World Tibet Network News Friday, June 19, 1998

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) - President Clinton, days away from traveling to China, urged the Chinese government Thursday to free religious prisoners and resume talks with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Clinton made the comments after he was briefed by a delegation of religious leaders on their recent visit to China to observe religious conditions.

``We believe that China should resume talks with the Dalai Lama. We believe that prisoners of conscience should be released. I am convinced that dealing directly with the Chinese on these issues is the best way to make a difference, and making a difference in the end is what matters,'' Clinton said.

During a ceremony in the White House Roosevelt Room, Clinton announced that Robert Seiple, president of the World Vision United States organization, had been appointed to a new senior State Department position, that of senior adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright for international religious freedom.

Experts say China continues to hold more than 2,000 political prisoners and religious prisoners including independent Catholics and Protestants, Tibetan Buddhist nuns and monks and Muslim leaders.

Clinton welcomed the recent release from prison of two key Chinese religious leaders -- Gao Feng and Bishop Zeng Jingmu -- plus the communist government's announcement that it intends to sign the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, with its guarantees of freedom of thought and religion.

``But Chinese Christians, Muslims and Buddhists remain imprisoned for their religious activities, including in Tibet, and other believers face harassment,'' he said.

The Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, has said he believes Clinton will raise the question of Tibetan autonomy when he visits China June 25 to July 3, but he did not expecina amid several scandals involving Beijing.``I think that once the president's visit is over, Congress will turn its attention to other matters,'' said Sasser, himself a former senator. ``And certainly once the November (congressional) elections have come and gone, I think you won't see much reference to China on the part of the congressional leadership,'' he said. One of the scandals involves whether a decision by Clinton to allow Loral Space & Communications Ltd to launch a satellite on a Chinese rocket was related to campaign donations by Loral chairman Bernard Schwartz.

Congress is also looking into whether Loral earlier handed China sensitive information on rocket guidance technology, data that could improve the accuracy of China's nuclear missiles. Yet another scandal centres on allegations that a Chinese aerospace executive whose father was China's top military leader, made illegal donations to the 1996 Democratic campaign. Clinton will make a five-city tour of China from June 25 to July 3, becoming the first U.S. president to set foot on Chinese soil since the June 4, 1989 massacre of pro-democracy demonstrators at Tiananmen Square in the centre of Beijing.