State dept. briefing on Daja Meston

World Tibet Network News Friday, August 27, 1999

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4. State dept. briefing on Daja Meston

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AUGUST 26, 1999
Briefer: JAMES B. FOLEY

QUESTION: New subject? Anything to say about the release of the American in
China?

MR. FOLEY: Yes. I won't be in a position to answer all of your questions on
that subject but I can confirm the basic thrust.

QUESTION: (Inaudible.)

MR. FOLEY: That's kind of what I was hinting at, Jonathan, about what I
can't say, and I'll tell you why. Because Mr. Meston and his wife have
requested that no additional information -- additional to what I am about
to give you -- be provided about their initial destination or other or
onward plans, and we are respecting that request.

In point of fact, we have been told that they are not giving us a Privacy
Act waiver to cover where they are now and where they may be headed and
what their plans are.

QUESTION: Well, the cat is kind of already out of the bag on that, and I
believe it was the embassy in Beijing which released that information.

MR. FOLEY: I have no knowledge that anyone officially has given any such
information, but certainly I am not in any position to.

What I can say is that the US Government is extremely pleased that the
Chinese Government has permitted Mr. Meston to depart Xining and seek
advanced care elsewhere.

QUESTION: Out of country?

MR. FOLEY: Again, I can't talk about where they've gone.

QUESTION: That's it?

MR. FOLEY: That's it.

QUESTION: I thought -- (inaudible) - but that's it.

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Jim, do you know whether they've dismissed the charges?

MR. FOLEY: My understanding is that the investigation was resolved
immediately prior to Mr. Meston's departure from the hospital in Xining.
The Qinghai province's state security bureau required Mr. Meston's
confession of wrongdoing, apology and departure within 24 hours. He was
also advised that he must remain outside of China for five years.

QUESTION: Well, if he remains outside of China for - let's see if I can -
one and a half and one and a half, that sort of suggests that he's left
China.

(Laughter.)

MR. FOLEY: You can add and subtract and multiply all you want, Barry;
legitimately so, but --

QUESTION: (Inaudible) - rocket scientist. I know you're under strictures.

QUESTION: Didn't you say he left China?

MR. FOLEY: I said he left Xining.

QUESTION: Oh, I see.

QUESTION: They required his - can you say that again? They required his
admission?

MR. FOLEY: Confession of wrongdoing, apology and departure.

QUESTION: What did he do wrong?

MR. FOLEY: We understand from the Chinese that Mr. Meston admitted to being
in a restricted area. That's the extent of my knowledge.

QUESTION: The Privacy Act doesn't, I don't think, cover what the US thinks
about how Chinese authorities treat American citizens. Unless you want to
wait a while to say something, which is understandable, what is this? I
mean, your main concern was that he get the treatment he needs and get
where he has to go and get the case resolved. But I mean, does an American
citizen have to pay a price of confessing to things they may not have done?

MR. FOLEY: Well, that's not established, Barry.

QUESTION: It's not established that he did or didn't, but --

MR. FOLEY: I believe in the case of the --

QUESTION: It sounds like the Soviet Union in the old days: you sign a
confession and they throw you out of the country.

MR. FOLEY: Barry, I pointed out a few days ago a number of things, and they
remain true today. Number one, we're not commenting about the specific
circumstances of his detention and the circumstances that led to his being
injured; mostly because we do not have that information because we have not
discussed that in any kind of detail with Mr. Meston, primarily because we
and he and his wife believe that what has to be first addressed is his
medical condition. We will have time for that later.

But I've also said that we understand that China, as any other country
around the world, has a right to decide who enters their country, has a
right to enforce their laws. In the case of the Australian, he has said
publicly that he acknowledged that he had violated certain restrictions.
Whether that is - constitutes a violation of law or not, I can't say - it's
really a Chinese matter. What we were concerned with was his ability to
depart Xining and received specialized spinal treatment, first of all; and
secondly, that his case be resolved and he be allowed to leave the country.
That has happened and we're satisfied with that.

In terms of the circumstances of his detention, we'll be in a position to
address that down the road.

QUESTION: So you're not endorsing the way the Chinese have handled the
detention - the interrogation, of which Mr. Lafitte said was abusive; the
mysterious circumstances of Mr. Meston's fall and his horrible injury; or
the confession they required him to sign, an apology and promise not to
come back for five years? You're not somehow endorsing that whole
procedure, are you?

MR. FOLEY: Well you cover a lot of ground there. In terms of his fall, what
we've stated is that the doctors believe that his injuries occurred in a
manner consistent with the way the Chinese authorities described the
incident to us. On the matter of what preceded his apparent jumping and
injuring himself, we've been silent because we don't have that information
and we will explore that information with Mr. Meston at the appropriate
time. So we're not speaking about something we don't know about.

In terms of the confession of apparent violation of restrictions, I don't
think we take a position on that. We will know more down the road when we
have a chance to speak to Mr. Meston as to the nature of what he did in
China; whether indeed he did violate local laws or not, or whether those
laws were unfair or not. It's impossible to speculate on those matters at
this point.

QUESTION: Have you been led to understand that at some point in the future
there will be a Privacy Act waiver but not right now?

MR. FOLEY: I couldn't speculate on that either.

QUESTION: So you don't have any information?

MR. FOLEY: No, no.

QUESTION: On the dam project itself -- the US is still - what is the US --

MR. FOLEY: D-A-M you mean?

QUESTION: Not that damn project, but the dam project.

(Laughter.)

What is the current - I know you all attempted to oppose it at the World
Bank. How do you feel about it now?

MR. FOLEY: Well, it's true; we did oppose the loan when it was presented to
the World Bank board on June 22. Throughout the process we clearly stated
our concerns regarding the bank's failure to provide adequate documentation
about the consequences of the resettlement plan and the project's
environmental impact. At the time of the vote, we welcomed the assurances
of the Chinese Government that access to the project areas would be
facilitated. We'll continue to press the Chinese and the World Bank
regarding the need for access to the project areas.

My understanding is that also the World Bank created an inspection panel,
which we would expect would recommend the creation of an inspection team to
examine whether the project violates bank rules on resettlement
environmental classification. That is certainly our view and we will press
that within World Bank councils.

I have another point to make that I've forgotten to make in the last few
days which is of some, I think, concern to the Meston family. If you can
bear with me a second, I endeavor to find that. A fund has been established
at an NGO called the Bank Information Center to help cover the medical
expenses of Mr. Meston. He did not have health insurance, apparently. I'm
reading from a press release from the Bank Information Center. It's
expected, of course, that he's going to require extensive and intensive
medical care for his recovery.

I'm going to make this announcement from the Bank Information Center
available in the Press Office. Let me see if there's something I can
indicate here; no. It's the Bank Information Center at - I do this on
behalf of the family - is at 733 15th Street, Northwest, Suite 1126,
Washington, D.C., 20005.

My understanding is the Bank Information Center - I quote - "is an
independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides
information and strategic support to NGOs and social movements throughout
the world on the projects, policies and practices of the World Bank and the
other multilateral development banks."

QUESTION: Let me get this straight. They want us to publicize this NGO,
this fund and they won't release any information about the extent of his
injuries or anything like that?

MR. FOLEY: Well, I believe the request comes from the Bank Information Center.

QUESTION: Well, you said --

MR. FOLEY: I perhaps misspoke in referring to the family itself, which is
concentrating on his immediate status and treatment. But the friends of the
family, at least in the form of this NGO, are aware of the fact that he
does not have health insurance. Given the nature of his spinal injuries,
the cost could be enormous.

QUESTION: Right, but perhaps the State Department might tell them that
people would probably be a little more willing to donate money to such a
fund if they had an idea of exactly how bad and exactly what his injuries
were.

MR. FOLEY: I'm sorry, I don't think that every citizen who might be
interested in contributing to this fund necessarily shares the professional
concerns of the journalists in this room.

QUESTION: No, no, no; that's not what I'm suggesting.

MR. FOLEY: The fact is if they want their privacy respected at the moment
for several days, however long they want, I think in the circumstances we
ought to respect that.

QUESTION: Jim, is that the NGO that sent him over there to do this?

MR. FOLEY: I don't believe so, but I would have to check on that.

QUESTION: It sounds like that's exactly what he was doing.

QUESTION: Jim, Mr. Meston is, as you say, you can not reveal his
whereabouts. But he is in the hospital someplace in the West or someplace
where the - okay -

(Laughter.)

QUESTION: Someplace in the world.

QUESTION: He's somewhere in the world in a good hospital; can you say that
much? True or false, is Mr. Meston in a good hospital somewhere outside of
China; is that true?

MR. FOLEY: I can only repeat for you, Bill, the precise words I used, if I
can find those eloquent words. The Chinese Government has permitted Mr.
Meston to depart Xining and seek advanced care elsewhere.

U.S. Pleased With China's Release Of Injured Researcher

WASHINGTON, Aug 27, 1999 -- (Agence France Presse) The United States said
Thursday that it was "extremely pleased" with the release by China of U.S.
researcher Daja Meston who was seriously injured while apparently trying to
escape Chinese security officials.

"The U.S. government is extremely pleased that the Chinese government has
permitted Mr. Meston to depart Xining and seek advanced care elsewhere,
again, out of country," State Department spokesman James Foley said.

Meston, 29, was one of two Western researchers detained last week for
allegedly conducting illegal investigations into a World Bank project in
Qinghai province to relocate 60,000 people near Tibet.

Foley said that at the request of Meston and his wife, he would not say
anything about the researcher's current whereabouts after he was evacuated
from a hospital in the northern city of Xining.

The spokesman said Chinese authorities "required Mr. Meston's confession of
wrongdoing, apology and departure within 24 hours" and said the American
admitted to being in a restricted area.

Meston was also advised that "he must remain outside of China for five
years," Foley said.

According to Chinese authorities, Meston was seriously injured when he
leapt from a hotel window while trying to escape.

Gabriel Lafitte, an Australian research associate at the University of
Melbourne in his early 50s who was detained with Meston, was released at
the weekend and returned to Australia. He told reporters he had been denied
sleep but had not been physically abused during a week of captivity.

Human rights groups have expressed concern for the translator of the two
researchers, saying Chinese citizen and ethnic Tibetan, Tsering Dorje, is
"at serious risk of torture" by Chinese police and have called for his
release.

Lafitte said he last saw a dejected Dorje being taken away by security
officials on August 21 while they were being taken to Xining from Dulan in
separate vehicles.

China insists the two foreigners "candidly confessed their illegal
activities," which included interviewing residents and photographing in
clearly restricted areas without prior approval after entering China on
tourist visas.

Lafitte was preparing research for a World Bank inspection panel that
proposes to resettle nearly 58,000 people from overpopulated Qinghai to the
resource-rich but sparsely populated Dulan in the province's center.

The $160-million-dollar project's goal is poverty alleviation, of which $40
million would be directly pumped into the Dulan region.