World Tibet Network News Monday, May 04, 1998 (II)

SYDNEY, May 4 (AFP) - A protester who boarded one of three Chinese warships sailing into Sydney Harbour Monday claimed he was beaten by the sailors on board.

Sporting a bloody, raised welt on his forehead and cuts to his shins, Robert Samsa said crew members on the destroyer Qingdao kicked and punched him for two minutes after first obscuring the view of photographers with a tarpaulin.

"There was no attempt at talking or negotiating, it was just getting straight into it and just beating the shit out of me," Samsa told reporters before he was taken into police custody.

He said he escaped by diving into the water near the Garden Island naval base here.

New South Wales Greens MP Ian Cohen, also at the protest against human rights abuses in Tibet, said Samsa was among activists on surfboards and rubber dinghies who obstructed the ships.

He said he had never experienced violence in 12 years of protesting against warships in Sydney Harbour.

"Visiting ships from the United States and England have always treated the situation with good humour," Cohen said at Parliament House, still dressed in his wetsuit from the protest.

"We wondered how the Chinese would react -- well they've reacted in a brutal totalitarian manner."

He said he would examine whether assault charges could be laid on Samsa's behalf and called for the Chinese sailors to be punished.

"I would like to see all these Chinese sailors confined to their ships. I don't think that they've got a right to be walking around the free streets of Sydney after perpetrating violence against an Australian citizen and also violence of course against the Tibetan community."

Police said a 38-year-old man had been charged with trespass over the incident and bailed to appear at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court later this month.