French lawmakers demand visas for Tibet amid protests

The 62 members of a parliamentary task force on Tibet asked the Chinese ambassador to issue them with “the necessary visas so that the deputies of the Tibet group can travel to Lhasa as early as this week,” said Lionnel Luca, president of the bipartisan group.

The Tibetan protests are the biggest since 1989 and began in Lhasa on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising that led the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India.

“The bloody repression of peaceful marches by Tibetans and their monks reminds the world of the ugly reality behind today’s biggest dictatorship,” said a statement issued by the parliamentary group Saturday.

Former Socialist minister and deputy Jack Lang separately said France should boycott the Beijing Olympics this summer to protest China’s policies, in particular in Tibet.

“This international cowardice toward Tibet is unacceptable,” Lang said. But Rama Yade, the junior minister for human rights, said France did not support a boycott of China.

“History has shown that boycotts are not always effective,” Yade told Europe 1 radio.

“What we would like is that full light is shed on these events, as quickly as possible, and that peaceful demonstrators who were jailed be released,” said Yade.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email