Turkish Daily News: Protests as China's Jiang meets Schroeder

Chinese President Jiang Zemin, focusing on educational and cultural links, held talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Tuesday and demonstrators criticising Beijing's human rights record were kept well away.

Jiang, in Germany until April 13, wants to emphasize good bilateral ties, and media coverage of his visit is limited to television and photographs. Schroeder has avoided saying whether he will raise human rights issues in their talks.

Groups critical of China's handling of its religious communities and ethnic minorities such as the Falun Gong spiritual movement, Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs from the northwest region of Xinjiang demonstrated behind police lines.

The protesters were kept several hundred metres away from the chancellery, nearly out of sight of the arriving motorcade.

Scores of Falun Gong members meditated en masse outside the grand Adlon hotel in central Berlin. Wearing yellow jerseys, they performed exercises and meditated beneath banners reading "Truth, Compassion, Tolerance", "Stop the persecution of Falun Gong."

"We have two goals -- to show the public that Jiang Zemin is responsible for the oppression of the Falun Gong and for Jiang to stop torturing practitioners," said member Zhihong Zheng.

"This oppression is an issue for everyone. If China has to oppress us, then it's the whole world's problem," she said.

In interviews with German media before his visit, Jiang stuck to his hard line on the Falun Gong, which China outlawed and declared an [slanderous term used by Jiang regime] in 1999.

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Asgar Can, general secretary of the East Turkestan National Congress, an umbrella organization for Muslim Uighurs in 14 countries, said …
"Germany has a reputation for backing human rights. But if Schroeder says nothing for economic reasons, what's going on? Is human rights only an issue with weaker countries?”...

Amnesty International accused China last month of stepping up repression and executions of separatist Muslim Uighurs by invoking the "war on terrorism."

Earlier on Tuesday, Jiang met German President Johannes Rau and the two discussed closer cultural ties between the countries.

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Berlin marks the start of a five-nation tour that will also take Jiang to Libya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Iran.

Berlin - Reuters

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