The European Parliament adopted by 95 votes to 3 with no abstentions a resolution on the case of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.
The resolution had been tabled by the PES, Greens/ALE, EPP-ED, ALDE, UEN and GUE/NGL groups.
Parliament recalls that on 2 December 2002 the Kardze Intermediate People's Court in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province sentenced Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, an influential and respected Buddhist lama, to death with a two-year suspension and his attendant, Lobsang Dhondup, to death without suspension. The latter was executed on 26 January 2003, and the death sentence on Tenzin Delek Rinpoche was commuted to life imprisonment on 26 January 2005. Members note that the involvement of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and Lobsang Dhondup in a series of bombings or in incitement to separatism has not been proved.
Parliament is deeply concerned about the state of health of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. Human rights organisations report that, owing to torture and the inhuman conditions of his imprisonment, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's state of health is so poor that there is serious concern for his survival, and that he is unable to speak or walk. It urges the Chinese Government to cancel all sentences against Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and to release him immediately.
Parliament affirms its call for the abolition of the death penalty and an immediate moratorium on capital punishment in China.
Members regret the lack of concrete results as regards the EU-China Human Rights Dialogue, and call once more on the Chinese Government to improve the inhuman conditions of imprisonment in their jails, to cease and abolish torture of detainees, to stop the continued violation of the human rights of the Tibetan people and other minorities, and to ensure that it respects international standards of human rights and humanitarian law. They call on the Council and the Member States to maintain the EU embargo on trade in arms with China, which was implemented in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, and not to weaken the existing national limitations on such arms sales.
Lastly, Parliament calls on the Government of the People's Republic of China to step up the ongoing dialogue with the representatives of the Dalai Lama so as to reach a mutually acceptable solution to the Tibet issue without further delay.