CANBERRA – A Chinese security “agent” successfully pressured Australia’s parliamentary speaker to exclude three activists from the public gallery during a speech by Chinese President Hu Jintao, a senator said.
Green party Senator Bob Brown said the two Tibetans and a campaigner for democracy in China were confronted at the entrance to the gallery after a Chinese agent made telephone contact with speaker Neil Andrew’s office.
Brown told national radio they were whisked “out of the gallery and up into the schoolchildren’s facility behind glass and without interpretative facilities”.
“It’s just outrageous,” he said.
The three were there as guests of the Green party.
Brown and fellow green Kerry Nettle were prevented from attending the speech after they heckled US President George W. Bush during a speech on Thursday. Brown said, however, that parliamentary colleague Michael Organ had still gone into the chamber.
“He’s got the Tibetan flag on. He’s got the armband on behalf of the thousands of political prisoners who are in China,” Brown said.
“Today is a shameful day,” he added.
Hu’s unprecedented address went off without the mass protests outside parliament that marked Bush’s visit, although a small number of protesters staged a peaceful protest.
