Published by: World Tibet Network News Tuesday, November 25, 1997

National Office of the Canada-Tibet Committee

November 24, 1997

Canadian Tibetans and Tibet supporters are protesting Chinese President Jiang Zemin's visit to Canada.

Demonstrators will follow Jiang's 1-week Canadian tour through Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto.

Protestors will demand that Prime Minister Chretien take a hard stand against the human rights and environmental violations in Tibet, and that the Canadian government pressure President Jiang to negotiate without preconditions with Tibet's political and Spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, or with his representatives.

Jiang arrived in Canada following his U.S. formal state visit, which included a summit with U.S. President Clinton. Less than 24 hours after Jiang's departure from Washington, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright appointed the Director of Policy Planning, Gregory Craig, as Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues.

Craig's mission will be to promote substantive dialogue between the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile and the Chinese government, and to preserve the unique religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage of Tibetans.

Canadian demonstrators will ask that Prime Minister Chretien take a similar initiative. They are calling for changes in the Liberal government's China policy to reflect the ever-increasing public support for the Tibetan cause.

Chretien's present position on Canada-China relations is in sharp contrast to his view in 1991, when as Leader of the Opposition, he wrote to the Canada- Tibet Committee.

"The federal Liberal caucus has continued to press the Conservative government to be more assertive in urging the Chinese authorities .. to adhere to the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

"Progress towards respecting human rights in much of the world is the direct result of pressure from western democracies."

A report released last month by Human Rights Watch/Asia concluded that since 1994, Chinese efforts to control religious freedom inside Tibet have intensified steadily. In particular, the report cites interference in selection of the Panchen Lama, an 8 year old boy, now in his 3rd year of detention by Chinese authorities.

Over a million Tibetans have died as a direct result of the Chinese occupation. Practice of the Buddhist religion in Tibet is severely restricted, and Tibetan nuns and monks are routinely imprisoned and tortured with methods such as electric cattle prods and mock executions. Tibetan women are subjected to forced abortions and sterilizations. Tibetan children are strategically targeted as victims of torture, according to American groups Physicians for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch.

Jiang maintained during his U.S. tour that the people of Tibet live in "happiness and contentment."