Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is correct that it would be very helpful to the entire international community. I visited China recently and I know the extraordinary importance which the ordinary Chinese, let alone the Chinese official and government agencies, attach to the Beijing Olympic Games and to the Olympic events taking place in other parts of China. There is a real excitement on the streets and it is a tragedy that these issues cannot be resolved. It would be good if there was proper dialogue and it would be in everybody's interests, not least China's own, if there was a dialogue and more openness.

There was a complete lack of awareness in the West to what was in Tibet because nobody could look in. As we know in the first few tragic days of the events in Lhasa, it was Han Chinese who were slaughtered and put to death in some gruesome ways. It is in nobody's interests to have such a closed situation. The cultural reality is different from the cultural reality in this country. If we know anything on this island we know that all conflict is ultimately brought to resolution through discussion.

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