STATEMENT OF THE POLISH HELSINKI COMMITTEE

REGARDING

THE EXECUTION OF LOBSANG DHONDUP

January 30, 2003

The Polish Helsinki Committee expresses its utmost dismay and indignation about the summary execution of Lobsang Dhondup, after a trial that violated not only the basic principles of fairness and justice but also the assurances of Chinese diplomats made to the world through the European Union and the United States of America.

In these times when the world desperately needs a constructive alternative to terrorism and war, Beijing resorts to any and all means to destroy one of last consistent symbols of non-violent political action - the campaign of the Dalai Lama and his compatriots to restore to the Tibetan nation their fundamental rights and freedoms.

The Helsinki Committee calls upon the authorities of the Republic of Poland and other governments to strongly condemn the People's Republic of China during the 59th session of Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The Helsinki Committee also calls upon the authorities of the People's Republic of China to hold a new, fair and open trial of Tulku Tenzin Delek, who has been sentenced to death by the same court, with a suspension of two years.

THE HELSINKI COMMITTEE
Warsaw, Poland

Halina Bortnowska-Dabrowska
(Journalist, Theologian)

Marek Nowicki
(Physicist, President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights)

Zbigniew Holda
(Professor of Law)

Marek Antoni Nowicki
(Lawyer, Ombudsperson of Kosovo)

Marek Edelman
(Doctor, only living leader of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising)

Andrzej Paczkowski
(Professor of History, Chairman of the Council of the Institute of National Remembrance)

Jerzy Ciemniewski
(Professor of Law, Judge of the Constitutional Tribunal)

Danuta Przywara
(Sociologist, Vice-President of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights)

Jacek Kurczewski
(Professor of Sociology, Former Deputy Speaker of the Parliament)

Andrzej Rzeplinski
(Professor of Law, Board of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Executive Committee of International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights)

Ewa Letowska
(Professor of Law, former Ombudsperson of Poland)

Marek Safjan
(Professor of Law, President of the Constitutional Tribunal)

Micha³ Nawrocki
(Professor of Physics)

Stefan Starczewski
(Anthropologist, member of the first non-communist Cabinet in Central and Eastern Europe)


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