STUDENTS AND Amnesty members delivered 3,000 postcards to Taoiseach Brian Cowen's constituency office in Tullamore, Co Offaly, yesterday in an attempt to highlight human rights abuses in China.
Mr Cowen is on holidays in the west of Ireland but the group said it was not necessary that he was present to acknowledge the delivery. Justin Moran of the Amnesty International Irish Section said the date was chosen to highlight human rights in China on the day before the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing.
The postcards urge the Taoiseach to call publicly on the Chinese authorities to reduce immediately the use of the death penalty in a move towards its abolition.
They ask Mr Cowen to seek the end of the "re-education through labour" programme, which they describe as a system of concentration camps. The postcards urge the protection of human rights defenders in China and call for an end to internet censorship.
Mr Cowen has also been asked to call on the Chinese authorities to allow the UN or other independent observers into Tibet.
Amnesty's Irish director, Colm O'Gorman, said the failure of the Government to raise its concerns about China showed "a dangerous tolerance" for repression.
"We urge the Taoiseach to call upon Ireland's official representative to the Beijing Olympics, Martin Cullen, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, to publicly raise the concern of thousands of people in Ireland on his visit to the country," Mr O'Gorman said.
Mr Cullen will attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing today.
This is the second batch of Amnesty postcards to be delivered to Mr Cowen in recent months. The first batch of 3,000 cards was delivered to Government Buildings on Mr Cowen's first day in office in May.
Amnesty estimates that almost 4,000 more postcards have been posted directly to the Taoiseach.
In response to the campaign, a Government spokesman said its position on Tibet remained clear and unchanged. "We remain deeply concerned about issues relating to the religious and cultural identity of Tibetans, the human rights situation and the events that took place in March and thereafter.
"The Government avails of every possible opportunity to make clear these concerns to the Chinese government and to urge them to engage in earnest and accelerated dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama," the spokesman said.
However, Amnesty members protesting outside Mr Cowen's office rejected the Government's approach. Mr Moran said: "While we would absolutely agree that there is a space for private diplomacy, the reality is that since China was awarded the games seven years ago by promising to improve human rights in the country, they simply haven't delivered. In many cases human rights situations actually got worse. So if that's quiet diplomacy, it isn't working."
He said Amnesty's China campaign had attracted strong support from students and younger people. "I think the Olympics had something to do with it and I think the situation in China is just so grave and the human rights violations are so appalling and obvious that people were moved to take part."
