16 August 2008
TAR loans for damaged businesses in Lhasa
(TibetInfoNet; Xinhua) The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government in Lhasa has granted 98.37 million yuan (UK£8m; US$14.5m EUR€9.8m) of loans to businesses that were affected by the 14 March 2008 riots, according to the region's financial department. The department said that 1,216 vendors sustained damage from the riots. A report from Xinhua said the TAR government has introduced a series of preferential policies connected to taxes, loans, living allowances and reemployment to help business people restore their businesses. As of 31 July, 273 vendors had already accepted loans involving 129.5 million yuan (UK£10.4m; US$19m; EUR€12.9m). Sources in Lhasa reported that, following the riots, many Chinese businessmen left Lhasa for good, or at least sent their families back to Mainland China. Xinhua, however, reports that 90 percent of affected businesses have reopened in Lhasa.
17 August 2008
Tourism suffers from Spring 2008 unrest
(AFP; Tibet Daily) The number of tourists visiting the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) in the first half of 2008 fell 70 percent from the previous year, the Tibet Daily reported, following unrest in the region that began in March. More than 340,000 travellers went to the TAR between January and June 2008, the state-run newspaper said, a dramatic drop from the same period in 2007 when over 1.1 million people visited, according to official statistics. When the spring 2008 protests began, Beijing barred all tourists from going to the TAR and other areas of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) with Tibetan populations. Chinese tour groups were allowed back in at the end of April, and visitors from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan were subsequently allowed in early May. Foreign visitors were only allowed back in at the end of June. In March, the number of tourists dropped nearly 49 percent, compared to 14,200 at the same time in 2007, the Tibet Daily said. Deng Xiaogang, vice chairman of TAR is quoted in the report as saying: "The March 14 incident had the biggest impact on the service sector in Tibet, and the tourism industry was significantly impacted". The newspaper said, tourism was now improving, and 370,000 travellers went to Tibet in July alone, more than in the whole of the first half of the year.
18 August 2008
Nomads to be settled
Beijing will move more than 73,700 nomadic Tibetans living in Kanlho (Chin: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) into permanent brick houses, under a government-led programme, in the next five years, Xinhua reported. According to Wang Hongwei, head of the resettlement programme, a nomadic community will be moved from their ancestral homes at the headwaters of the Yellow River, from what Xinhua call "a degraded pasture area". The government has spent 1.3 billion yuan (UK£104m; US$189m: EUR€129m) in the past two years "to help farmers move into brick houses from wood-and-earth residences and nomadic herders to settle down", Xinhua's report said. Beijing's aim with the programme is, according to the report, to see "80 percent of Tibet's farmers and herders move into permanent houses" by 2010. The report, however, gave no indication whether Tibetans were given a say in determining a change in their traditional livelihood under the programme.
19 August 2008
Six new lines announced for Tibet railway network
(AP; Xinhua) Beijing is planning to build six new railway lines in and around Tibet. Included in the country's medium- and long-term railway network plan, the six lines are expected to be completed and put into operation before 2020, Wang Yongping, spokesperson for the Ministry of Railways, said in Beijing. Detailed plans and the cost of construction have yet to be finalised, he added. The six new tracks include one from Lhasa to Nyingtri (Chin: Lingzhi) and one from Lhasa to Shigatse. Three tracks will originate in Golmud in Qinghai province (Amdo) and run to Chengdu in Sichuan province, Dunhuang in Gansu province and Kuerle in Xinjiang. The sixth will link Xining with Zhangye in Gansu province. Construction on the Golmud - Dunhuang section is likely to begin first. The official said engineers have already been dispatched to the region to work on the route's design. Work on the lines from Lhasa to Nyingtri and Shigatse is likely to begin before 2010, he said. Earlier reports suggested the Lhasa - Shigatse railway would be extended to link it with Nepal, but Wang said the ministry has no such plans at present.
22 August 2008
Dalai Lama meets French foreign minister
(AFP) The Dalai Lama urged China to "march towards democracy" as he met French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in a trip that has fuelled tensions between Paris and Beijing. They were attending the inauguration of a Buddhist temple by the Dalai Lama in the south of France and spoke privately with him after the ceremony. The Dalai Lama told Kouchner the only way China can "regain its respectability in the international community" was to take a "march towards democracy". French human rights minister Rama Yade and former prime minister Alain Juppe were also at the event which was attended by about 2,000 people. A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy had passed on the president's "greetings" when she met with him at the temple. China had cautioned Sarkozy that meeting the Dalai Lama would have "serious consequences" for bilateral relations, and Beijing warned France to prudently deal with the "important and sensitive" issue of Tibet.
22 August 2008
Dalai Lama's office say he was misquoted over 140 dead
(AFP; AsiaNews; Le Monde; Tibet.net) In an official statement from his representatives in France, the Dalai Lama has denied saying that 140 people might have been killed by Chinese troops. In an interview given to the French newspaper Le Monde, the Dalai Lama was reported to have said that 140 people were killed in Kardze (Chin: Ganzi), in eastern Tibet, by the Chinese security forces. "We would like to clarify that His Holiness did not mention any number of casualties", the statement said. "In response to a question from the journalist about recent news stating that Chinese troops had fired on a demonstration, His Holiness clearly stated that we had no specific information on the number of casualties", it added. The statement goes on to say that efforts have been made without success to communicate with the local affected population in Kardze. In an interview with AsiaNews, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the Prime Minister of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), also confirmed there was no such massacre by Chinese forces in recent days. He attributed the controversy as having stemmed from a wrong translation during the Tibetan leader's interview with Le Monde. "There was a language problem in the translation of the comments by His Holiness the Dalai Lama", Rinpoche was quoted as saying.
24 August 2008
47 Tibet activists arrested during Games
(RSF) At least 47 foreign pro-Tibetan activists are reported to have been expelled and 22 foreign journalists detained or manhandled by police or other authorities during the Beijing Olympics. The Paris-based media monitor group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said among those detained were two American video bloggers sentenced to 10-day prison terms for "disrupting public order". At least 50 Beijing-based human rights activists had been detained, harassed or forced to leave the Chinese capital, it said. In China, Beijing Public Security Bureau (PSB) spokesperson Wang Wenjie declined to comment about the report, saying he did not have overall figures. RSF's leader Robert Menard said the Chinese authorities' pre-Games pledges "about media freedom and the right to protest were an illusion".
24 August 2008
Wife of arrested Tibetan filmmaker appeals to IOC's Rogge
(NOC Tibet) A letter was sent to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge asking for his support to free Dhondup Wangchen and Golog Jigme, the two Tibetan filmmakers who made the film "Leaving fear Behind", a 25 minute documentary made inside Tibet, and containing critical remarks about the Olympics and Chinese rule in Tibet. Lhamo-Tso, wife of Dhondup Wangchen, appealed to Rogge to help her to free her husband and his cameraman, Golog Jigme, who together filmed testimonies of a range of people in Eastern Tibet. Each interviewee knew the risks they were taking in being filmed but were adamant that their faces be shown. Dhondup Wangchen managed to send his footage out of Tibet but was subsequently arrested. So far, there has been no response by the IOC to the letter or to the issue.
25 August 2008
Earthquake in Shigatse prefecture
(Reuters; Xinhua) About 2,000 people were evacuated from their homes after a 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit an area in the western TAR. Authorities were assessing the impact of the quake, which was centred in Drongpa (Chin: Zhongba) county, Shigatse prefecture, a remote region near the TAR's border with Nepal. Three townships in the county felt the tremor, but no casualties have been reported. However, cracks appeared in 42 residential buildings, said Tan Yungao, the regional civil affairs department's deputy director. The quake also damaged 54 rooms in primary and middle schools. The official said the affected area was in urgent need of tents and quilts. Some 400 tents, 3,500 quilts and clothing were being transported to the area.
26 August 2008
Woeser detained by police
(Times) The Tibetan author, poet and blogger Woeser (Chin: Weisei) was accused of taking photographs of military installations and arrested by police after she briefly returned to her family's home in Lhasa. Eight policemen arrived at the home of Woeser's mother and presented the writer with a summons to accompany them for questioning, the Times reported. She was held for questioning for eight hours by several officers who said that they were acting on a tip-off from a member of the public who had seen her photographing army and police positions in Lhasa from a taxi. Her husband, the author Wang Lixiong, who spoke on behalf of his wife, told the Times: "She told them that it was not illegal to take photographs in a public place and she had not visited any secret areas or military installations. They had no legal basis for holding her". The police searched her mother's home and removed several documents as well as Mr Wang's computer. They hacked his password, checked all documents on the laptop and required Woeser to erase every photograph that showed a policeman or army officer on the streets of Lhasa or in Tibetan areas they had visited.
27 August 2008
New airport in Qinghai
(Xinhua) Workers completed construction of a runway for a new airport about 20 km away from Jyekundo (Chin: Yushu) in Yushu TAP in Qinghai province. A 4,000-square-metre terminal is due to be built and is designed to handle planes such as the Airbus A319. The infrastructure for the airport is due to be completed by the end of 2008 and the facility is scheduled to go into service in June 2009.
29 August 2008
Dalai Lama to leave hospital shortly
(AFP; Tibet Sun; Tibet.net) The Dalai Lama has "no physical health problems" and is expected to be released from hospital shortly, his private office has said. The 73-year-old was taken to hospital in Mumbai after complaining of "abdominal discomfort". "Doctors say he has no physical health problems except that he is physically exhausted", Tenzin Taklha, secretary to the Dalai Lama, told AFP. Because of this, his schedules for the next three weeks, including a visit to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, were cancelled. "The Dalai Lama will be in hospital until Sunday evening", the aide said. "He may stay in Mumbai for a few more days of rest", Taklha added.
29 August 2008
Prachanda in Beijing and Kathmandu protests
(FT; The Himalayan Times) The new prime minister of Nepal known by his nom de guerre of Prachanda, was warmly welcomed to the Games' closing ceremony in Beijing by Hu Jintao, making him the first Nepali prime minister to make China his first port of call rather than India. Meanwhile, Tibetan activists resumed their protest rallies in front of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu, and 120 were arrested. CP Gajurel, foreign department chief of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), told the Financial Times that "the party will ask the government to stop" Tibetan demonstrations.
29 August 2008
Detained monks deported to their hometowns
According to Radio Free Asia's (RFA) sources, the 675 Tibetan monks who were detained after the protests of March 2008 in Lhasa and kept in custody in Qinghai province, have now been "deported to their respective towns". According to the sources, the monks were put on a train from Lhasa on 25 April and "transported to a military detention centre in Golmud" in the Haixi (Tib: Tsonub) Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai. "Among those 675 monks, 405 were from Drepung, 205 were from Sera, and eight were from Ganden", the source said. The remaining 57 monks from outlying areas were said to have been taken from smaller Lhasa monasteries. "All the monks who came originally from the Qinghai region (...) are still detained (...) in their hometown prisons or detention centres". They were escorted home from Golmud by officials from the Qinghai United Front and Religious Affairs Bureau, according to the source.
29 August 2008
Tibet railway tunnel cave-in kills four, injures seven
(Xinhua) A total of four workers were killed and seven others injured after a cave-in inside a railway tunnel under construction in Qinghai province. The accident occurred in the Ketu Tunnel, in Tsojang (Chin: Haibei) TAP, and buried 11 workers, the 12th Bureau of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) said. Rescuers pulled the trapped workers out, but four had died in the collapse. Two of the seven injured were in a critical condition and were hospitalised in the provincial capital Xining. The tunnel under construction belonged to the double track line of the Xining-Golmud Railway, which is a part of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. The line's operator, the Qinghai-Tibet Railway Corporation and the Qinghai Safety Supervision Bureau have begun a probe into the accident.
