The Chinese delegation to the Human Rights Council succeeded in blocking all criticism of their actions in Tibet by invoking a series of 12 points of order during statements by the United States, Switzerland and Slovenia (for the European Union) while several states including Zimbabwe, Cuba and Pakistan raised points of order in favour of China. As the general debate degenerated, point of order followed point of order until the Chairman, Ambassador Costea of Romania called for a 10 minute adjournment to allow tempers to cool. When he reconvened the session 30 minutes later he warned delegates to stick to the agenda item under discussion and only to refer to current issues by way of examples of general points. The first speaker to fall foul of this ruling was Claude Levenson, speaking in a joint statement on behalf of the Association for World Education and IHEU. Unfortunately the moment she mentioned Tibet she was hammered by the President and prevented from continuing.
Some speakers, including the International Commission of Jurists, did succeed in completing their statements by avoiding any direct reference to China or Tibet. The speaker for Human Rights Watch also managed to omit any mention of China until her final sentence: “China has suppressed freedom of speech in Tibet, it should not be allowed to do so in this Council.
The last word, however, went to China, exercising its right of reply. It suggested that the United States was a massive abuser of human rights in Iraq and elsewhere and should put its own house in order first; that what was happening in Tibet was an internal matter for China alone, and that it had every right to restore law and order – which it had done without excessive violence!
Claude Levenson is a writer and an expert on Tibet. She has just published a book called Tibet: la question qui dérange, Albin Michel, Paris 2008 (Tibet: the disturbing question)
Here is her prepared text with an English translation below.
Item 8 : Suivi et application de la Déclaration et du programme d’action de Vienne
(Arrangements régionaux pour la promotion et la protection des droits de l’homme)
Monsieur le président,
Dans le cadre du point 8 de l’ordre du jour consacré aux violations des droits de l’homme en particulier en Asie (§ 128 & § 67), permettez-moi, au nom de l’Association pour une éducation mondiale (AWE) et l’Union internationale humaniste et laique (IHEU,) de m’étonner du silence assourdissant de ce Conseil à propos des événements actuels au Tibet dans les frontières de la République populaire de Chine. En contradiction avec le chiffre avancé de 19 morts depuis le début, le 10 mars, des manifestations pacifiques à Lhassa, admis par Pékin, l’administration tibétaine en exil en Inde donnait hier soir le chiffre de 140 morts confirmés et identifiés, et de plus de 500 blessés dans l’ensemble des zones touchées par les troubles. De même source, on rapporte plus de 700 arrestations au cours des 3 derniers jours dans la capitale de la région dite autonome. Malgré le silence officiel, les protestations continuent dans de nombreuses localités tibétaines situées dans les provinces chinoises du Qinghai, du Gansu et du Sichuan où des troupes militaires lourdement armées ont été déployées en renfort des forces de police.
Compte tenu du manque chronique de transparence de la machine judiciaire chinoise, des tortures et des mauvais traitements courants dans les prisons chinoises, on ne peut que s’inquiéter du sort de tous les nouveaux détenus. Sans oublier non plus que depuis environ une semaine, tous les touristes et plus encore les journalistes ont été expulsés de la région dite autonome, tandis que les journalistes en poste à Pékin sont empêchés par tous les moyens de se rendre même dans les zones tibétaines des provinces chinoises limitrophes du Tibet. Autant pour la liberté d’information et d’expression, sans parler des autres droits délibérément piétinés, que les autorités chinoises avaient pourtant pris l’engagement d’élargir et de respecter dans la perspective des JO. Il importe donc que le Conseil des droits de l’homme, organe principal de promotion et de défense des droits de l’homme des Nations unies, assume ses responsabilités prescrites dans son cahier des charges. Nous suggérons vivement l’envoi sur place dans les meilleurs délais d’une mission d’enquête internationale indépendante afin d’évaluer la situation, de vérifier que les prisonniers soient bien traités et que les circonstances exactes qui ont poussé les forces de l’ordre à tirer sur des manifestants désarmés soient clairement établies. Sous peine de voir s’effriter encore davantage sa crédibilité, le Conseil des droits de l’homme ne peut pas se permettre d’ignorer le drame humain qui se joue à huis clos sur le toit du monde. Il ne suffit pas d’en appeler à la retenue un gouvernement qui semble ne connaître que la force brute pour juguler les aspirations de son peuple et des Tibétains, il importe de faire cesser l’arbitraire et la répression en exigeant des comptes des responsables directs et indirects de ces violations répétées des droits de l’homme au Tibet, ainsi que des atteintes à ces droits universels des citoyens chinois.
Item 8 : Follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
(Regional Arrangements for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights)
Mr President,
In the context of agenda item 8 dedicated to human rights violations in Asia (paragraphs 128 and 67) permit me, in the name of the Association for World Education and the International Humanist and Ethical Union to express my astonishment at the deafening silence in the Council regarding current events in Tibet, within the frontiers of the People’s Republic of China. In contradiction to the figures given by Beijing of 19 dead since the start of peaceful demonstrations in Lhasa on 10 March, the Tibetan government in exile in India yesterday gave the figure of 140 dead, confirmed and identified, and more that 500 injured in the areas touched by the trouble. The same source also reports 700 arrested in the past three days in the capital of this so-called autonomous region. Despite official silence, the protests are continuing in a number of Tibetan localities situated in the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichan where heavily armed troops have been deployed to reinforce the police.
Given the chronic lack of transparency of the Chinese judicial system, of the torture and ill-treatment in meted out in Chinese prisons, one can only be worried by these new events. Without forgetting that for over a week all of the tourists as well as the journalists have been expelled from this so-called autonomous region, while those journalists based in Beijing have been forbidden by every means from visiting even the Chinese provinces bordering Tibet. So much for the freedom of information and expression, not to mention other rights that the Chinese authorities have undertaken to uphold and respect around the Olympic Games. It is vital therefore that the Human Rights Council, the principal UN organ for the promotion and protection of human rights, assume its responsibilities set out in its mandate.
We strongly suggest sending immediately, an independent, international fact-finding mission to Tibet in order to evaluate the situation, to check that prisoners are being well treated and to establish the exact circumstances that led the military to open fire on unarmed demonstrators.. In order not to lose further credibility, the Human Rights Council cannot allow itself to ignore this human drama that is playing itself out behind closed doors on the roof of the world.
It is not enough to call to order a government that seems only to understand brute force in its efforts to strangle the aspirations of the Tibetan people, it must be stopped by holding to account those directly and indirectly responsible for repeated violations of human rights in Tibet, and attacks on the universal rights of Chinese citizens.