Memorandum by the Tibet Representative
Office in the UK
The Chinese Government's treatment of Tibetans
inside Tibet has from the very start been in breach of human rights:
the rights to life, liberty and security; and the freedoms of
expression, religion, culture and education. The Chinese Government's
approach has been to carry out a very systematic and strategic
cultural genocide against anything `Tibetan'. Since the Chinese
occupation, Tibetans have become a minority in their own country
due to the massive influx of ethnic Han Chinese population (6
million Tibetans as opposed to 7.5 million Chinese in Tibet),
who are the main beneficiaries of China's "economic progress"
in Tibet; Tibetans are subjected to racial discrimination by the
Chinese; photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, spiritual and
temporal leader of the Tibetan people, are banned even today.
The Tibetan language is systematically being made redundant in
various sectors; and Tibet's natural and mineral resources are
exploited.
Despite China's accession to 25 international conventions
on human rights and their re-election in the UN Security Council,
the degree and extent of suffering and repression experienced
by Tibetans under the authoritarian control of the PRC government
is equivalent to being, as His Holiness the Dalai lama remarked,
a "hell on earth". Tibetans in Tibet are still at risk
of facing arbitrary arrests and detentions and more often than
not, Tibetans who are arrested are often denied legal representation;
torture is still a tool used in Chinese prisons and detention
centers; there are Tibetan political prisoners below the age of
18; and 70% of the Tibetans in the "Tibet Autonomous Region"
now live below the poverty line.
The Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness
the Dalai Lama also known as the Tibetan government in exile based
in Dharamsala in northern India, has confirmed information on
the death of 110 Tibetans, and as of 24 April 2009, it estimates
the death of 220 Tibetans, sentencing of nearly 300 Tibetans and
over 1,294 Tibetans as injured, in the brutal crackdown by the
Chinese Government, that took place after the March 2008 protests
alone.
Tibet remained closed and covered for much of
2008 and 2009 amid massive deployment of armed security personnel,
intensified vigilance and surveillance over Tibetans as political
education campaigns for Tibetans were stepped up not only in monastic
institutions but among party members and general populace. The
atmosphere in Tibet was aptly described as virtual martial law,
reminiscent of the martial law period imposed in Lhasa on 8 March
1989 under President Hu Jintao, the then TAR Party Secretary.
In order to lock Tibet down in the run up to
the politically sensitive anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising
on 10 March 2009, Lhasa City Tourism Bureau decided in mid-February
to ask tour agencies to stop organizing trips for foreigners to
Tibet, until 1 April, 2009.
According to Reporters Without Borders, at least
14 foreign reporters were either arrested or expelled from Tibetan
regions while trying to cover events surrounding Tibet. Jonathan
Watts, head of the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said,
"These detentions must stop. The government should live up
to its promise of openness in all areas of China, including TAR
and Tibetan areas."
1 April 2008 saw the re-launch and a strengthening
of the "patriotic re-education" campaign in monasteries
and nunneries. The campaign strictly required the monks and nuns
to affirm their loyalty to the Chinese "motherland"
and to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a "splittist".
Monasteries are put under strict control by sending "work
teams" to carry out "patriotic re-education" classes
for monks and nuns to make them, among other things, write essays
denouncing the Dalai Lama, accept Tibet as an inalienable part
of China, etc. Zang Qingli, present Communist Party Secretary
of the TAR who called for the intensification of the "patriotic
re-education" campaign, has called His Holiness the Dalai
Lama "the biggest obstacle hindering Tibetan Buddhism from
establishing normal Buddhist order" and has said that the
Party is engaged in a "fight to death struggle against the
Dalai Clique".
The much-dreaded "Strike Hard Campaign"
also was re-launched on 18 January 2009. The 600 officers deployed
under this campaign conducted extensive raids of nearly 3000 rented
houses, guesthouses, hotels, bars and internet cafes. Within three
days of the launch of the campaign, 5,766 Tibetans suspects were
held and interrogated. Meanwhile a notice was issued from the
Lhasa City Government strictly requiring all outside visitors
that wished to stay longer than three days and less than a month
to apply for temporary stay permit. Later, China's state- run
Tibet Daily acknowledged the detention of 81 Tibetans from Lhasa
under the "Strike Hard Campaign". The detainees include
two Tibetans whose mobile phone had "reactionary music",
probably songs in praise of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The Tibetan Administration has managed to obtain
a rare footage (http://footage.tibetanbridges.com/)
that exposes the Chinese authorities brutality against Tibetans
in the aftermath of the spring 2008 protests. The footage reveals
heavy presence of paramilitary forces in Tibet; indiscriminate
beatings of Tibetan protestors even while they remain handcuffed
and stretched on the ground. Moreover, it reveals extensive wounds
on a young Tibetan named Tendar, who later succumbed to his injuries
on 19 June 2008. A staff in China Mobile Company in Lhasa claimed
that Tendar's only crime was his attempts to stop Chinese security
forces from beating a lone monk, while on his way home from work
on 14 March 2008. According to reliable information received from
Tibet, Tendar was "fired at, burned with cigarette butts,
pierced with a nail in his right foot, and severely beaten with
an electric baton."
He was denied medical care at the military hospital
and later shifted to TAR People's Hospital in Lhasa, where the
doctors removed about "2.5 kgs of his body part to clean
the rotten wounds".
Related information can be found at: http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=759&articletype=flash&rmenuid=morenews.
According to the National Human Rights Action
Plan of China (2009-10), death penalty shall be "strictly
controlled and prudently applied" and all death sentences
must be reported to the Supreme People's Court for review and
approval. However, in April 2009, two Tibetans Lobsang Gyaltsen
and Loyak received immediate death sentences on charges of burning
two clothing shops in downtown Lhasa on 14 March 2008 and burning
down a motorcycle shop that allegedly left the owner, his wife,
his son and two employees dead. A Tibetan girl named Penkyi was
also issued a suspended death sentence for allegedly "starting
fires in two downtown clothing shops on 14 March 2008". Two
other Tibetans, Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk have been given suspended
death sentences with two-year reprieves.
The recurring protests in Tibet before and since
2008 are clear indicators of China's failed Tibet policies and
its failure in political development. In order to resolve the
issue of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama has even gone to the
extend of giving up the Tibetan people's right to an independent
state and agreed for Tibet to remain within the People's Republic
of China to help it maintain its unity and stability. He has said
that history is history and no one can change history. Even the
former British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher in her book,
"Statecraft—Strategies for a Changing World" stated;
"The Chinese claim to Tibet is dubious on historical grounds".
As for the future, keeping in view the long
term interests of both the Tibetan and Chinese peoples, the Tibetan
leader and Nobel Peace Laureate, His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
has for the last many years consistently declared that he is not
seeking independence or separation of Tibet from China. However,
despite all positive efforts from the Tibetan side, China has
continued breaking promises and international laws in the last
one year, and this too despite the fact that the European Union
(EU) still asserts its commitment to support China's transition
towards an open society.
RECOMMENDATIONS
— EU should help start the practice of
debating China's human rights behaviour at the annual sessions
of the UN Human Rights Council.— EU should urge China to
invite impartial international bodies to investigate who is behind
last year's uprisings in Tibet.
— EU should urge China to open all Tibetan
areas to independent monitors and the international media.
— EU should push China for the release
of all Tibetan political prisoners of conscience.
— All the detained Tibetans must have access
to independent lawyers and the right to lodge complaints, in an
atmosphere free of reprisal and harassment.
— EU should insist on immediate access
to all detention centers and prisons in Tibet for international
observers and to provide details about every Tibetan detained
such as name, name of prison or detention center the accused is
being held in.
— EU should urge China to prohibit extortion
of confessions by torture and wrongful or prolonged detention.
— EU should support the recommendation
made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2005, for
China to allow an independent expert to visit and confirm the
well being of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, the 11th Panchen Lama, still
held hostage by the Chinese authorities.
19 May 2009
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