of Olivier Dupuis (TRP Secretary), Thomas Nagant (President of Les Amis du Tibet, Belgium), Anders H. Anderson (Tibet Support Group, Denmark), Klemens Ludwig (TID President, Germany), Michael Alexander (Tibet Information Service, Germany and Malta), Claude B. Levenson (President of the CSPT, Switzerland), Jamyang Norbu (Member of the Tibetan Community in the USA) and Tsewang Norbu (former President of the Tibetan Community in Germany).

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EP/South (Inner) Mongolia: resolution

Resolution on the situation in Inner Mongolia and the sentence passed on Mr Hada, founder of the Southern Mongolian Democracy Alliance

B4-0750/97

The European Parliament,

- having regard to its previous resolutions on abuses of human rights in the People's Republic of China and annexed territories,

A. whereas the People's Republic of China has pursued a repressive policy with regard to the population of Inner Mongolia ever since the 1947 occupation, and whereas in the course of 50 years of Chinese rule over 150 000 Mongols have disappeared and 800 000 have been imprisoned,

B. whereas Mr Hada, founder of the Southern Mongolian Democracy Alliance (SMDA) was arrested on a charge of separatism, sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment and deprived of political rights for a period of 4 years,

C. having regard to recent events in Hohhot, capital of Inner Mongolia, which led to the arrest of a large number of SMDA supporters involved in efforts to preserve Mongolia's cultural and linguistic heritage,

D. denouncing the continuing practice of organizing the movement of large numbers of people to Inner Mongolia with a view to transforming the ethnic composition of the region, which has resulted in over 20 million Chinese settling in Inner Mongolia and reduced the native population to an insignificant minority (3.6 million Mongols according to 1992 estimates),

E. denouncing the use by the Chinese authorities of sterilization and forced abortion as methods of controlling population numbers,

F. whereas Buddhist monasteries continue to be destroyed in Inner Mongolia and the Mongol people's cultural, religious and linguistic integrity is continually under attack,

G. whereas, consequently, open and continuous discussions must be conducted between the European Union and the People's Republic of China, with particular reference to the extremely important questions of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,

H. whereas it is the duty of the European Union to intervene, with all the means at its disposal, to oppose any policy that threatens the integrity of populations or sections of it, or that aims to suppress their culture or their aspirations to autonomy,

I. deeply concerned by the growing instability in Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang), which are occupied by the People's Republic of China, and by the potential consequences for neighbouring regions,

1. Condemns the policy of the People's Republic of China, which aims to suppress the culture, religion and language of the population of Inner Mongolia and to stifle the Mongolian people's legitimate aspirations to autonomy;

2. Calls on the government of the People's Republic of China to embark on political dialogue with the Mongol opposition, with a view to reaching a peaceful negotiated settlement of the question;

3. Calls on the Chinese government to release all prisoners convicted of offences which are not recognized as such under the relevant international law and treaties;

4. Calls on the Chinese government to take immediate action to re-open the trial of Mr Hada, the founder of the SMDA, and the other activists arrested, in the presence of international observers;

5. Calls on the Chinese government to allow journalists and international observers free entry to Inner Mongolia;

6. Condemns the Chinese authorities for the discriminatory economic and political treatment applied to the population of the occupied regions of Inner Mongolia, East Turkestan and Tibet, and to other ethnic minorities;

7. Calls on the Commission to include, in the cooperation agreements with China, a clause prohibiting ethnic and political discrimination, and to set up effective bodies to monitor the application of that clause;

8. Calls on the Commission and the Council to bring pressure to bear on the authorities of the People's Republic of China to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental rights, whether on Chinese territory or in Inner Mongolia, Tibet and East Turkestan;

9. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the parliaments of the Member States, the government of the People's Republic of China, the representatives of the Mongolian opposition in exile, the representatives of the opposition of East Turkestan in exile and the Tibetan government in exile.

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DEBATE ON THE SATYAGRAHA

SATYAGRAHA: A MADNESS THAT MUST BE VERIFIED (10)

By Angiolo Bandinelli (*)

When Gandhi went to London as a young man to study European history - its culture, politics, and laws - he encountered many people who studied the Orient, and India in particular. They were studying India's language and cultures, its religions and traditions, including the tradition of nonviolence. But those scholars were more than students; they were an integral pan of a vast political and cultural movement to which we owe the project of liberal socialism which was founded on a pragmatic humanism which today, after the fall of "social realism" can be appreciated more for its importance and ideological richness.

In Europe, Gandhi discovered Thoreau and Ruskin, and encountered Tolstoy. The two cultures actively merged in him, not in a simply speculative way, and openly dismissing Kipling's pessimism ("West is West, and East is East, and they will never meet"). This unification allowed Gandhi to present his movement for the independence of India to the West in a credible and acceptable way, but this movement also borrowed its political dimension from the West.

Today, the diaspora of Tibet that has resulted from the Chinese occupation of Tibet may be a point of departure for a global experiment of perhaps even greater significance: the active encounter between nonviolent Tibetan Buddhism with the hopes of the entire world (certainly not only the West) for the creation of a new way of seeking political solutions through the re-elaboration and utilization of the rich instrumentation of nonviolence. More importantly, this point of departure coincides with the serious weakening of the credibility of the United Nations, which was created to protect and maintain peace, justice and cooperation among peoples after the barbarity of the last World War. The Tibetan diaspora has a strong responsibility to the world. It may constitute the stubborn seed of a vast movement for the realization of a system of lasting peace. The project of the global Satyagraha for the freedom of Tibet and China is, in this sense, a unique opportunity. It is a great responsibility and an even greate

r honor which the religious, cultural, and political exponents of Tibet should undertake without hesitation.

Yesterday, Gandhi needed the West to provide him with the political contents for his aspirations. Perhaps today the world is in need of new values to replenish the exhausted formalisms of its political systems. We live in the era of the globalization of economies, resources and information, and we truly want the nonviolent political struggle for freedom to become a point of reference for this process of globalization, to provide it with contents beyond the economic - spiritual, moral, political, and human contents.

I think that Gandhi would have been in favor of the Satyagraha project. Today it is easy to say that the Mahatma had an easy job simply because he found himself struggling against the profoundly legal British empire. When Gandhi began his struggle, whoever spoke of easy objectives was branded a fool. The idea of a global Satyagraha seems foolish today. The responsibility to try and verify this folly can succeed. One day, someone may even say that it was not a difficult objective to reach.

(*) author, former secretary of the Radical Party and former MP

Note: All articles must be sent either via fax or, preferably, via e-mail to the TRP office in Brussels (fax: 32-2-284.91.98 or e-mail: pr.bruxelles@agora.stm.it), in English, French, or Italian. The length of the articles must not exceed 40-50 lines.

(Published by FREEDOM FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY IN CHINA ! - Number 65 - 3O September, 1997)