The answer from the other, Robin Glinka, who has previously been a clerk in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is again and again “I do not remember”.
The topic of the questions in the Tibet Commission is the ministry’s behavior in connection with the COP 15 climate conference in 2009. At the time, the two worked side by side in the ministry’s Asia office.
The task is to uncover how it happened that Prime Minister Wen Jiabao avoided seeing a small crowd of supporters of the Falun Gong movement at the Bella Center.
Behind the scenes, there was alarm and concern in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, emails have shown.
For example, the then office manager Martin Bille Hermann sent an email to the top of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on December 7 at 11.30 pm.
It dealt with three issues related to China. Dalai Lama, Taiwan and saw the prospect of a demonstration by 15 Falun Gong followers.
Why should the top in the ministry be informed about a demonstration, the questioner, lawyer Jakob Lund Poulsen, wants to know.
– My office manager has estimated that, answers Jens Martin Alsbirk, who was deputy manager at the time.
Is it a reasonable estimate that one spends time on such information?
– It is an interesting question, says Alsbirk.
Back then in 2009, he also wrote “good idea” about an inquiry from Robin Glinka to the police about which demonstrations had been reported.
Why did he write “good idea”?
– I have no memory of why I wrote it, he replies.
On a video link to Kenya, Robin Glinka replies that he does not remember why he went to the police with his questions and what the meaning was.
Several times the questioner sighs over the massive memory failure. But Robin Glinka assures that he has no intention of hiding information. He simply does not remember what happened, it sounds.
However, documents can also speak. They show that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was very concerned about the prospect of the Chinese Prime Minister seeing Falun Gong supporters in yellow T-shirts.
It was “certainly not something we are crazy about”, noted the head of the office, who is today an ambassador to the UN in New York. “The question is what happens if we ask the Police to move the demo,” he wrote.
Relations with China were strained at the time. The government was putting the finishing touches on a so-called verbal note. In it, Denmark recognizes China’s sovereignty over Tibet and declares itself an opponent of Tibet’s independence.
The verbal note is seen as the price that Denmark had to pay to restore good relations with China, after the newly appointed Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen had dared to hold a conversation with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.
At the same time, there was great excitement about the climate conference, which Denmark hosted. The Danish embassy in Beijing had sent clear signals home to Copenhagen and China’s demands:
“It will be expected that the Danish side will have full intelligence about possible demonstrations, so that the Chinese delegation is not confronted with demonstrations,” the report said.
At Asiatisk Plads, the employees in the ministry were very busy gathering information about demonstrations. And it all ended with the police choosing to block off Vejlands Allé at Bella Center, where Falun Gong had been allowed to demonstrate.
The maneuver ensured that Wen did not see yellow T-shirts.
Fuente: La página nórdica