June 20, 2004

I REFER to Magnus Linklater's article (June 6), and Free Tibet's response last week regarding the invitation of the Chinese army to this year's Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The original article gives the misleading impression, and one the Chinese authorities would like people to believe, that human rights have improved considerably in China since the 1989 massacre. The article suggests that "the onus (is) on a new generation of Chinese to ensure that no such atrocity ever occurs again".

Yes, the onus is definitely on them to do this. Tragically, however, such atrocities are occurring at this very moment. They have just been better concealed by the regime. The brutal persecution of the peaceful meditation practice of Falun Gong has seen almost 1,000 documented cases of death from torture since 1999. More than 100,000 are incarcerated in labour camps without trial. Jiang Zemin, the current leader of the Chinese army, faces charges of genocide in lawsuits around the world for his role in orchestrating this persecution.

The current debate around the Tattoo invitation centres on the idea of 'engagement' with China. Engagement is a fine thing if it involves a reciprocal dialogue facilitating progress. Falun Gong practitioners have been seeking such dialogue for the past five years. Such requests have been completely denied and individuals terrorised for merely voicing them.

'Carrots', such as the respectability conferred by invitations to prestigious international events, should be balanced by 'sticks' of persuasive diplomacy requiring genuine and measurable steps towards adopting acceptable Human Rights standards.

Sadly, the current engagement seems too one-sided and the human rights dialogue so low key that China can simply choose to ignore it, pretend the violations don't exist (just as it did with the Sars outbreak), and continue its abuses with impunity.

Simon Miller, Edinburgh

http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=700582004