Authorities issued the order on May 23, requiring residents of seven villages in the region to move so that the Chinese government can begin the first phase of construction…reports Asian Lite News
Chinese authorities have ordered Tibetans living in Rebgong county in western China to vacate their land for the construction of a hydropower dam, forcing them off the farmlands they need to make a living, media reports said.
Authorities in Lingya village, about an hour’s drive from Rebgong, issued the order on May 23, requiring residents of seven villages in the region to move so that the Chinese government can begin the first phase of construction 10 days after the notice’s issue date, said a Tibetan from Rebgong who now lives in exile, RFA reported.
“The land that is being confiscated by the Chinese government is farmland, which is the livelihood of Tibetans,” said the source, adding, “The authorities have warned the Tibetans not to show any kind of condemnation.”
BEIJING, Oct. 1, 2019 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, delivers a speech at a grand rally to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China at the Tian’anmen Square in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Ju Peng/IANS)
Rebgong, called Tongren in Chinese, is in Malho, or Huangnan, Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a Tibetan-populated area in China’s Qinghai province, RFA reported.
Chinese authorities tightly control the residents of the restive Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated regions of western China, restricting their political activities and peaceful expression of cultural and religious identity.
Chinese infrastructure and development projects in these areas have led to frequent stand-offs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people.
Many result in violent suppression, the detention of protest organisers and intense pressure on the local population to comply with the government’s wishes, RFA reported.
Another Tibetan living in exile said authorities have begun confiscating land, but they have not discussed compensation for residents forced to move.
The museum’s exhibition narratives tried to highlight that the modernization of Tibet has accelerated after the 17-point Treaty was signed in 1951 between Tibet and China…reports Asian Lite News
China is trying to legitimize its claim over Tibet through museums, and cultural institutions in the region, according to Tibet Rights Collective.
China is trying to promote a particular Chinese narrative about Tibetan history and culture. According to Tibet Rights Collective, the so-called Tibet Museum in Lhasa city claims to be a “36 meters high building with 1100 windows and exhibitions on Tibetan folk culture, customs of living, eating habits of Tibetans, costumes, textiles, and residential areas”.
The Tibet Museum officially opened on October 5, 1999, to mark the 50th anniversary of ‘The PRC’s Economic Reform in Tibet’.
The museum’s exhibition narratives tried to highlight that the modernization of Tibet has accelerated after the 17-point Treaty was signed in 1951 between Tibet and China, and to reinforce the historical legitimacy of handing Tibet over to China, according to The Tibet Rights Collective.
It displayed collections of artefacts, including official documents and gifts exchanged between Chinese Han Dynasty officials and Tibetan leaders.
The Communist Party of China (CCP) in 2021 launched a “memorial hall” to “display the photos and items from the serfdom era”.
The Potala Palace, the erstwhile winter palace of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has also been converted to a museum. With nearly 800 sensors placed around the palace, multiple monitoring tools, and nine kilometres of fibre optic cables installed inside, the sacred space of Tibetans has been reduced to a spectacle.
Meanwhile, concerned about the situation of Tibetan women in Tibet, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) has questioned China on the matter, reported Tibet Rights Collective.
The Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which is in charge of overseeing the Convention’s implementation, has taken a keen interest in Tibetan women’s rights and well-being.
In a recent meeting, CEDAW members focused on China’s treatment of Tibetan women and asked for clarity on a number of topics. The majority of the committee’s inquiries focused on gender equality, healthcare and educational access, political engagement, and the protection of religious and cultural rights for Tibetan women living in Tibet, according to Tibet Rights Collective. (ANI)
Fresh evidence of destruction of religious heritage sites, mistreatment of Tibetans by China
Freedom House, a global watchdog of human freedoms around the world released its report on March 9 titled “Freedom in the World 2023 Report….reports Asian Lite News
Global watchdog Freedom House has released its Freedom in the World Index for 2023 which ranks Tibet as the world’s least free country, Tibet Press reported.
Freedom House, a global watchdog of human freedoms around the world released its report on March 9 titled “Freedom in the World 2023 Report. In the report, Freedom House ranked Tibet as the “World’s least-free country” along with South Sudan and Syria, as per the news report. The report has been successively released for the third year after Freedom House reports in 2021 and 2022 ranked Tibet at the bottom of a community of nations. Freedom House in its report observed that both Chinese and Tibetans living in Tibet lacked basic rights. However, the Chinese authorities are rigorous in suppressing any signs of dissent among Tibetans.
Meanwhile, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its Third Periodic Review report on March 6 noted that numerous issues related to the human rights of the Tibetan people need serious and urgent attention from the international community.
Every step taken by the CPC to Sinicize Tibet is being monitored closely by the rest of the world. However, what matters is the degree to which action is taken to stem the onslaught against Tibetan culture and identity, according to the news report.
The CCP’s attempts to sinicize Tibetans have taken one step ahead with the inauguration of a `Chinese Nation Community Consciousness Building Research Center’ in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) to promote “national consciousness” Tibet Press reported citing Tibet Rights Collective (TRC).
Citing state media, the report said that the centre will carry out research on how to promote “community consciousness” among Tibetans and focus on promoting the Chinese government’s policies in the region. As per the news report, Tibetan Autonomous Region aims to promote national consciousness, citizen consciousness and rule of law consciousness, mainly to Tibetan religious figures to have control over their thoughts and beliefs.
The campaign began in May 2022 as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) raised concerns that Tibetan religious figures could be supporting the non-violent resistance movement and encouraging resistance to Chinese rule.
Tibetan religious figures have been subjected to re-education programmes before. However, the campaign which has been launched in 2022 is even more extreme. Monks and nuns are being asked to renounce and condemn traditional Tibetan Buddhist practices, including Tsethar, Tibet Press reported.
The “Three Consciousness Campaign” is the latest in a series of steps taken by the Chinese Communist Party to control the Tibetan population, according to the news report. The Chinese government has been accused of human rights abuses in the region, including torture, forced labour, and religious persecution. The international community has condemned the campaign, with human rights groups and the government urging China to respect the rights of Tibetans.
In its third periodic review of China on March 6, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights “Concluding Observations’ said that the report underscores numerous issues regarding the human rights of the Tibetans under the Chinese government which require serious and urgent attention of the international community, as per the news report.
As per the news report, the issues include a “serious onslaught on Tibetan culture and religion”, forced relocation of nomad communities, poor treatment, and exploitation of Tibetan culture, as well as forced assimilation of Tibetan children through CPC-run boarding schools, as per the Tibet Press report.
The UN Committee highlighted China’s ongoing campaign of putting an end to the traditional lifestyle of Tibetan nomads who regularly migrate with their yaks, sheep, and cows with changing seasons.
As per the news report, Chinese authorities have been forcing Tibetan nomads to sell their animals and reside in designated, small, and newly developed crowded settlements where a strong Chinese surveillance system can keep them under close watch. The UN Committee report has called for an investigation into the current situation of Tibetans. (ANI)
In recent years, the Chinese government has stepped up its repressive rule in Tibet in an effort to erode Tibetan culture, language and religion….reports Asian Lite News
The hearing on “Preserving Tibet: Combating Cultural Erasure, Forced Assimilation and Transnational Repression” by US Congress examined the unprecedented linguistic, religious and human rights repression in Tibet and the transnational repression faced by Tibetans abroad, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA).
It was held as both houses of Congress consider a legislation that would strengthen US policy to promote dialogue between China and Tibetan Buddhists’ spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, or his representatives. The testimonials of the four witnesses essentially stressed the new and worsening challenges faced by Tibetans in Tibet, as Beijing implements new intensified repressive measures.
During a congressional hearing, US Rep Zach Nunn likened Beijing’s policy to an idea from an ancient Chinese essay about political strategy — sacrificing the plum tree to preserve the peach tree, reported RFA.
“What they mean by this is that you can sacrifice in the short-term those who are the most vulnerable for the strength of those who are in power,” said Nunn, a Republican from Iowa, referring to a phrase from Wang Jingze’s 6th-century essay, The Thirty-Six Stratagems.
“We are seeing this played out constantly in the autonomous state of Tibet today by the Chinese government,” said Nunn, a former intelligence officer.
The Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet’s government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, have long advocated a middle way approach to peacefully resolve the issue of Tibet and bring about stability and co-existence based on equality and mutual cooperation without discrimination based on one nationality being superior or better than the other, reported RFA.
There have been no formal talks between the two sides since 2010, and Chinese officials have made unreasonable demands of the Dalai Lama as a condition for further dialogue.
Chinese communists invaded Tibet in 1949, seeing the region as important to consolidate its frontiers and address national defense concerns in the southwest.
In recent years, the Chinese government has stepped up its repressive rule in Tibet in an effort to erode Tibetan culture, language and religion.
This includes the forced collection of biometric data and DNA in the form of involuntary blood samples taken from school children at boarding schools without parental permission, reported RFA.
The Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act, introduced in the House in February and in the Senate in December 2022, also direct the US State Department’s Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, currently Uzra Zeya, to ensure government statements and documents counter disinformation about Tibet from Chinese officials, including disinformation about the history of Tibet, the Tibetan people and Tibetan institutions.
Penpa Tsering, the leader, or Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration, testified virtually before the commission, that reports by the United Nations and scholarly research indicates that the Chinese government’s policy of “one nation, one language, one culture, and one religion” is aimed at the “forcible assimilation and erasure of Tibetan national identity,” reported RFA.
As examples of the policy, Tsering pointed to the use of artificial intelligence to surveil Tibetans, the curtailing of information flows to areas outside the region, interference in the selection of the next Dalai Lama, traditionally chosen based on reincarnation, the forced relocation of Tibetans to Chinese developed areas inside the region and “unscrupulous” development that damages the environment.
“If the PRC [People’s Republic of China] is not made to reverse and change its current policies, Tibet and Tibetans will definitely die a slow death,” Tsering said.
American actor and social activist Richard Gere, chairman of the International Campaign for Tibet, told the commission that the United States must “speak with a unified voice” and engage European like-minded partners against China’s repression in Tibet.
China’s pattern of repression in Tibet “gives reason for grave concern and it increasingly expands to match the definition of crimes against humanity,” Gere said.
China’s assault on Tibetan culture includes the forced separation of about 1 million children from their families and putting them in Chinese-run boarding schools where they learn a Chinese-language curriculum and the forced relocation of nomads from their ancestral lands, he said.
Lhadon Tethong, director of the Tibet Action Institute, an organization that uses digital communication tools with strategic nonviolent action to advance the Tibetan freedom movement, elaborated on the separation of school children from their families, reported RFA.
“[Chinese President] Xi Jinping now believes the best way for China to conquer Tibet is to kill the Tibetan in the child,” she told the commission.
Tethong’s colleague, Tenzin Dorjee, a senior researcher and strategist at the Tibet Action Institute, discussed how China has extended its repressive policies beyond Tibet to target Tibetan diaspora communities in India, Nepal, Europe and North America through surveillance and harassment, reported RFA.
Formal and informal agents of the Chinese government use manipulation and technologies of oppression “To bully, threaten, harass and intimidate” members of the diaspora into silence, he said.
“The best way to counter China’s transnational repression is to proactively support the Tibetan, Uyghur and Hong Kong peoples’ transnational, de-colonial advocacy for human rights and self-determination,” Dorjee said.
After scrutinising the details of the testimonies, the commission will identify diplomatic and policy options for the US and other like-minded countries to help preserve Tibetan cultural heritage as well as explore measures to defend against threats and intimidation targeting Tibetans in the US and around the world. (ANI)
The colonial boarding schools, which the Chinese government refers to as “education and training centres,” have been a controversial topic since they were established in 2016. …reports Asian Lite News
In recent weeks, the Chinese government has sped up its propaganda efforts to promote boarding schools in occupied Tibet. There have been reports circulating in the Chinese media about these schools with exaggerated and misleading claims, Tibet Rights Collective reported.
The colonial boarding schools, which the Chinese government refers to as “education and training centres,” have been a controversial topic since they were established in 2016. The Chinese government claims that these schools are designed to “combat poverty and improve the education of Tibetan children”. However, the truth is that they are a tool for political indoctrination and cultural assimilation, Tibet Rights Collective reported. Recently, China’s state-run newspaper, China Daily, published an article claiming that boarding schools in Tibet are “narrowing the rural-urban education gap in the region”. Contrary to what Chinese state media outlets have been reporting, the boarding school in question is not an educational initiative aimed at improving the lives of Tibetan children. Instead, it is part of a larger campaign of cultural assimilation and control.
The Chinese news outlet, Global Times, published an article titled “Boarding schools in Xizang: A cradle of growth with humane care” authored by Zhaluo. In the article, the author claimed that boarding schools in “Xizang (China often used this term to denote Tibet) provide excellent care and education for the children of Tibetans”.
Tibet Rights Collective reported that when asked, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson dismissed the issue as “just another allegation meant to mislead the public about China and smear China’s image,” adding that “as is commonly seen around the world, there are boarding schools across Chinese provinces and regions to meet the need of the local students”.
This comes after China received widespread international criticism for running these schools. Recently, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued the “Concluding Observations” on its third periodic review of China, calling for an end to forced relocations and the state-run boarding school system in Tibet, Tibet Rights Collective reported.
In December 2022, Congressional-Executive Commission on China Chairs wrote to the UN calling for an investigation into China separating Tibet schoolchildren from their families and communities and forcing them into state-run boarding schools.
It is important to note that the Chinese government’s policies towards Tibet have long been criticized for human rights abuses and cultural suppression. In particular, the government has been accused of forcibly relocating Tibetans to urban areas, limiting their freedom of movement and expression, and suppressing their religious practices, Tibet Rights Collective reported.
Moreover, the Global Times, like many other state-run media outlets in China, has a history of promoting the Chinese government’s propaganda and suppressing dissenting voices. It is therefore not surprising that the article paints a positive picture of the boarding schools without addressing the larger political context in which they operate.
Additionally, the article in China Daily overlooks the fact that many Tibetans face systemic barriers to education and opportunity, regardless of whether they live in rural or urban areas. These barriers include a lack of access to education in the Tibetan language, limited job prospects, and discrimination against the Tibetan language and culture, Tibet Rights Collective reported.
A groundbreaking report published by Tibet Action Institute uncovered China’s massive colonial boarding school system in Tibet. 800,000 – 900,000 Tibetan children ages 6-18 are separated from their parents & families in schools designed to strip them of their identity. This doesn’t include four & five-year-olds in boarding pre-schools.
In its latest propaganda push, the Chinese government has released a series of videos and articles highlighting the benefits of boarding schools. They also show students participating in extracurricular activities like dancing and sports. (ANI)
The UN Committee raised the issue of significant limitations placed on Tibetans’ participation in cultural life, particularly their ability to learn and teach Tibetan language…reports Asian Lite News
A recent United Nation report about the oppression of Tibetans practised by the Communist Party of China (CCP) has shown support from the international organisation and also gave hope to the Tibet people, Tibet Press reported.
Recently, the UN Convention on the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights published their final findings. The report gave a picture of a large number of violations of China’s responsibilities. The relocation of nomadic herdsmen, particularly Tibetan ones, “is carried out in the state party without sufficient consultation and, in most cases, without free, prior, and informed permission,” according to an expert.
In addition, it was taken into account that compensation for the expropriated property is sometimes insufficient to sustain an adequate quality of living and that traditional lands and livelihoods may be lost as a result of poverty alleviation programmes and ecological restoration resettlement initiatives, according to Tibetan Press.
China has been advised by the UN Committee to immediately suspend all such forced relocation and rehousing schemes and engage in genuine engagement to look at other solutions with full, adequate, and timely compensation.
Concerned about the subpar working conditions, workplace harassment, and absence of labour inspection procedures to look into violations in Tibet, the UN Committee has advised China to provide funding for labour inspection and independent audit firms to pursue legal action against enterprises in Tibet, the report stated.
The UN Committee also raised the issue of significant limitations placed on Tibetans’ participation in cultural life, particularly their ability to learn and teach Tibetan language, history, and culture.
By safeguarding and repairing holy places, the Committee has advised China to “take appropriate measures to maintain cultural diversity and the cultural practises and heritage of Tibetans”. The Tibet Press’ article further read that it is the UN agency, that needs to act quickly to make sure that the Chinese government actually follows its suggestions rather than just documenting them.
The Communist rulers of China are keen to destroy the culture and language of the Tibetans and the Tibetan way of life because they think that is the only way Tibetans can be weaned away from their deep faith in Buddhism. For the intolerant rulers of China, religious belief of any kind is like a red rag to a bull, the Tibetan Press reported.
Buddhism is inseparable from the Tibetan language, culture and way of life. The mark of Buddhism on the Tibetan way of life is found from the birth to the death of an individual. When a child is born, his parents celebrate his birth by making offerings to Lord Buddha and monks and distributing food to the poor. Lamas are invited to perform religious services in houses where a child is born. The second child of the family is usually sent to the monastery to become a monk. (ANI)
The Chinese rulers in Tibet are using the residential schooling system as a ploy to assimilate Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically with the Han identity…reports Asian Lite News
A report by human rights experts of the United Nations on the eve of International Language Day on February 21 unmasked the real nature of oppression on Tibetans practised by the Communist Party of China (CCP) in the form of forced assimilation of Tibetan identity into the dominant Han Chinese identity, the Tibetan Press reported.
The report by UN human rights experts, released in Geneva on February 6, 2023, talks about a million Tibetan children who have been separated from their families by the Chinese authorities and placed in government-run boarding schools. “We are alarmed by what appears to be a policy of forced assimilation of the Tibetan identity into the dominant Han-Chinese majority through a series of oppressive actions against Tibetan educational religious, and linguistic institutions,” the experts say in their report.
The Chinese rulers in Tibet are using the residential schooling system as a ploy to assimilate Tibetan people culturally, religiously and linguistically with the Han identity.
“We are very disturbed that in recent years the residential school system for Tibetan children appears to act as a mandatory large-scale programme intended to assimilate Tibetans into majority Han culture, contrary to international human rights standards,” the experts have said in a statement.
In these residential schools, the educational content and the environment are built around the majority Han culture, with contexts in textbooks reflecting almost solely the experiences Han students face in the course of their lives. Tibetan children are forced to complete a “compulsory education curriculum in Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua, standard Chinese) without access to learning relevant Tibetan traditions and culture.
These schools do not provide many studies in the language, history and culture of the Tibetans, as a result, Tibetan children are losing fluency in their own language and the ability to communicate easily with their parents and grandparents in the Tibetan language, leading to their assimilation with the Han Chinese identity and the erosion of their own identity.
The report of the experts indicates that the promotion of these residential schools in Tibet is part of a Chinese conspiracy to destroy Tibetan identity and culture. Such residential schools have mushroomed in and outside the Tibet Autonomous Region, with the large majority of Tibetan children studying in them; and their number is increasing.
At the national level in China, the share of students studying in boarding schools is a much lower percentage.
The communist rulers of China are keen to destroy the culture and language of the Tibetans and the Tibetan way of life because they think that is the only way Tibetans can be weaned away from their deep faith in Buddhism. For the intolerant rulers of China, religious belief of any kind is like a red rag to a bull, the Tibetan Press reported.
Buddhism is inseparable from the Tibetan language, culture and way of life.
The mark of Buddhism on the Tibetan way of life is found from the birth to the death of an individual. When a child is born, his parents celebrate his birth by making offerings to Lord Buddha and monks and distributing food to the poor. Lamas are invited to perform religious services in houses where a child is born. The second child of the family is usually sent to the monastery to become a monk.
When the Chinese army invaded Tibet in 1950, they found Buddhism to be the force unifying all Tibetans and the Dalai Lama was the symbol of this unity. The Chinese rulers systematically dismantled the Buddhist religion by targeting the monks.
A large number of monasteries in Tibet were completely destroyed. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959, along with a large number of Tibetans. Till recently, about 150 monks in Tibet have courted death by self-immolation in protest against the attack on their religion, the Tibetan Press reported.
Scholars have noted the Chinese contempt for non-Chinese culture. To the Chinese government. Tibetan Buddhism is a threat to its rule and a challenge to its goal of colonizing Tibet, writes the website of Free Tibet, an organization of Tibetan refugees.
Undermining and eliminating the unique practices of Tibetan Buddhism is central to the policy of the Chinese government of eradicating Tibetan resistance to its rule. Every single aspect of Tibetan Buddhism is subject to intrusive state interference.
Having failed to wean the Tibetan people away from the Buddhist faith after more than 70 years of illegal occupation of Tibet, mandarins of the CPC have floated the idea of Buddhism with Chinese characteristics.
The real intention behind this idea is to interfere in the process of choice of the next Dalai Lama and foist on the Tibetan people a Dalai Lama of their own choice. (ANI)
The annual march also seeks to highlight the plight of the people of Hong Kong and people in Xinjiang urging the Taiwanese to take notice…reports Asian Lite News
Pro-Tibet and human rights groups are going to hold a march in Taiwan’s Taipei on Sunday to show their solidarity with Tibetans and other minority groups facing oppression in China, the Taipei Times reported.
The event, held annually in early March 2004, was originally intended to commemorate those who died during a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule that began on March 10, 1959. It has grown over the years in size and agenda, the organizers said that this year’s event is also meant to show support for people facing oppression in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
The annual march also seeks to highlight the plight of the people of Hong Kong and people in Xinjiang urging the Taiwanese to take notice, Taipei Times reported.
Taipei Times reported that Kelsang Gyaltsen Bawa, the Tibetan government-in-exile’s representative to Taiwan, urged the Taiwanese on Friday to learn a lesson from those who face oppression by the Chinese government.
Taiwan is a beacon of democracy and must not go down the same path as Tibet, Xinjiang and Hong Kong, Kelsang Gyaltsen told a news conference outside the legislature in Taipei.
Kelsang Gyaltsen, who heads the Tibet Religious Foundation of Dalai Lama, said China invaded Tibet in 1950 and a year later forced Tibetans to agree to the Seventeen-Point Agreement on the “return” of Tibet to China.
Beijing has breached clauses in the agreement that say religion and customs should be respected, instead implementing policies aimed at fundamentally changing Tibet, he said.
These changes led to the uprising of Tibetans against the Chinese government in March 1959, he said.
Beijing’s forces violently cracked down on the protests, and the Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India, where he later formed the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Kelsang Gyaltsen said the situation in Tibet has worsened, adding that under the rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Tibetans are facing cultural annihilation.
Taipei Times reported that over one million Tibetan children have been taken from their families and placed in residential schools as part of Beijing’s efforts to enforce cultural, religious and linguistic assimilation, he said, citing a UN report.
He said the situation in Hong Kong is similar, adding that Beijing has seriously encroached on the territory’s civil liberties and autonomy since the UK handed over its former colony to China in 1997.
Tibetan Welfare Association chairman Tashi Tsering expressed gratitude to thousands of Taiwanese who joined previous event editions, which he cofounded with six other Tibetans based in Taiwan.
The 6 million Tibetans who are suffering in Tibet do not have the freedom to take to the streets or defend their faith and customs, he said.
That is why at least 150 Tibetans have resorted to self-immolation, calling for freedom by “abandoning their own bodies,” he said.
The organizers said the procession would assemble at MRT Zhongxiao Fuxing Station Exit 2 and march toward Taipei City Hall. (ANI)
Tibetans tell relatives abroad to not call them(twitter)
China rules Tibet with a tight grip, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and expression of cultural and religious identity, especially during festivals like Losar…reports Asian Lite News
Tibetans in Tibet have told their relatives in exile to refrain from contacting them this week during the Tibetan New Year called Losar, citing fears of being persecuted by Chinese authorities amid increase in surveillance activities and surprise security searches during the politically sensitive time, sources in the region said.
Chinese authorities have clamped down on Tibetans during Losar, celebrated on February 20-26 this year, with cellphone checks and raids in Lhasa, Xigatse and Chamdo, the sources said, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. Before the holiday, authorities warned against holding events that could endanger national security and said they would take immediate action against them.
A Tibetan living in Dharamsala, India, called his relatives in China’s western Tibet Autonomous Region to wish them well for the Tibetan New Year, but they asked that he not contact them, RFA reported.
China rules Tibet with a tight grip, restricting Tibetans’ political activities and expression of cultural and religious identity, especially during festivals like Losar. Tibetans say that Chinese authorities trample on their human rights and are trying to stamp out their religious, linguistic and cultural identity.
Chinese security forces are usually deployed in large numbers in Tibetan-populated areas to monitor crowds gathered for religious festivals and to prevent possible protests during Losar, RFA reported.
The holiday comes just before a politically sensitive anniversary on March 10, commemorating the Tibetan uprising of 1959 during which tens of thousands of Tibetans took to the streets of the regional capital Lhasa in protest against China’s invasion and occupation of their homeland a decade earlier.
The failure of the armed rebellion resulted in a violent crackdown on Tibetan independence movements, and the flight of the Dalai Lama and many Tibetans into exile in Dharamsala.
Another Tibetan who now lives in exile but has family members in Lhasa, said even written communication was risky in the current environment, RFA reported.
“Without permission from the government, one cannot print out anything at the moment,” he told RFA.
A Tibetan living outside the region who has relatives in Shigatse, about 275 kilometres west of Lhasa, said that his parents sounded very tense when he called and told him to refrain from contacting or sharing messages with them.
Robert Masih Nahar, ERC senator, will be the president of the new intergroup…reports Asian Lite News
Under the Presidency of the European Research Council (ERC), some thirty senators from different political formations have created an interparliamentary group to support Tibet’s autonomy from China, reported Europe Press.
The alliance will be formally established this Wednesday. This intergroup will work to garner real support for the resumption of substantive dialogue between the Chinese leadership and the Dalai Lama’s representatives to ensure “genuine and meaningful autonomy” for the Tibetan people. In their opinion, Tibet is an independent country with a thousand-year history that was invaded by China, which continues to be “threatened” by Beijing and needs international support, reported Europe Press.
Robert Masih Nahar, ERC senator, will be the president of the new intergroup.
It will be attended by the representative of the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration, Rigzin Genkhang; the president of the Tibetan community in Spain, Rinzing Dolma; and two members of the Tibetan Parliament in exile representing Europe, Thubten Wangchen and Thupten Gyatso, reported Europe Press.
In addition, a message from the Sikyong of the Central Tibetan Administration, Penpa Tsering, will also be projected.
According to the promoters of the intergroup, its main objectives are “to promote and defend the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people, especially in order to improve respect for Human Rights in Tibet”, and to achieve “the recognition of the Central Tibetan Administration with headquarters in Dharamshala as the sole and legitimate representative of the Tibetan people,” added Europe Press. (ANI)
