KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark says she does not have a problem with the Olympic torch being carried through Tibet and says it was always expected that human rights issues in China would come to the fore as the Olympic Games drew near.
Pro-Tibet campaigners have vowed to stage more protests along the Olympic torch route after demonstrations disrupted the flame-lighting ceremony in Greece yesterday.
The protesters want to embarrass China, which is hosting the August Olympic Games, drawing attention to China's deadly crackdown on riots in Tibet.
The protesters want Tibet removed from the route the Olympic torch will travel.
The New Zealand Parliament has supported a government statement of concern about the situation in Tibet, that called on Chinese authorities to react "carefully and proportionately" to the recent protests in Tibet's capital of Lhasa.
"I don't prima facie have a problem with the torch being carried across Tibet but as I've been saying over the last week or so it's always been pretty obvious that when the time for the Olympics was approaching, that would be a time when various human rights issues in China - and there are a number - would be likely to come to the fore and we've certainly seen that over the past couple of weeks or so," Helen Clark told Newstalk ZB today.
The prime minister is due to travel to China in April for the signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) New Zealand and China have been negotiating.
There have been calls for her to boycott the signing and ditch the FTA altogether following China's actions in Tibet.
The Government has said the two issues can be separated, with the FTA going ahead while it raises human rights issues with China as it has long done.
Protesters opposing the free trade agreement with China earlier gathered outside Prime Minister Helen Clarke's electorate office.
Ryan Bodman, a protester, told Radio New Zealand that China had an "appalling" human rights record and said signing the deal would tarnish New Zealand's reputation as a supporter of human rights.
Asked today on Newstalk ZB whether she would raise China's actions in Tibet before putting pen to paper, Miss Clark said she would raise human rights issues while there.
Helen Clark said the signing event in Beijing had yet to be confirmed as it was still being worked out.
The signing itself would be done by ministers.
But she did expect to meet a senior leader, most likely Premier Wen Jiabao, when she went in April.
"In such a meeting of course I would be raising human rights issues as I always have."
Helen Clark also said today she would not attend the opening ceremony for the Olympic Games in Beijing. Planning had been around Governor-General Anand Satyanand attending the Games as well as Sports Minister Clayton Cosgrove.
- NZPA
