DATE=4/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA / TIBET / RIGHTS (L-O)
NUMBER=2-261417
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=

VOICED AT:


INTRO:  Chinese and Tibetan human-rights activists are 
urging the U-N Human Rights Commission to censure 
China for what they call its repressive policies.  
Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the Commission is due 
Tuesday to discuss a resolution on the human-rights 
situation in China.

TEXT:  This will be the ninth-time a resolution 
condemning China for its human-rights record has been 
submitted to the U-N Human Rights Commission meeting 
in Geneva.  All eight previous resolutions have been 
blocked.  China has successfully used a procedural 
measure called a "no-motion action" to keep the 
resolution from coming to a vote. 

Lobsang Nyandak is the Director of the Tibetan Center 
of Human Rights and Democracy based in India.  He says 
the international community must not allow, what he 
calls - such a miscarriage of justice - to happen 
again.  He says China has no reason to feel proud that 
through, what he calls - its bullying tactics - it is 
able to block debate at the Commission.

Mr. Nyandak says this procedural method will not solve 
China's human-rights problems.  If China does not want 
to come under the human-rights spotlight, he says it 
should release all political prisoners and respect the 
fundamental rights of the Chinese and Tibetan people.

            /// NYANDAK ACT ///

      Then can China find a peaceful solution.  And, 
      then can only China not have to work so hard to 
      silence the other states at the Commission.  
      Until then, it is in fact futile for the Chinese 
      delegations here to lobby too hard and to use 
      pressure tactics to buy votes.  

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Nyandak says even if China wins again, its victory 
will be based on pressure and not on what he calls 
truth and reality.

The United States is sponsoring the China resolution.  
Barring any last-minute developments, the European 
Union will not back the resolution.

Mr. Nyandak criticizes the E-U policy of quiet 
diplomacy in the light of what, he says, is the 
deteriorating human-rights situation in China.  He 
says victims of China's repressive policies are 
looking with great anxiety and hope at what the U-N 
Commission on Human Rights will do Tuesday.

            /// 2ND NYANDAK ACT ///

      If the United Nations Human Rights Commission 
      can censure China, then human-rights victims in 
      Tibet and China will feel encouraged, even if 
      they risk their lives by expressing human rights 
      or freedoms of their own people there is always 
      a world body, which is behind them, who is not 
      afraid of condemning China. 

            /// END ACT ///

Mr. Nyandak says if the international community 
maintains pressure on China, it will be compelled to 
change its policies on human rights.  He says pressure 
works.  Mr. Nyandak notes China would not have signed 
the international Human Rights Conventions without 
such pressure.   (SIGNED)

NEB/LS/GE/RAE 



17-Apr-2000 12:15 PM EDT (17-Apr-2000 1615 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.