Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-12-15-Speech-4-196"
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"en.20051215.36.4-196"2
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".
Mr President, today’s debate on violations of human rights centres on Tibet. On 23 November, officials from the Public Security Bureau closed one of the oldest Tibetan Buddhist monasteries on the orders of the Chinese authorities. They arrested one of the most senior monks, and four others whose fate is unknown. A policy of ‘patriotic education’, which amounts to indoctrination, has been introduced in the country in order to boost support for the Chinese Government among the Tibetan monks, and to combat the influence of the exiled Dalai Lama. Tibet has been brutally occupied by China since 1950. The Tibetans have not given up their peaceful fight for freedom, however, even though at least one fifth of the country’s inhabitants have died of hunger, been tortured to death or been executed. Nearly all of the country’s monasteries, which once numbered over 6 500, are in ruins.
The Holy Father John Paul II reminded us that the seeds of destabilisation, rebellion and violence are inevitably sown when human rights are neglected or even abused. There is an urgent need to restore people’s awareness of the dignity of every human being, made in the image and likeness of God, so that it can be used as a sound foundation for freedom, justice and peace on earth.
The Government of the People’s Republic of China, however, even imposes strict controls on religious practices and places of worship. It limits the number of monks and uses exile as a punishment, especially for anyone who is not suitably submissive. Yet notwithstanding the massive scale of the tragedy in Tibet, it is worth noting that the problem of human rights violations, which is an issue that has already been raised in this Chamber, affects the Chinese nation as a whole. The people of China have been repressed for years, and all manifestations of civil independence in the country are stifled. There is detailed documentary evidence of the methods and instruments used to inflict torture on prisoners and of the brutal treatment they receive, even if they have merely voiced their discontent. Such practices are proof of the cruel barbarity that prevails there.
The situation in China in recent times can be described as a highly explosive mixture of Communism and capitalism. The laws of economics have become the only driving force behind development in the country, and there is no longer any place for human rights or moral standards. While it may well be the case that those in power are responsible for human rights violations in individual countries, we should not forget that the moral relativism of the Western world is also partly responsible. Adamant claims are made that this latter promotes human rights, and yet companies from more or less every country in the world find it hard to resist the huge consumer market and the cheap workforce, especially in the ‘reeducation through work’ camps. The prospect of enormous profits helps them to shut their eyes to the tragic situation of prisoners, and to the fact that the materialistic civilisation that is emerging is heading for disaster, at the same time creating poverty and hell on earth for some and paradise for the rich.
We are therefore calling for the international community to stop treating China as if it were a giant labour camp and a cheap workforce, and for human rights to be respected not only in Tibet and Hong Kong, but throughout China."@en1
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