France applies pressure on China

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner stepped up his country's criticism of China over its handling of violence in Tibet yesterday, calling for an end to "repression" there.

France has called for an end to the violence, in which the Tibetan government-in-exile says 140 people have been killed. Kouchner has called on China to let foreign media into Tibet but previously avoided using strong language like "repression."

"The violence must end on both sides but above all the repression must end since now one cannot go to Tibet," Kouchner, a former human rights activist, told Europe 1 radio.

China's ban on foreign media in Tibet and surrounding areas has made independent verification of reports difficult.

"One of the demands, which I have formulated several times, is that the journalists who are blocked around Tibet can go there. Information must circulate," Kouchner said, adding that he had made the request to his Chinese counterpart.

"Obviously the answer was that there are security issues. I do not think they are valid because journalists must know to take risks and they very often do," he said.

Kouchner said he hoped EU foreign ministers would reach a common position on Tibet when they meet in Slovenia on Friday.

Also yesterday, France Televisions' director of sports said French public TV could boycott coverage of the Beijing Olympics if China bans the broadcast of footage from demonstrations.

"For the time being, we have no intention of boycotting the games," Daniel Bilalian told RTL radio.

"But if they are censored or sanitized in any way by the Chinese authorities and the IOC [International Olympic Committee] accepts this -- which I would very much doubt -- this would obviously call into question our stance," he said.

"At that time, the president of France Televisions, would, without a doubt I believe, decide not to cover the Olympic Games."

Chinese TV on Monday briefly suspended broadcast of the lighting of the Olympic flame in Greece, showing file footage when human-rights protestors disrupted the ceremony.

SENTENCE

Meanwhile, a Chinese dissident who dared to claim that human rights were more important than the Olympic games was sentenced to five years in prison on Monday after being found guilty of subversion.

Yang Chunlin (楊春林), an unemployed former factory worker from Jiamusi, Heilongjiang Province, was accused of accepting money from hostile foreign organizations, writing critical articles and organizing a petition on behalf of farmers who lost their land to developers.

The petition, which was circulated last year, declared: "We don't want the Olympics, we want human rights." Yang's family said it was signed by 7,000 to 8,000 people.

His sister Yang Chunping said the sentence was excessive because of the timing.

"My brother helped farmers asking for land. He might have criticized the party as well as some officials, but all he did was to improve the development of democracy in China. What he said is based on freedom of speech. It is not against the law," she said. "If it were not Olympic year, my brother wouldn't get such a heavy sentence."

Also See: China accuses foreign media of bias