U.N. Shirks Tibet, Despite Plea From Dalai Lama

By http://www.nysun.com/authors/Benny+Avni Benny Avni
March 18, 2008
The New York Sun
Original Source: http://www.nysun.com/article/73079





http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=United+Nations \o United Nations UNITED NATIONS — Even as the http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Dalai+Lama \o Dalai Lama Dalai Lama called for international involvement and a U.N. investigation into violent clashes over the weekend in http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Tibet \o Tibet Tibet, U.N. Security Council members are carefully avoiding the subject, saying yesterday that the issue does not belong in U.N. deliberations.
The Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, Wang Guangya, said the anti-government demonstrations in Lhasa, in which at least 13 people were killed, were definitely not discussed at a luncheon yesterday with Secretary-General Ban, nor should such an internal issue have been raised there. Mr. Wang also told The New York Sun that Tibetan troublemakers were seeking to sabotage the Olympic Games this summer in http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Beijing \o Beijing Beijing.
http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Condoleezza+Rice \o Condoleezza Rice Secretary of State Rice has called on http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=China \o China China to exercise restraint, as has Mr. Ban. Both have said they are keeping a close eye on the situation, which some observers have warned could lead to major unrest on the eve of the Olympics. Wary of a possible diplomatic clash with China, however, http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=United+States \o United States America has not called for international action to address the Tibet situation.
During the luncheon yesterday with the 15-member Security Council, We discussed the situations in http://www.nysun.com/related_results.php?term=Darfur \o Darfur Darfur, Sudan, Kosovo, Chad. Also Somalia and Cyprus, Mr. Ban told reporters. He said the United Nations would monitor the situation in Tibet and called on China to exercise restraint and for all concerned to avoid further confrontation and violence. But he said no one raised the issue at the monthly luncheon get-together.
China has resisted putting topics it considers internal on the Security Council's agenda, including the violence in Darfur and mass arrests in Burma. The Russian ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, who is serving as council president this month, said yesterday that Tibet is clearly not a matter for the Security Council, or for the United Nations.
For years the Security Council has held a monthly briefing on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question, and at the United Nations the term occupied territories is applied exclusively to areas under Israeli control. Mr. Ban referred yesterday to the Tibet autonomous region of China when he spoke about the protests in the country, which since 1959 has been fully controlled by China.
Mr. Ban said the United Nations has no independent confirmation of the casualty count in the aftermath of the weekend's unrest. Rebutting reports of up to 80 deaths among the demonstrators, the Chinese-appointed governor of Tibet, Champa Phuntsok, denied yesterday any use of lethal force. He put the death toll at 13, most of them Chinese businessmen, according to wire reports. The international press has been barred from independently covering events inside Tibet.
Earlier yesterday, Mr. Ban met with Mr. Wang to discuss the situation. I told him of the situation and about the violence that is created by this handful of elements, and that now the situation was restored to normal, Mr. Wang said.
I don't think anyone will raise it at the Security Council, he said. An internal matter concerning violent actions taken by the separatist elements there, which did a lot of damage to the population and the properties, should not be discussed by international bodies, he added. The confrontation between the Tibetan demonstrators and Chinese authorities is nothing but a provocation that is deliberately being used to undermine and sabotage the Olympic Games, he said. I don't think they will succeed.
The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, who has called on his supporters to act with restraint, is calling for an international investigation. Beijing has accused His Holiness of masterminding the demonstrations, a spokesman for the Tibetan government in exile, Thubten Samphel, told the Voice of America. So because of these conflicting views, His Holiness said that maybe a body from the United Nations may visit Tibet and find out what the reality is, whether the demonstrations have been instigated from outside, and what the real concerns of the Tibetan people are.
America has really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue, Ms. Rice said yesterday in Washington.