Tibetan activists expressed dismay after the UN Human...

Tibetan activists expressed dismay after the UN Human Rights Commission threw out a US-sponsored resolution condemning China, saying the rights situation remained poor in Tibet. "It brings into question the legitimacy and effectiveness of the United Nations and its committee on human rights," said the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamsala. The Tibetan rights group said 2003 had been a grave year for human rights in Tibet, noting the execution of Lobsang Dhondup, a farmer convicted of a bomb attack that killed one person. "We call upon the Chinese government to stop human rights violations in Tibet," said a statement by the rights group. Twenty-eight out of 53 countries at the Rights Commission backed a Chinese motion to block the US-sponsored resolution that expressed "concern about continuing reports of severe restrictions on freedom of assembly, association, expression, conscience and religion".