India Sabotaging World Meet
(Reuters | New Delhi | March 12, 1994)
Irate Indian parliament deputies on Saturday said that the government had struck a deal with China to sabotage a proposed world parliamentarians' conference on Tibet next week. "India is tacitly shifting its approach to Tibet to please China and compromising on country's strategic interests and betraying history," George Fernandes, Indian parliament deputy and chairman of the conference said.
The three-day conference is due to begin on Friday in the Indian capital New Delhi.
"The conference is being obstructed by the Indian foreign office," Fernandes told reporters, adding that the government was denying visas to participating delegates.
Indian embassies in Finland, Sweden and Ireland were not only denying visas to the parliamentarians, but also trying to persuade them to withdraw their participation in the conference, Fernandes said.
"This is against common diplomatic protocol," he said.
A foreign office spokesman declined to comment on the conference but said: "Standard procedures are being followed for issuing of visas." Fernandes said that the conference was aimed to draw world attention to the gross violation of human rights in Chinese-occupied Tibet and a threat to Tibetan identity.
More than 100 parliamentarians from 30 countries are expected to attend the meeting, being held to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. "India is looking at its short term interest. China may want trade relations with India, but its foreign policy with regard to Pakistan and Burma indicates that India is being encircled," Fernandes said.
Fernandes and another Indian deputy Mohan Singh said they regretted that India was sabotaging the conference at a time when parliamentarians from world over were keen to discuss an important issue such as Tibet. The Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama is not attending the conference. "Tibetans are treated as untouchables in their own country and India has a responsibility towards them. Tibet should be on the agenda of Indo-China talks," Fernandes said.
India and China fought a war in 1962 and had troubled relations until mid-1980s when there was a thaw leading to increasing trade between the two neighbours. "The issue of Tibet is very much linked to peace, stability and security of India. Placating China now may appear to be in our short-term interest, but in the long-term it will prove expensive," the two deputies said in a statement. Fernandes also warned that China had been playing havoc with Tibet's environment and was dumping its nuclear waste there, which could harm India.
Friends of Tibet (INDIA),
PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050
www.friendsoftibet.org