Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the statement in Lhasa on 21 June 2008 by Tibet’s Communist Party Secretary General Zhang Qing Li, that ‘we will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique’;

(b)

calls on the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr Smith) to ascertain if Mr Li was reflecting the policy of the People’s Republic of China and, if so, how that policy is being carried into effect; and

(c)

asks the Minister to find out how many Tibetan citizens, arrested since violence erupted in Lhasa in March 2008, remain in custody and, as of 23 June 2008, how many have been brought to trial.

This motion asks the Minister for Foreign Affairs for an explanation from the Tibet Communist Party about its claim that it will ‘totally smash the Dalai Lama clique’.

Question put.