24 May 2008
Demonstration in Lhasa
(TibetInfoNet) Sources from Lhasa have reported that a demonstration took place in Lhasa in front of the Tsuglagkhang (Jokhang), the city's main temple and Tibet's most sacred. According to unconfirmed reports, there were around 100 protesters, most of whom were arrested.
26 May 2008
Foreign participants in March to Tibet ordered to leave India
(Phayul; TOI) Indian authorities have ordered five foreign nationals to leave the country. The five, who participated in the March to Tibet, organised by the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), were ordered to leave India within seven days. March Co-ordinator Lobsang Yeshi and 18 others were arrested during the march and taken in custody. The foreign marchers that are due to be deported come from Norway, the UK and the US. They had been with the march since it began on 10 March 2008 in Dharamsala. The Indian government justified the deportation, with Ashim Khurana, Joint Secretary (Foreigners) in the Ministry of Home Affairs saying: "On [a] tourist visa, you cannot take part in a religious activity. If we allow that, you will have people coming here to propagate their religion. It's only for travelling and sightseeing, etc. So, they have violated the visa rule by participation in the march".
27 May 2008
Tibet leg of torch relay cut short
(AP) The controversial Tibetan leg of the Olympic torch relay has been cut to just one day because of the earthquake in Sichuan province, according to a Beijing Olympics official. The torch's stop in Tibet - originally set for three days - has been criticised by Tibet activist groups who see it as an attempt by Beijing to demonstrate its control over Tibet. The cut to one day came after the relay was stopped for three days as part of a national period of mourning to honour the victims of the 12 May 2008 earthquake that left nearly 63,000 people dead and almost 24,000 others missing. "All I can be sure of is that the Lhasa relay has been shortened to one day", said Li Lizhi of the Beijing Olympic torch relay centre. "It's probably either on June 18 or June 19, as is tentatively set now. But it is still open to future adjustment", she added. Beijing has said life is returning to normal in Tibet and monasteries are reopening in Lhasa, but foreigners are still banned and until recently Chinese were advised to stay away.
27 May 2008
Tibetans losing faith in talks, says Dalai Lama
(FT) The Dalai Lama has given a stark warning that he is losing the support of many of his followers inside Tibet because of the Chinese government's refusal to talk over the territory’s future. During his tour of European cities he expressed the hope that China will begin serious negotiations with his representatives over greater autonomy for the region in a few weeks’ time. But in an interview in the UK with the Financial Times, he indicated that more radical Tibetans, who urge violent confrontation with China, are increasingly losing faith in his strategy of securing autonomy through peaceful dialogue. Asked whether he was losing control over his followers, the Dalai Lama, said: "Yes, naturally. My efforts have failed to bring concrete results, so this criticism is becoming stronger and stronger". He warned that in recent times, many Tibetans had been showing "clear signs of frustration" with the lack of progress he has been making in talks with China. "There are many Tibetans who have the view that our non-violent approach is not having an effect".
28 May 2008
Tibetan writer’s site hacked
(Phayul; RSF) The Tibetan writer and blogger, Tsering Woeser, has been the target of threats and hacker attacks because of her articles about the situation in Tibet. Her blog and Skype (Internet telephone) account were hacked on 27 May. "My password was changed and I can no longer connect to my account", she told Reporters Without Borders (Reporters Sans Frontieres - RSF), referring to her Skype account. "As far as I can tell, the hacker is already in communication with some of my contacts, which puts them in a situation as dangerous as mine". Woeser, whose books have been banned and who lives in Beijing, has been placed under house arrest and has been prevented from travelling abroad. The authorities have also pressured her husband, essayist Wang Lixiong. Because readers in China have no access to her books, Woeser has made extensive use of the Internet to disseminate her writings.
28 May 2008
Sharon Stone's regrets 'karma' remarks
(BBC) American actress Sharon Stone has sparked criticism in China after claiming the recent earthquake could have been the result of bad "karma". Speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, Ms Stone linked the recent disaster to Beijing's policy on Tibet. She said: "I thought, 'Is that karma?' When you are not nice, bad things happen to you. I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else". "And then all this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and I thought, is that karma?" In response to furore over her comments, she said: "Yes, I misspoke. I could not be more regretful of that mistake. It was unintentional. I apologise, those words were never meant to be hurtful to anyone. I am deeply saddened by the pain that this whole situation has caused the victims of the devastating earthquake in China". Following her remarks, the French fashion house Christian Dior dropped her from all their advertising campaigns in China, and Xinhua called her the "public enemy of all mankind" in an editorial. Some cinema chains in China are claiming they will no longer screen her films and the actor and her films have been permanently banned by the organising committee behind the Shanghai International Film Festival.
28 May 2008
Tibetan detained for media contact
(RFA) Chinese authorities have detained a Tibetan man in Sichuan province for allegedly speaking to foreign reporters about the protests that swept the region earlier this year, RFA sources said. Nyima Drakpa was detained late 19 April in Dawu (Chin: Daofu). An RFA source said: "The security forces came in three vehicles from China, and they were not local police". He is reportedly being held in Dartsedo (Chin: Kangding), and is unable to contact his relatives. "It was alleged that he sent photos of protests and passed information to reporters in Hong Kong. He is a very smart person and had many connections", the source said. RFA sources said Nyima Drakpa had came to the attention of the authorities in the past by copying statements by the Dalai Lama, for which he was jailed for 15 days. He was later detained briefly for allegedly putting up posters calling for Tibetan independence, but was released when another man confessed.
31 May 2008
Chinese lawyers unable to renew licenses
(AP) Mainland Chinese lawyers known for defending rights have been unable to get their licenses renewed ahead of an annual deadline, a Hong Kong group has said. China Human Rights Lawyers' Concern Group chairman Albert Ho identified three of the lawyers at a news conference, and said there were others whom he didn't want to name because he didn't want to jeopardise their status. Ho said it wasn't clear exactly how many lawyers were still unable to renew their licenses. The three lawyers who Ho said agreed to be identified were Teng Biao and Li Heping from Beijing and Zhang Jiankang from the city of Xian. In a separate statement, the US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) named another lawyer, Jiang Tianyong. It said Teng and Jiang had both offered to represent Tibetans and had "distinguished records of defending civil and human rights cases". Ho said originally a larger group of more than 500 lawyers from 10 law firms in different parts of China could not get their licenses renewed, albeit a "substantial" number of them - but not all - were able to do so after the lawyers issued a letter on the Internet drawing attention to the issue. He said the affected firms were mostly "activist" ones known for defending rights. Some represented Tibetans detained in the Chinese crackdown on riots in Tibet in March, he said.
31 May 2008
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Dalai Lama gives advice concerning Shugden
(TibetNet) The Dalai Lama has issued a statement advising his followers against the worship of the Dorje Shugden (Dolgyal) deity. He claims that veneration of Shugden creates the danger of Tibetan Buddhism degenerating into a form of spirit worship, causes obstacles to the emergence of genuine non-sectarianism and that engaging in this controversial and divisive propitiatory practice is inappropriate in the current context of Tibetan society, where unity among the Tibetan people is vitally important. The statement makes clear that he personally feels strongly about the negativity of this practice, and has requested that those who continue to propitiate Dolgyal, do not attend his formal religious teachings, which traditionally require the establishment of a teacher-disciple relationship.
03 June 2008
Reporters NGO welcomes openness in Sichuan; critical of controls in Tibet
(RSF) Reporter Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders) has issued a statement that welcomed the policy of transparency currently being applied to the foreign press in the areas hit by the 12 May earthquake and called on the Chinese authorities to apply the same policy to Tibetan regions, where the security forces continue to prevent travel by foreign journalists. "The government is allowing the foreign media a remarkable and unprecedented level of freedom in Sichuan", RSF said. "It should be extended to the Tibetan regions which the international press has not been able to visit freely since the Lhasa riots on 14 March. The government is clearly trying to prevent the foreign media from confirming the few reports emerging about arrests of Tibetans and re-education campaigns being carried out since then".
03 June 2008
Beijing takes select group of reporters to Tibet
(Xinhua) China has invited a group of reporters to Lhasa from media organisations in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao to "provide open news coverage without any restriction". Xinhua reports that thirty-one reporters travelled to Lhasa. "The reporters, representing 15 organisations from Hong Kong, one from Macao and two from Taiwan, are the second batch of reporters invited to Tibet after the March 14 Lhasa riots", the report stated. "During the three-day visit, reporters will have extensive contact with officials, monks and common people, and they will be able to interview shop owners whose shops were damaged during the riot", the Xinhua report claimed.
03 June 2008
China keeping tight grip on Tibet
The BBC provided a brief survey of the current situation in Tibet. It reported that China appears to be maintaining a tight grip over all Tibetan areas and although the government suggests life in these areas is returning to normal, there is no evidence to support this. Tibetans face travel restrictions, and monks and nuns have been forced to attend re-education classes. Chinese tourists are once again being allowed to visit the region, but few are making the trip, and foreigners are banned. Chinese central and local government officials are saying little and the Tibet Autonomous Region's (TAR) foreign affairs office did not respond to a series of faxed questions from the BBC. David Kramer, US Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, was in Beijing to discuss human rights issues, and directly asked for an update on the latest developments in Tibet. He appeared to get little out of his Chinese counterparts. "We did not get information on numbers [of people arrested]", he told journalists. Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), said China is restricting the lives of ordinary people. "At the moment, we are receiving very little information. There are restrictions on telephone calls into Tibet and coming out", he said. The spokesman, based in Dharamsala, said Beijing officials had also stopped ordinary Tibetans from leaving China for Nepal and India. He added that occasional protests by monks and nuns were continuing - even if they were quickly stopped by Chinese security forces.
03 June 2008
Tibetan flag flown on Everest
(Phayul) After months of heavy security and climbing restrictions on Mount Everest by both the Chinese and Nepali governments, a 37 year old Jordanian climber Mostafa Salameh managed to smuggle a Tibetan national flag onto the mountain. He had written: "Free Tibet" and "Free Palestine" on the bottom of the flag, and had his photograph taken holding it on the summit of the 8848-metre peak on 25 May.
04 June 2008
Marchers arrested
(AP, TibetInfoNet) Indian police have deported between 250 and 265 Tibetan exiles marching to Tibet to protest against Chinese rule from Berinag in the Uttarkand state (about 180km from India's border with the TAR) to Ponta Sahib in the neighbouring Himachal Pradesh where they began their march nearly three months ago from Dharamsala. Between 100 and 150 marchers together with one of the march's leader, Tenzin Tsundue, who escaped arrest, and the heads of the organisations leading the march, who were released from detention in Haridwar, have reformed in the town of Devinagar, 100 km away from the Dharchu pass, from which they are expected to continue their march. Their declared intention is to reach Tibet to coincide with the start of the Beijing Olympics in August.
05 June 2008
China quake relief may delay talks
(PTI) The next round of talks between envoys of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and China, scheduled for 11 June 2008, might be postponed because of Beijing's preoccupation with relief efforts for earthquake victims, an aide to the Dalai Lama has said. "China has expressed difficulties in holding talks on 11 June because of the massive earthquake in that country", Tenzing Takhla, secretary to the Dalai Lama, told the Press Trust of India (PTI). "Though 11 June has yet not been fully ruled out, we are working on alternate dates too", he added. Takhla said that the date for the second round of talks, between envoys of the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials, was decided much before the earthquake had happened. Asked if the alternative dates would be within June, he said: "We are working out on it".
05 June 2008
Police alert for unrest at Lhasa festival
A local official has said that police in Lhasa were on alert for potential unrest as Buddhist pilgrims flocked to the city for a traditional religious festival, the month-long Saga Dawa, the most important Buddhist festival. "The deployment of armed police was increased because of the coming of a religious festival and as a response to some threat remarks made by Tibetan separatists recently", a government spokesman surnamed Fu told Agence France-Presse (AFP) by phone. "Tibetan separatists have said publicly that they were preparing to 'take some actions'. We certainly have to increase police deployment in response to ensure people's safety at the festival".
05 June 2008
Dharamsala denies Norwegian secret diplomacy
(AP, TibetInfoNet, CTA) The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala has denied a newspaper report that Norway has been secretly brokering talks between the Dalai Lama and China. The Norwegian Verdens Gang reported that diplomatic efforts have gone on for several years and that Norwegian foreign ministers have kept US officials informed about the meetings. It cited unnamed sources in Washington. It did not say if there had been direct meetings between the Dalai Lama and Chinese officials, or when the peace efforts began, but it mentioned that contacts on the Tibetan side were held to "a brother of the Dalai Lama", likely hinting at Gyalo Dhondup, who has been instrumental in Sino-Tibetan talks in the 1980s. "The Norwegian government is helping the Tibetans in many ways for the last many years, including providing development aid in the Tibetan settlements in India, but there is no secret diplomacy or mediating in the dialogue or negotiations between the PRC and the envoys of His Holiness the Dalai Lama", said Thumpten Samphel, a Secretary in CTA Desk for Information and International Relations (DIIR). "This needs to be denied in its totality", Samphel told the Associated Press. Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokesman Tor-Henrik Andersen declined to comment on the newspaper report.
06 June 2008
US Senators urge the release of Tibetan protestors
(Phayul) US Senators Gordon Smith (R-OR), John Kerry (D-MA), and Russell Feingold (D-WI) have written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stating their concern over the confinement and incarceration of hundreds of protestors and the censorship of media in Tibet. The letter in particular mentioned the charge against Ms. Jamyang Kyi, a popular Tibetan singer and television announcer who was arrested 01 April and later released in early May who reports indicate is currently awaiting trial and could possibly be under house arrest. The senators wrote: "We request that you urge the Chinese government to allow independent access to the detainees arrested during the recent crackdown on ethnic Tibetans, and push Beijing to conduct free and open trials of the accused". They added: "We also ask that you keep us informed of the progress made toward ensuring transparent trials for those arrested during the recent crackdown".
06 June 2008
EU concerned over Tibetans fate
(TibetNet) During a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the European Union (EU) has said it remains seriously concerned over the fate of Tibetans arrested in the aftermath of the March protests and asks that they be treated in accordance with internationally recognised democratic principles (in particular fair trial). In a statement it said: "The EU welcomes the recent meeting between representatives of the Central Government of China and the Envoys of the Dalai Lama. The EU reiterates its call to enter into a substantive and constructive dialogue with a view to reaching a sustainable solution acceptable to all that would fully respect the Tibetan culture, religion and identity". The EU also called for international access to Tibet, including that by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
