Now Australia has a seat on the Security Council, the Australian delegation should use its position to stand up for the oppressed people of Tibet.
All Australian Govern-ments have previously grovelled to the Chinese Communists and supported their continued criminal occupation of that country.
Tibet is not a part of China, has never been a part of China, the Tibetan people are not Chinese, they don’t speak Chinese, they have their own language, their own culture, their own traditions and their own religion.
There is a much better argument for saying Kuwait is a part of Iraq than that Tibet should be a part of China.
Communist China wants Tibet because, apart from its minerals, all the major rivers of Asia emanate from Tibet, so who controls Tibet controls all the waters of Asia, a point missed on our myopic politicians.
Both the Labor Govern-ment and Liberal-National Opposition not long ago voted down a Greens motion in the Senate urging the Chinese Government to restore press freedom and release any Tibetan people who have been arbitrarily arrested and supporting the call by Tibetan Prime Minister in exile, Sangay, for a United Nations fact-finding mission to Tibet.
(In the case of the Liberals and Nationals, remember these are the same people who send 500 Australian to die in Vietnam to fight communism.)
When the question of Tibet comes up, we continually hear that trade with China musn’t be jeopardised, yet the Australian Government doesn’t mind sacrificing the lives of soldiers in the pointless war against the Taliban, which shows in foreign affairs, the Australian Government puts dollars before lives.
The Australian UN delegation have the chance now to mark Australia as a country that  champions human rights and the rights of indigenous peoples by standing up for Tibet. But, as getting the seat on the Security Council was just an expensive publicity stunt to shore up the flagging fortunes of the Labor Government, it is 100 per cent certain they won’t do it.
Bob Vinnicombe
Sefton
