During the night before the arrival of the Chinese leader, Hu Jintao, in Poland, “unknown perpetrators” painted over the billboards, presenting the picture of Dalai Lama and the flag of Tibet, along the route of the Chinese delegation. The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Students for Free Tibet prepared the billboards. (16-JULY-04)
Hu Jintao, the president of the Peoples´ Republic of China, was supposed to arrive in Warsaw on June 8 at the invitation of president Aleksander Kwasniewski. Therefore, the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Students for Free Tibet prepared billboards with the picture of the Tibetan leader, Dalai Lama XIV, and the inscription “The Chinese occupation of Tibet cost a fifth of the Tibetan nation their lives”. On the night before his arrival, the posters were painted over. The Internal Security Agency maintains that it had nothing to do with this.
Adam Koziel from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights made this comment to what happened to the billboards: If this was done by the Polish authorities, than they should know, that in the Chinese culture servility is regarded as an indication of weakness and does not bring about respect.
In turn, after talks with the Chinese delegation, president Aleksander Kwasniewski stated that the difference of opinion concerning, among others, human rights should not influence the progress of Polish-Chinese relations.
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