Published by: World Tibet Network News Tuesday, December 16, 1997

TIN News Update / 15 December, 1997 / total pages: 2

- Foreign Aid Worker Forced Out, EU Project under Scrutiny -

The Chinese authorities have forced one of the most experienced foreign aid workers in Tibet to leave the country, and two other long-term European aid workers in the region are now known to have had their permits refused for a period earlier this year.

The difficulties faced by the foreign aid workers, for which Chinese officials gave no reasons, raise problems for the European Union, which was due to sign a major agreement this month giving China 7.6 million ecu (6 million pounds) for a controversial development project in Tibet.

European governments funding the aid projects in Tibet appeared tonight to have been unaware of the restrictions on the aid workers and are apparently still considering their positions on the issue after the news was published this morning in an British newspaper, the Independent. A senior member of the European Parliament called this evening for the EU project to be put on hold until the Chinese reverse their decision.

A spokesman for the EU's directorate of Foreign Relations in Brussels said today that he did not know about the EU project and European Union representatives in Beijing last week did not reply to requests for information about the visa problems in Tibet or about the current status of the EU project.

The London-based Save the Children Fund (SCF), which has been operating educational and environmental projects in rural Tibet for six years, confirmed that a permit had been refused in July for their only expatriate representative, a 30 year old education advisor who has been working in Tibet for the last three years.

"We are really sad that our education advisor will not be continuing to work with the project, but she has worked with a team to set up a project which our Tibetan staff will be implementing," an SCF spokesman told The Independent yesterday, asking that the woman not be named. Apart from one week in November the SCF project has been without its advisor for the last five months, but SCF plans to continue the project despite the unexplained set-back.

Two senior members of the health team operated in Tibet by Medecins sans Frontieres Belgium (MSF) are now known to have had their permits briefly withdrawn in June this year. Chinese officials are said to have commented that the two experts had been in Tibet too long. The two were later granted partial access to the region after senior MSF officials flew to Lhasa to discuss the issue.

- European Governments Consider Facts -

Britain's Department for International Development said today that it has helped fund SCF's village education project in Tibet since April 1996. "We were told by SCF when we started to fund their project that it was to last for six years," said a spokeswoman, who would give no further comment until tomorrow. The British Foreign Office said it would "see what facts were available and act as necessary", according to a spokesman.

Norway's Foreign Ministry, which is believed to contribute at least 50,000 pounds a year to the SCF and MSF projects, today said it would not comment until it was "fully aware of the facts", implying that it did not know of the restrictions faced by the projects' staff.

The situation could embarrass Norway's Secretary of State, Janne Haaland Matlary, who last week received a Tibetan delegation led by the Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region on a visit to Oslo. The delegation included Wang Jiayu, deputy director of the Tibet region's Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation. Mr Wang's Department has immediate responsibility for the de facto expulsion of the SCF expert as well as for implementation of the EU project due to be signed this month.

The EU project was designed in 1994 to improve irrigation and social infrastructure in Panam, a county 200 km south west of Lhasa, and at the time was the most costly EU deal of its kind with China. It was suspended in January 1995 following criticism from Parliamentarians and pro-Tibet groups that it was badly designed, that it risked encouraging Chinese migration into Tibet, and that it had been planned without adequate consultation.

In May 1995 the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Commission to ensure that future proposals relating to Tibet would be "the subject of a full and open consultation process", and urged it to channel development aid towards non-government organisations engaged in small projects.

Sir Leon Brittan said in January this year that further design of the project would be carried out "in an open and transparent manner", and that the involvement of MSF and SCF would be "enshrined in the implementation of the project", according a statement issued tonight by the Welsh MEP, Glenys Kinnock.

The final version of the EU's reappraised implementation document, due to be signed this month, has not been made public, but it is believed to specify that foreign NGOs with local expertise will be "favourably considered" to implement the education and health components of the Panam project.

SCF said that it could not now take part in the project. "Panam was something that we were looking at, [but] without this education advisor in post, we would not have the capacity to go ahead," said their spokeswoman yesterday. MSF has now also announced that it will not take part in the EU project, on the grounds that it prefers to work in poorer areas.

Mrs Kinnock today called upon the EC to "put the project on hold until such time as the involvement of NGOs in its implementation is clearly secured".

"The Parliament has always been categorical that NGOs must be involved in Panam", she said in a statement issued tonight. "We must have independent people on the ground who can ensure that it is the Tibetan people who benefit from this project ... If these reports are correct, it seems that the Chinese authorities will simply not let this happen," she said in a statement released this evening. "Either the Chinese relent, or the EU steps back and looks again at the project," said Mrs Kinnock.