Students and members of Amnesty International delivered 3,000 postcards seeking Government action on human rights abuses in China to Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s constituency office in Tullamore this morning.
Mr Cowen is on holidays in the west of Ireland at the moment but the group said it did not matter if 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 Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing.
The postcards urge the Taoiseach to publicly call on the Chinese authorities to immediately reduce 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 they 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.
“The Irish Government has been consistently saying that they are very concerned about human rights in China and they believe that the best way to raise these matters is through private diplomacy, doing it quietly with the Chinese Government,” 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, promising to improve human rights in the country they simply haven’t delivered and in many cases human rights situations actually got worse. So if that’s quiet diplomacy it simply isn’t working.”
This is the second batch of 3,000 postcards to be delivered to Mr Cowen in recent months. The first batch was delivered to Government Buildings on Mr Cowen’s first day in office. Amnesty International estimates that another 4,000 postcards have been posted directly to the Taoiseach.
