MPs and Senators Push Government for Action on Political Prisoners

Members of both houses have been pushing for answers on Tibet’s estimated 1,000+ political prisoners this week.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young put a ‘Question on Notice’ to the Foreign Minister asking what efforts the Government has taken to obtain information on the health and whereabouts of Gedun Choekyi Nyima - the Eleventh Panchen Lama and second most important figure in Tibetan Buddhism, detained by Chinese authorities on 17 May 1995, aged six. Senator Young also asked what new information if any the Government had been able to obtain and what steps it planned to take next.

In the lower house, Michael Danby MP, Convenor of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, has asked the Foreign Minister to disclose information on eleven high-priority political prisoners on which ATC has been campaigning. These include the six prisoners featured in our ‘Profiles of Courage’ initiative, along with Gonpo Tserang, Bangri Rinpoche, Lobsang Tenzin, Norzin Wangmo, Pajor Norrbu and Gedun Choekyi Nyima.

Mr. Danby asked the Minister whether the Government has “obtained any information about the location, welfare and, where applicable, the charges or sentences facing these prisoners, whether any such information has been independently verified and, if none has been obtained, what steps will be taken to obtain that information”.

Melissa Parke MP, member of the recent Australian delegation to Dharamsala spoke eloquently and passionately about the Tibetan situation during a ‘Grievance Debate’ in the lower house, relating many of her experiences in Dharamsala. Ms. Parke reiterated that the delegation has returned with a number of concrete goals. Among other things they will be advocating for the release of Tibetan political prisoners, including filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen, whose wife, Lhamo Tso, they met in Dharamsala.

In another bold initiative in the Senate, members of the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet moved that the Senate refer the Tibetan situation to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade. This would have entailed a full enquiry spanning several months, with the possibility of calling multiple Tibetan witnesses including His Holiness the Dalai Lama during his December visit. The motion, moved by Senator Scott Ludlam, was defeated.

What to Make of the Postponed Obama/Dalai Lama Meeting?

The were was an air of excitement over the weekend as news emerged that a high-level US Government delegation, including a senior advisor to the President and Maria Otero, Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, had gone to Dharamsala for talks with the Dalai Lama and Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche. This was the first time that a team of such senior US officials had travelled to Dharamsala ahead of planned visit by the Dalai Lama to Washington. Surely this must have been to lay the ground for a much-anticipated meeting with Obama in October?

At first we were only mildly concerned by official announcement on Monday that the meeting would be postponed until after the US-China Summit in November. At least a meeting with the President in Washington, albeit at a later date, was now a certainty.

And then it sank in - the realization that the Dalai Lama would be visiting the US without meeting Obama, just weeks before his arrival in Australia and the opportunity for a meeting with Kevin Rudd.

So what to make of this apparent setback? Is it a case of the US trying to appease an ever more belligerent Chinese Government? Almost certainly. Does it say something about China’s rising influence - the fact it seems that even the “leader of the free world” must now be careful not to unsettle the Chinese leadership? Perhaps. Is it a precedent? Not necessarily. The Dalai Lama has made several visits to the US without meeting the President.

All that said, it has been hard for Tibetans and Tibet supporters to hide their disappointment at this unexpected twist. For all its foreign policy failings elsewhere, the US has been a staunch supporter of Tibet for decades. Bush and Clinton, as said, met the Dalai Lama on multiple occasions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been one of the most consistent and eloquent advocates of Tibetans’ rights. In 2007 the US awarded the Dalai Lama its highest civilian honour - the Congressional Gold Medal. Will Obama yet come out strong for Tibet and give the Tibetan people the international political support they so desperately need? I’ve no doubt our colleagues at the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet will be working round the clock to increase the chances.

Thinking ahead to the Dalai Lama’s Australian visit in December, there is of course the possibility that a meeting with Obama will take place in the narrow window between the US-China Summit and His Holiness’s scheduled arrival in Sydney, creating an almost unanswerable case for a meeting with Kevin Rudd. But for that we’ll have to wait and see. In the mean time, ATC will be campaigning hard to ensure that the wishes of Australians and Tibet supporters alike are fulfilled and the Dalai Lama is given an appropriate reception by the Prime Minister and Australian Government in December. And we’ll soon be asking all our members and supporters to help turn up the heat!

This week our Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet, including the six Senators and MPs who recently travelled to Dharamsala, have written to the Prime Minister this week requesting he take the opportunity to meet His Holiness in December and stressing that “given the Dalai Lama’s status as a Nobel Laureate, religious leader and spokesman for the Tibetan people, along with the demonstrated interest of the Australian people in his visit, such a meeting would be highly appropriate”.

Similar requests have been made of the Foreign Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Foreign Minister.