Tibet genocide trial in Spain irks China
June - July 2006
BEIJING: Wednesday, 7 June, 2006 (AFP) - China condemned accusations in a Spanish court that it had engaged in genocide in Tibet as slander yesterday and warned Madrid not to interfere in its administration of the Himalayan region.
"First of all, this talk of genocide and killing in Tibet is a complete fabrication and a complete slander," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told journalists.
"Tibet is an internal affair of China and we strongly oppose any country using the so called Tibetan issue to interfere in China's internal affairs."Liu was referring to a case that opened in Spain Monday which accused seven Chinese leaders of genocide, torture and crimes against humanity in Tibet during the 1980s.
The complaint names former Chinese president Jiang Zemin and former prime minister Li Peng as well as five other top Chinese leaders who it says were responsible for the repression in Tibet.
Judge Ismael Moreno heard testimony on Monday from Thubten Wangchen, an exiled Tibetan who is now a Spanish citizen and director of the Tibet House foundation in Barcelona.
"This is an historic day," Wangchen told journalists upon leaving the court, saying it was the first time a Tibetan could tell a judge what took place in Tibet from 1980 to 1990.
The goal is to "talk about what happened in Tibet on the international level so that the Chinese government sees its errors and begins to respect human rights", he said.
As part of the inquiry, the judge ordered the questioning of witnesses to alleged genocide and of victims of abuse now living in London and Canada.
The Spanish courts gave the go-ahead in January to the complaint that charges "genocide, crimes against humanity, torture and terrorism against the Tibetan people".
The complaint was brought by Wangchen and the Tibet House Foundation along with the non-governmental organisation Tibet Support Committee.
However Liu indicated that exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was behind the legal action.
"The Chinese side hopes and believes that friendly nations will recognise the fundamental nature of the Dalai Lama's divisive clique and refuse to offer him any and all opportunities to engage in activities aimed at splitting China," Liu said.
China first occupied
Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama fled in 1959 to set up a government-in-exile in
the northern Indian hilltop town of Dharamsala after the Chinese military crushed
an uprising in Tibet.