Ottawa Citizen: Liberal MP to Chretien: Play hardball with China

The Ottawa Citizen

UN is 'ultimate weapon' in fight to free Canadian

Liberal MP Irwin Cotler, a renowned human rights lawyer, says Canada must sign a UN resolution condemning China's human rights record.

Liberal MP Irwin Cotler says Canada should co-sponsor a United Nations resolution condemning China's human rights record if Beijing refuses to release a Canadian citizen imprisoned for practising Falun Gong meditation exercises.

Mr. Cotler, a world-renowned human rights lawyer who has stepped ahead of his own government to promote the cause of freeing former Montreal resident Kunlun Zhang, says Canada's "moral political leverage" in the global community could be the ultimate trump card in the current diplomatic dispute with China.

The Chinese government has refused even the requests by Canadian officials in Beijing to visit Mr. Zhang.

China insists that Mr. Zhang is a Chinese citizen being dealt with appropriately under a law that bans Falun Gong [...]

That has prompted calls for Foreign Affairs Minister John Manley to intervene directly in the case and demand Mr. Zhang's release outright. And Prime Minister Jean Chretien has been urged by opposition critics to announce immediately that he will postpone February's Team Canada trade mission to China unless Mr. Zhang is freed.

But Mr. Cotler says Canada's ultimate weapon in the case would be its signature on the so-called "China resolution" to be debated in March at the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

Although Canada chose not to support a similar resolution that failed to pass at this year's meeting, Mr. Cotler says Canada's "moral leadership" in the world could convince enough countries to sign the China resolution this time around.

If a formal UN censure is passed, says Mr. Cotler, China could be disqualified from World Bank financing and face other hardships in its international relations.

Mr. Zhang, a sculptor who lived in Canada from 1989 to 1996, was sentenced to three years in a labour camp after being arrested in July for performing Falun Gong exercises in a public park. His wife, Shumei, is also under house arrest in Beijing.

But the couple's two daughters live in Canada. Lingdi Zhang, a student at the University of Ottawa, sought help from Mr. Cotler to press China for her father's release.

Yesterday, Lingdi Zhang met with representatives from the office of Mr. Manley, who has not yet made a statement about the case and was unavailable for comment again yesterday. He is scheduled to meet with Mr. Cotler on Monday or Tuesday.

Although Mr. Manley's representatives gave no indication that Canada would take a harder line against China and demand Mr. Zhang's release, they did offer to attempt to arrange a meeting between Canadian embassy officials in Beijing and Mrs. Zhang.

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