03 March 2008
Kashag appeal to shun violence during torch relay
(Tibet.net) The Kashag (or cabinet) of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala has appealed to Tibetans to avoid resorting to violence during the 2008 Beijing Olympic torch relay in India in April. The guideline issued by the Kashag on 29 February 2008 said: "Resorting to violent means by the Tibetans, which are against the law and cause embarrassment to the people and the government of India, must not be allowed". The Dalai Lama has supported the PRC being given the right to host the Olympic Games. The Kashag’s statement also says: "His Holiness has regularly stated that the Olympic Games in China must be held successfully without any hindrance, since the event is being long awaited by the Chinese with great pride and happiness".
03 March 2008
Bjork’s support for Tibetan independence
(AP;CBC; Xinhua) The singer Bjork appeared to back Tibetan independence during a concert in Shanghai. During a climatic part of her final song, 'Declare Independence’, she shouted: "Tibet! Tibet! Raise your flag!" Her protest apparently went unnoticed by the majority of an estimated 3,000 people at the Shanghai International Gymnastics Centre. Following news of the incident, China's Culture Ministry said it now plans to tighten its scrutiny of foreign artists before allowing them to perform. In a statement it also said that the show broke Chinese laws and regulations, "hurt the feelings of the Chinese public" and "went against the professional code of an artist", according to Xinhua. On her website the Icelandic singer wrote: "This song was written more with the personal in mind, but the fact that it has translated to its broadest meaning, the struggle of a suppressed nation, gives me much pleasure. I would like to wish all individuals and nations good luck in their battle for independence".
03 March 2008
Dalai Lama praises Lithang spirit
(Phayul) The Dalai Lama said the time was bound to come for the Tibetan issue to be resolved peacefully and praised the people of Lithang in Kham for their commitment to the cause of Tibet. He made a short speech during a long life ceremony (Tib: Tenshug) held in Dharamsala and led by the Lithang Tenshug Committee on behalf of people from Lithang, both inside and outside of Tibet. During the ceremony, Dr Lobsang Sangay, a Lithangpa by birth and a Tibetan scholar at the Harvard Law School, made a speech in which he called on Lithang people to maintain their nationalist spirit. Citing the cases of Trulku Tenzin Delek, Rongye Adrak and others from Lithang, he called on people to continue their struggle for Tibetan unity and freedom, and the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet. Lithang, in Kardze (Chin: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) is in the area that Tibetans traditionally refer to as Kham, which is spread between the TAR and Sichuan province. This area continues to be the most restive since the advent of Chinese rule over Tibet in the 1950s.
04 March 2008
Railway extensions necessary – Puncog tells NPC
(Xinhua) Qiangba Puncog (Tib: Champa Phuntsok), chairman of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) said that the construction of Golmud-Lhasa railway extensions is "quite necessary". "We will fully tap the potential of railway in the region, and we hope the extensions linking Lhasa to Xigaze (Tib: Shigatse) and Nyingchi (Tib: Nyingtri) will bring more benefits to the Tibetan people" said Puncog, who made comments at the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), The People’s Republic of China's (PRC) rubber-stamping legislature, currently being held in Beijing. Work on the 254-km extension line, the first feeder for the railway, is planned to start this year and expected to be completed in 2010, according to an earlier report.
04 March 2008
Chinese Panchen Lama too not to join NPC
(Reuters; Asia News) The Tibetan youth named by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama is too young to be a member of the NPC. Reuters sources had said Beijing's choice, Gyaltsen Norbu, who turned 18 last month, could become a member of the youngest member of the Standing Committee of the NPC, as early as this month. But spokesman Jiang Enzhu said that the youth was not 18 when elections were held. "According to our country's laws and regulations, members of the National People's Congress must be at least 18 years old", Jiang Enzhu told a news conference. "As far as I know, the Panchen Lama was not yet 18 when elections (...) were held. So he is not on the list of deputies this time", Jiang said. China's state media have not mentioned elections, and Jiang did not elaborate on when they took place, moreover, the deputies of the NPC are appointed rather than elected. According to reports from Asia News, some analysts believe the decision instead reveals the government's unhappiness with the attitude of the young man, who is thought to be insufficiently aggressive toward the Dalai Lama. The failed appointment is thought to be punishment for Norbu, who is deeply unpopular in Tibet.
06 March 2008
“Stability and harmony” in TAR stressed by Hu
(Xinhua) Stability in Tibet has a bearing on the stability of PRC as a whole according to Chinese President Hu Jintao. Hu stressed stability and social harmony in the TAR, during a panel discussion with members of the NPC at its ongoing session. "The stability of Tibet concerns the stability of the country, and the safety of Tibet concerns the safety of the country", Hu told the Tibetan delegation to the NPC. He urged the Tibetan NPC members to ensure the wellbeing of Tibetans, improve their lives, improve work related to religion and ethnic groups, and maintain social harmony and stability in the region. He also said: "Efforts should be made to transform the mode of [Tibet's] economic growth", but did not elaborate on what this meant.
06 March 2008
Monks given 08 March deadline to return to monastery
(RFA) Chinese authorities in the TAR have given protesting monks until 08 March to return to Jesho Baikar monastery or face "serious consequences", Tibetan sources told Radio Free Asia (RFA). The monks left to protest against ‘patriotic education’ campaigns launched after clashes between Tibetan nomads and police in the area on 20 November 2008. Other sources in the area, including former monastery employees, said most of the estimated 180 monks left the monastery in protest in early December. The monastery has remained mostly deserted since then, they said. Many monks have since joined Sera and Drepung monasteries in Lhasa. "Chinese work teams tried to conduct a patriotic campaign in Baikar monastery, but the monks were uncooperative and many refused to comply—they started abandoning the monastery. About 50 armed police were stationed at the monastery, along with a contingent of work-team members, to enforce the campaign". The source said that twenty-two Tibetans - 10 monks and 12 laypeople - remain in detention following the 20 November clash, which happened following an altercation between three monks and a shopkeeper.
06 March 2008
TAR chairman invites critics to see Tibet
(Xinhua) Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the TAR has repeated the claim that Tibet is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and has been since ancient times. He told the 11th NPC: "The overseas sayings of (sic) 'Tibet independence' are groundless nonsense and secessionist activities are doomed to fail". He dismissed western criticism of human rights abuses in Tibet by apparently inviting critics to the region. Xinhua reports that he told the congress: "Seeing is believing. They should go to Tibet themselves to feel the improvements. They will reach a right conclusion then if they respect facts", Puncog said.
08 March 2008
Tibetans observe 19th anniversary of martial law in Tibet
(Tibet.net) The Department of Religion and Culture of the CTA organised a prayer congregation at the Tsuglakhang (main temple) in Dharamsala to mark the 19th anniversary of imposition of martial law in Lhasa on 08 March 1989. The Dalai Lama also participated in the prayer ceremony. In his brief address at the occasion, the Kalon for Religion and Culture Department, Kalon Tsering Phuntsok recounted how the Tibetans in Tibet suffered during the time of enforcement of martial law. He expressed concern for those Tibetans who are still suffering in Tibet. He said that the prayer congregation was organised to commemorate and pray for those Tibetans who died during the martial law in Lhasa city and for those who are still suffering and are behind bars in Tibet.
09 March 2008
Raids in Jyekundo
(TCHRD) Hundreds of images of the Dalai Lama were confiscated from homes in Jyekundo (Chin: Yushu/Jiegu) TAP, Qinghai province following midnight raids by PSB officers. Two families were reportedly fined Yuan 500 (UK£35; US$70; EUR€45) for possessing the banned portraits. Pamphlets calling for Tibet's independence were pasted overnight on the walls around the area.
10 March 2008
10 March international demonstrations
Tibetans and Tibet supporters have held demonstrations around the world to mark the 49th anniversary of the Lhasa uprising. Many towns flew Tibetan flags on civic buildings and people held protest marches and demonstrations outside Chinese embassies. While the vast majority passed off peacefully, there were disturbances in Nepal, and in Australia where police used pepper spray and batons to clear Tibetan protesters outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney. In Kathmandu, clashes between police and Tibetan exiles led to violence and at least 10 arrests. At many locations, Chinese surveillance was in evidence.
10 March 2008
India bars protestors from leaving Dharamsala
Indian police barred several hundred Tibetan exiles from beginning a planned six-month march from India to Tibet, to protest against the Beijing Olympics. Local police chief Atul Fulzele said a ban for the marchers from leaving the area around Dharmsala had been issued on orders from the Indian government. Fulzele said the march contravened an agreement between New Delhi and the Tibetan government in exile. However, none of the groups taking part in the protest were affiliated with the government, and neither the Dalai Lama nor Tibet's government in exile have issued an official statement on the march. The groups leading the march are: the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Women’s Association; the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement; the National Democratic Party of Tibet; and Students for a Free Tibet, India.
10 March 2008
Access to Everest in Tibet closed to climbers
(www.mounteverest.net) Chinese authorities have announced that the north side of Mount Everest (Tib: Chomolungma) in Tibet will be closed to expeditions, and no group visas to enter the area will be issued until after 10 May. Mount Cho Oyu, near the Nangpa La Pass, which many Tibetans cross while clandestinely leaving Tibet, will also be closed during this period. www.mounteverest.net also claims that Kathmandu is under pressure to place tighter controls on access to Everest from southern approaches.
10 March 2008
Dalai Lama's 10 March speech
In a speech marking the 49th anniversary of the uprising in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama said that Tibetan culture is under threat and: "The language, customs and traditions of Tibet ... are gradually fading away", and that Tibetans have had to "live in a state of constant fear, intimidation and suspicion under Chinese repression". He said Tibetans have become an "insignificant minority in their own country". He urged the international community to call on China to respect freedom of expression during the Beijing Olympics, and said he has supported Beijing hosting the Games from the very beginning, dismissing an accusation by Zhang Qingli, Secretary of the Communist Party in the TAR, that he was trying to sabotage the event. However, he said: "The world should (...) explore ways of investing their collective energies in producing a continuous positive change inside China after the Olympics have come to an end". He also stressed that his determination "to pursue the middle-way policy and to continue our dialogue with the Chinese government remain unchanged". Nevertheless, the situation remained grave: "In Tibet, repression continues to increase with numerous, unimaginable and gross violations of human rights, denial of religious freedom and the politicisation of religious issues".
13 March 2008
Two organisers and 98 marchers given 14 days detention
(Phayul) 101 of the exile Tibetans marching to Tibet from Dharamsala, two of them protest organisers, were arrested and sentenced to 14 days detention after appearing before magistrates in Dehra. The protesters refused to sign a bond saying that they would not participate in any further protests for the next 6 months. They will now be held under house arrest outside Dharamsala. Indian police have set up checkpoints on the roads leaving Dharamsala and are reportedly checking all buses for any Tibetan protesters that may be trying to leave the area. Some buses have been turned around.
14 March 2008
Tibetans protest at Chinese Embassy in London
(Phayul) 100 Tibetans and their supporters, including four former Tibetan nun political prisoners, gathered in front of the Chinese Embassy in London to show their support for the latest political protests being held across Tibet. The protests were very similar to many held across the world. Several Tibetan youths tried to storm the Chinese Embassy but the British police were swift to restrain the angry activists. Calling for the international community's support, Tenzin Samphel, Chairperson of the Tibetan Community in Britain said: "We call upon the international community, especially the British Government, to put pressure on the Chinese Government to commit to dialogue to find real solution to the Tibetan issue peacefully".
19 March 2008
Gordon Brown will meet Dalai Lama in London
(Times) The British Prime Minister announced that he will meet the Dalai Lama when he visits the UK later in May 2008. Gordon Brown had been reluctant to commit himself to a meeting with the Dalai Lama, who is blamed by the Chinese authorities for the current crisis in Lhasa. "I will meet the Dalai Lama when he is in London", Mr Brown told Parliament after facing criticism from Opposition MPs. Mr Brown also said he had urged Premier Wen Jiabao to hold talks with the Dalai Lama over the future of Tibet. "I spoke to Premier Wen this morning and I made it absolutely clear that there had to be an end to violence in Tibet", he said. Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron, responded to the announcement by saying: "Can I congratulate the prime minister on making the right decision... I congratulate him for doing the right thing".
19 March 2008
Arrests in Kathmandu as Tibetan protests continue
(Phayul) Nepali police arrested 21 Tibetans protesting in front of the UN offices in Kathmandu as Tibetan exiles continued to demonstrate for the 9th consecutive day since 10 March 2008. There have been reports of injuries as protestors clashed with police. The demonstrators arrested were detained at a local police station before being released. Tibetan protestors say they will continue with their protests until China ends its current brutal crackdown inside Tibet and comes out with a meaningful solution to the future of Tibet and Tibetan people. Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on the Nepali government to reaffirm its commitment to freedom of assembly, association, and expression. When questioned about the reason for arrests of protesters, a district superintendent of police informed HRW that it is government policy that there cannot be protests against China in Nepal.
21 March 2008
Cyber Attacks Target Pro-Tibet Groups
(Washington Post) Human rights and pro-democracy groups sympathetic to anti-China demonstrators in Tibet are being targeted by sophisticated cyber attacks designed to disrupt their work and steal information on their members and activities. Alison Reynolds, director of the Tibet Support Network, said organisations affiliated with her group are receiving on average 20 e-mail virus attacks daily. Sharon Hom, executive director of the New York-based Human Rights in China, said the group's 25 member organizations worldwide have also reported a marked upswing in the number and sophistication of e-mail virus attacks. However, experts say attributing such attacks to any one group or government is extremely difficult, as computer systems that appear to be the source of malicious activity online often are controlled by persons or groups using computers in completely different locations.
22 March 2008
China dissidents call for dialogue with Dalai Lama
(Reuters ) A group of 29 Chinese dissidents urged Beijing to open direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama, in the wake of unrest in the region. "We appeal to the country's leaders to directly engage in dialogue with the Dalai Lama. We hope to eliminate misunderstanding between Han and Tibetans", the group said in an open letter e-mailed to reporters. The pro-democracy activists, led by writer Wang Lixiong and dissident Liu Xiaobo, urged the government to invite UN investigators to Tibet to change the international community's distrust of China. They also suggested allowing credible domestic and foreign journalists to independently report from Tibet and said those arrested should be given an open and fair trial. The government should tone down its Cultural Revolution-era invective against the Dalai Lama, which was only fanning the flames of "ethnic hatred" and undermining the country's image. "Serious mistakes exist in [government] work on Tibet", the letter said, pressing the government to fundamentally change its "failed" policies towards ethnic groups.
23 March 2008
Accusations against the "masterminds" of China’s ethnic policy
(The Times) The Times of London has identified three men who they accuse of being "the architects of Chinese repression in Tibet". The three are senior bureaucrats little known to the outside world but, according to the Times, are "destined to be the focus of condemnation from human rights groups in the months ahead". The newspaper sayd that Wang Lequan, party head in Xinjiang, is responsible for Beijing’s minority policies in both the TAR and Xinjiang. He devised the model that has stifled Muslim culture in Xinjiang, staged political trials and executions, poured in millions of Chinese settlers and extracted mineral and energy resources to feed the economy. Applying Wang’s methods in Tibet is Zhang Qingli, the region’s party secretary. Zhang accelerated campaigns against Tibetan culture and religion, brought in more settlers and stepped up the commercial exploitation of Tibet’s huge reserves of raw materials, the Times said. The third influential figure identified by the Times is Li Dezhu, the Party’s racial theoretician. Until recently the head of the Ethnic Affairs Commission, Li wrote the textbook on destroying independent cultures and disintegrating religious minorities by promoting materialism. He refined Chinese policy, stating that its aim was no longer to preserve minority cultures such as the Tibetans but to refashion them. The Times quotes Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch, who says Li is the first leader explicitly to state that the problem of minorities would be "definitively solved" by mass Chinese migration.
23 March 2008
Olympic torchbearer withdraws in protest
(AP) One of Thailand's representatives in the Olympic torch relay has withdrawn in protest over China's recent crackdown on protesters in Tibet. Narisa Chakrabongse - one of the country's six torchbearers - said in an open letter that she decided against taking part in the relay to "send a strong message to China that the world community could not accept its actions". "The slaying of the Tibetans [...] is an outright violation of human rights", Narisa wrote. "It happened two weeks before the Olympic torch leaves Athens and five months before the Olympic Games. This reflects the Chinese government's negligence of world sentiment".
24 March 2008
Olympic torch lit despite protest
(BBC) The Olympic torch has been lit at a ceremony in Greece that was briefly disrupted by pro-Tibet activists. Protesters from media rights group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF) [Reporters Without Borders] broke through the cordon of 1,000 police officers in Olympia as China's envoy spoke. Activists had vowed to protest over the violence in and around Tibet. The torch will now be carried in an around-the-world relay through 20 countries, before arriving in Beijing for the start of the Games on 08 August. As Liu Qi, head of the Beijing Olympic organising committee, spoke ahead of the torch lighting, three men broke into the ceremony venue. One ran up behind him attempting to display a black flag depicting the Olympic rings made from handcuffs. The men were from RSF, which has called for a boycott of the opening ceremony of the games. They were quickly bundled away by police and Mr Liu continued his speech uninterrupted. The live television coverage, beaming the scene around the world, quickly cut away from Mr Liu and the protesters until they had been removed. Later, as the torch began its journey, pro-Tibet activists unfurled banners and shouted slogans before Greek security wrestled them away. The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Jacques Rogge, has defended the decision to hold the Games in China saying: "The major political leaders don't want a boycott".
25 March 2008
India Cancels Dalai Lama's Meeting with Vice President
(Phayul) The scheduled meeting between the Dalai Lama and Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari was cancelled at the last minute, a move the exiled Tibetan government suspect was taken under pressure from Beijing, according to an Indo-Asian News Service (IANS) report. "I feel India is buckling under the Chinese pressure", an official from the Office of the Dalai Lama was quoted by IANS as saying. The Dalai Lama was due to call on the Indian Vice President, for a meeting that had been planned at least two months before the unrest in Lhasa. Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang said that India had clarified that the Vice President had no plans to meet the Dalai Lama, following a 'rumour' about such a meeting, the IANS reported. But India’s External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had earlier announced that Vice President Ansari would meet the Dalai Lama who is the Indian capital for two-week religious program.
25 March 2008
Protestors stopped at Sikkim border
(Phayul) 300 pro-Tibet activists from the northeast region of India, who began a peace march from Siliguri in West Bengal, have been stopped by Indian police from entering Sikkim, a border state with Tibet. The marchers were on their way to Nathu-La, the border pass which links Sikkim with Tibet in their attempt to join the ongoing protests in Tibet. The peace march, organised by the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), has seen the participation of members of Regional Tibetan Women's Association as well as many local Tibetans and Tibet supporters.
27 March 2008
Tibetan exile parliament seek UNHCR investigation
(AP; Phayul) The speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile says the UNHCR should conduct an independent inquiry into the recent unrest in Tibet. Karma Chophel says he wants the UNHCR to hold a special meeting on the situation in Tibet because it is the duty of the body to intervene to stop rights abuses taking place there. Chophel spoke at the UN in Geneva as he was seeking support from the 47 council members. He said the protests in Tibet are increasing with Chinese repression leading to many monks and nuns committing suicide. One-third, or 16, of the council's members are needed to hold a special meeting. Western nations supportive of Tibetans have seven seats on the council.
28 March 2008
Tibetan school children protest in UN compound in Nepal
(Phayul) A group of more than 20 Tibetan schoolchildren reportedly staged a protest in the main UN in Kathmandu to draw attention to the crisis in Tibet. A UN spokesman said the children, aged between 15 and 18, and dressed in school uniforms, scaled the wall carrying a small homemade sign that read "Free Tibet" and asking for the United Nations to help their cause. The teenage demonstrators remained inside the U.N. compound after climbing the wall, as police arrested 60 others rallying outside. John Brittain, a spokesman for the UN, described the teenagers as polite intruders who sat on the grass inside the compound. They were asked to write their grievances for UN officials. One police officer reportedly went inside and asked for the protesters to be handed over, but UN officials refused
