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9.
verify or supervise prison conditions).
UND have commented
that we would not welcome foreign observers visiting UK
prisons.
Re-examine the case for a small-scale British aid project
in Tibet to facilitate access by Embassy personnel and
provide a semi-permanent British presence.
TIBET
12. Tibet requires separate consideration since the issues involved
go beyond simple human rights questions. Human rights concerns and abuses in Tibet stem mainly from campaigns for Tibet's independence
and Chinese repression of such activities. We have deplored such
repression in the context of our concern about the general human
rights situation in China and urged the Chinese to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama and to develop a more genuine autonomy for Tibet. But the Tibet lobby have undertaken to ensure that the question of Tibet is on the UN agenda by 1992 and have already succeeded in having a resolution on human rights but also referring to Tibet's "freedom" and "national identity" passed in the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights. We would want to support any resolution in the UN Commission on Human Rights which expressed concern about abuses in Tibet, while ensuring that this could not be interpreted by the Tibet lobby, and the Chinese, as support for a Tibetan claim for independence. Ministers would almost certainly
wish to receive the Dalai Lama when he next visits the UK. (Since
his March visit when he saw the Lord Chancellor and members of the
Royal Family, he has been received inter alia by President Bush, President Waldheim, M. Dumas and the Swiss Foreign Minister; we have warned the Chinese that British Ministers are likely to receive him
in future).
RESOURCES
13. There are resource implications in all these suggestions. Chancery Peking is stretched already and would find it difficult (if not impossible) to take on greater monitoring and action on human
rights cases without an
increase in staff. A conspicuously high
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