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Czech parliament leader denounces 'Tibetan flag incident'

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-18 16:34

PRAGUE - President of Czech's Chamber of Deputies (Lower House) Miloslav Vlcek has denounced the action by a few Green Party deputies of unfurling a Tibetan flag in front of the visiting Chinese parliamentary delegation last month.

During an interview with Xinhua on Thursday, Vlcek said the unwarranted action by a few individuals represented neither the parliament nor the government, much less the general Czech public. Their action had undermined relations between the two countries, and had been criticized by most parliamentarians and the Czech people.

On September 25, a few Green Party deputies unwrapped a Tibetan flag in a gesture to support the so-called Tibetan independence while a Chinese delegation from the Ethnic Affairs Committee under the National People's Congress, China's parliament, was visiting Czech's Lower House. The delegation immediately left the Lower House in protest.

Czech and China have always enjoyed a long history of friendship, said Vlcek. Their bilateral relations, however, were affected by changes of ruling parties in Czech in recent years, he noted.

As president of the Lower House and leader of the left-wing Social Democratic party, Vlcek said he has always been an active advocate for friendship and cooperation between Czech and China. He said he hoped this incident wouldn't harm the overall development of bilateral relations, Vlcek said.

He also presented to Xinhua a presidential statement of the Czech's Lower House, in which he said the Lower House would take measures to prevent the recurrence of similar incident.