Lalit K Jha
Washington, Apr 7: Ahead of a top American official’s visit to Beijing, a city-based Tibetan group has asked the Obama Administration to make a “strong statement” on deteriorating human rights situation in China and Tibet.
In a letter to the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Kurt Campbell, International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) President Mary Beth Markey appealed to the official to “make a strong statement on the current crackdown and deterioration in the human rights situation in China and Tibet.”
Campbell arrives in Beijing today to meet with Chinese officials in preparation for the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, high-level bilateral talks to be held in May in Washington.
The letter cites cases of Tibetans resorting to desperate measures to call the attention of the international community to their plight, including a young monk who set himself on fire in March to protest Chinese policies and two other monks who died in the last two weeks allegedly due to torture suffered in Chinese detention.
Observing that the stand of the US Administration on human rights at the upcoming Strategic and Economic Dialogue is critically important, the ICT said human rights must be a dedicated priority on the agenda of the dialogue.
“To do less would not only send a terrible signal to those inside China and Tibet struggling to defend their basic rights, but also undermine the potency of the President’s words (on human rights at the summit with President Hu Jintao) in January,” the letter said.
