Government ministers were grilled in Parliament on Thursday by MPs on why not one of them could find time to meet with the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, who was in Finland last weekend.
Ulla Anttila (Greens) expressed her astonishment during question-time at the fact that no official meetings were arranged, in spite of the fact that Finland, during its time as the EU Presidency, has stressed the issue of human rights.
Minister of Culture Tanja Saarela (Centre), whose portfolio also includes religious affairs, somewhat surprisingly reported that she had actually arranged to meet with the Dalai Lama. However, she had been prevented from doing so by illness.
No answer was forthcoming as to why no deputy went to the meeting in Saarela’s stead.
Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja (SDP) observed that the government had not received any requests for a meeting with the visiting leader. The meetings of individual ministers, he said, were their own business.
At this, Heidi Hautala, another Green MP, protested that very serious attempts had been made to arrange meetings, and that Finland had bowed to external pressure from China.
Tuomioja denied that any pressure had been exerted by China, and further noted that even without meeting the Dalai Lama the Finnish authorities had sufficient information on the situation pertaining between China and Tibet.
Ben Zyskowicz of the opposition National Coalition Party nevertheless provided the minister with guidance that Tibet is “occupied by the oppressive Chinese Communist regime”, and that a meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader would not have been about information, but would have sent a political signal
