– Should I really answer that, he exclaimed at one point. The reaction came promptly from the podium.
“Yes, you must,” said Commission President Tuk Bagger.
Friis Arne Petersen has been ambassador to Washington, Beijing and Berlin. Previously, from 1997 to 2005, he was Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
After almost 120 interrogations in 2018 and during the last six months, it is clear that Friis Arne Petersen and his colleagues are in trouble.
From New York, Cairo, Paris, Brussels and elsewhere, high-ranking officials have been taken to Frederiksberg to answer questions. Now the case is drawing to a close. The final interrogations will take place this and next week.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs risks being assigned a significant co-responsibility for the fact that critical protesters were hidden by the road for a number of years during Chinese visits.
Supporters of Tibet and supporters of the Falun Gong (FG) movement should not be seen or heard by visiting ministers, police written plans and explanations show.
Some were hidden behind a hedge. Other times, the procession drove along a different route.
When the Commission first investigated visits in 2012, 2013 and 2014, the police were given responsibility for violations of the Constitution. Police responded to a mood created by the State Department and PET, it said.
Now the investigation shows that the story must be rewritten.
Back in 2002, Friis Arne Petersen was presented with a note from an office manager about “a constructive collaboration” between the ministry, the police and the Chinese embassy. It was supposed to ensure that demonstrations “take place where they do not bother the Chinese delegation”.
– I have not given that weight, Petersen defended himself the other day.
He and other officials have repeatedly reminded the commission that only law enforcement has the power to decide what happens on the street.
However, the mails reveal the ministry’s strong interest in what was going on.
“We usually agree with the police that FG and the Tibetans are in places where the Chinese delegation is not coming,” a center chief wrote about the COP 15 climate conference.
Also during a visit in 2012, the ministry was on the sticks. One late evening, the head of department sent a prayer to his subordinates. He hoped they could give the police and PET “understanding of their important roles. No face loss!”
Friis Arne Petersen, who was ambassador to Beijing at the time, had previously drawn attention to the strong Chinese concern about face loss.
The word face loss, according to a PET employee, was also used by the ministry’s deputy chief of staff when she told him that the president would rather not see protesters.
However, she has no recollection of this, she has explained.
Incidentally, emails testify to relief among officials after a visit in 2014.
“Fantastically arranged with the tourist bus in front of the culture house on departure, which I assume was a happy occasion and not part of your carefully choreographed program”, wrote an employee.
The colleague replied: “Yes, it was very” handy “with the bus, which” came to “cover for the Free-Tibet demo :-)”.
Even after the many interrogations, the Commission is not yet quite ready to close the door. The search for evidence continues. Further interrogations cannot be ruled out, it was announced the other day.
Source: The Nordic Page