Sheila Terry (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for staying in the House to take this matter. I ask that the Minister for Foreign Affairs initiate or support a resolution regarding China's ongoing appalling human rights record in Tibet at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. I am not sure whether another country will bring forward a resolution but it would be even better if the Minister for Foreign Affairs could initiate a resolution. Despite the release of several prisoners of conscience before the end of their sentence during 2002, and signs of tentative dialogue between the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan Government in exile, repression of political dissent and religious freedom has continued in recent months in the Tibet Autonomous Region and in some Tibetan autonomous provinces. Since the beginning of 2003 several people have reportedly been detained and imprisoned after unfair trials, for peacefully expressing their political and religious views. In most cases, the Chinese Government does not reveal the charges against those arrested, their whereabouts, legal status, or their health conditions.

Many of us are aware of the ongoing atrocities in Tibet, some of which are appalling. This is why I tabled this matter on the Adjournment. More than 1 million Tibetans have died under the Chinese occupation as a result of torture, starvation, and execution. Tibetans are routinely imprisoned and tortured for peacefully expressing their views. Credible reports of mistreatment and torture of detainees and political prisoners in Tibet are widespread, including beatings, shock with electric batons, deprivation of sleep or food, exposure to cold and other brutalities. Human rights and humanitarian organisations are denied access to prisons and detention centres in Tibet. More than 6,000 monasteries and their contents, irreplaceable jewels of Tibetan culture, have been destroyed. Freedom of religion is severely curtailed. Nuns are brutally raped in prisons. China is encouraging the large-scale settlement of non-Tibetans into Tibet, which is overwhelming the Tibetan population in many areas. Over the past year unrest has spread from the urban areas into the countryside.

Today the situation in Tibet is increasingly tense. The influx of Chinese increases and peaceful demonstrations in Lhasa and elsewhere take place despite the strong and often violent reaction of Chinese security forces. Exiled Tibetans have only limited access to their country. Meanwhile, China has just opened Tibet to individual and group tourism, and to wider economic development. In recent years, and especially since the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the concern shown by the governments in Europe and in the United States, in particular, has grown considerably and I welcome that. Several parliamentary bodies have passed resolutions condemning human rights violations in Tibet and calling for peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with the Dalai Lama's plan.

This is the most critical time for the Tibetan people. Tibetans urge the world to support the Dalai Lama's proposal and put pressure on the Chinese Government to begin negotiations with the Tibetan Government in exile, the true representative of the Tibetan people. Many people in this House are concerned with this matter. It has often been raised on the Order of Business. Members of my family have visited Tibet and have been extremely concerned by what they have seen and have encouraged me to table this motion. I hope that the Minister for Foreign Affairs will be able to initiate a resolution and if not that he will support one put forward by another country. I would like to see Ireland expressing concern in a wider sphere on this very serious issue.