United Nations Radio

China has denied a request by the UN Human Rights Chief, Louise Arbour, (photo) to visit Tibet.

Her spokesman Rupert Colville says she made the request to the Chinese authorities two weeks ago and got a response this week that this was not a convenient time for the visit.

"She hoped this might help the issue of accessibility - obviously that's becoming a big issue - as to what exactly is going on there and the outside world is concerned that not enough information is coming out. So she thought that she could help out in that respect."

Mr. Colville added that the Chinese government did not exclude the possibility of a visit at a future date. Ms. Arbour had already called on Beijing to "allow demonstrators to exercise their right to freedom of expression and assembly and to refrain from any excessive use of force while maintaining order," after violence erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in mid-March.

Today a group of UN human rights experts, including the special rapporteurs on freedom of expression, on torture and on arbitrary executions, also expressed concern at the crackdown and urged China to grant observers free and unfettered access to Tibet.

For United Nations Radio, I'm Dianne Penn.

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