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ICT press release, November 22, 2011

On the eve of the Republican Presidential debate on foreign policy scheduled for Tuesday, November 22, 2011, the International Campaign for Tibet has sent questionnaires to all candidates asking for them to give their views on what they would do on Tibet policy as President of the United States. Questions ask how the candidate would address the crisis in Tibet, whether or not he or she would meet with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the White House, as well as other issues relating to relations between the Chinese and Tibetans.

ICT has been sending such questionnaires during presidential campaigns since 2000 and will publicly display each candidate¡¯s responses on the ICT homepage (savetibet.org). Because ICT is a non-profit, non-partisan organization, ICT cannot endorse any candidates or take part in any campaigns. The questionnaire is an attempt to inform Tibet-supporters in the U.S. of where each candidate stands on Tibet.

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Published: 11/4/2011 1:12:04 PM GMT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States on Friday urged China to correct “counter-productive policies” in Tibetan areas, saying it was concerned by a spate of Tibetan self-immolations that have underscored tensions over Beijing’s rule.

At least 11 ethnic Tibetans have burned themselves to death this year in southwest China, a region that has become the center of defiance against strict Chinese control.

The latest Chinese case occurred on Thursday when a Tibetan nun set herself on fire in Sichuan province, the Xinhua news agency said. Another Tibetan suffered burns to his legs on Friday when he set himself on fire outside the Chinese Embassy in India.

“We have consistently and directly raised with the Chinese government our concerns about Tibetan self-immolations and we have repeatedly urged the Chinese government to address its counter-productive policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions,” State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said.

A number of the recent suicides have occurred among ethnic Tibetan herders and farmers living in areas across the vast highlands of China’s west that they regard as part of a larger Tibetan region encompassing the official Tibetan Autonomous Region.

China has ruled Tibet since Communist troops marched in 1950. Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled nine years later after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Tibet has been a persistent irritant in U.S.-China ties, which are also frequently strained by economic disputes. In July, Beijing reacted angrily to U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to meet the Dalai Lama.

Nuland said the United States would continue to press Beijing to allow journalists and diplomats access to Tibetan areas and called on China to respect the rights of all of its citizens “and particularly the rights of Tibetans to resolve their underlying grievances with the government of China.”
Nuland said the United States was concerned that Chinese policies in Tibetan areas including the destruction of religious property and resettlement of people in sensitive religious areas threatened the unique religious, cultural and linguistic identify of the Tibetan people.

The Dalai Lama, whom China condemns as a supporter of violent separatism, denies advocating violence and insists he wants only real autonomy for his homeland.

But the Chinese Foreign Ministry has said the Dalai Lama should take the blame for the burnings, and repeated Beijing’s line that Tibetans are free to practice their Buddhist faith.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Philip Barbara)

By Tendar Tsering

TYC vice president Dhondup Lhadar (r) and general secretary Tenzin Chokey (l) at the press conference on November 14, 2011.
DHARAMSHALA, November 14: Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC), the largest pro-independence group in exile, has urged Tibetans not to celebrate the up coming Tibetan new year as a mark of honour and to pay tribute to the sacrifices being made by Tibetans inside Tibet.

Referring to the unending wave of self-immolations by Tibetans in eastern Tibet, TYC at a press conference Monday at their head office in Dharamshala, appealed to Tibetans in exile to forego celebrations during the upcoming Losar and instead contribute the expenditure usually incurred in celebrating the three-day event to the Central Tibetan Administration.

“We will refrain from celebrating Tibetan Losar in 2012 and instead initiate a Special Fund for future Free Tibet initiatives,” TYC vice-president Dhondup Lhadar told the press conference.

“Tibetans worldwide through our regional chapters will be asked to contribute all the expenses usually incurred in celebrating Losar to this fund. All proceeds will be handed over to the Tibetan Government-in-Exile,” Lhadar added.

While expressing sadness over the death of six Tibetans as a result of setting themselves on fire since March this year, TYC stated that it was “empowered by their courageous acts”.

“These extreme actions indicate a renewed grassroots pledge calling for all Tibetans to stand united to collectively end Beijing’s draconian rule. For TYC this is a painful cry from across the mountains to accelerate our efforts to restore Tibet’s independence,” the release noted.

Drawing attention to the timing of the self-immolation protests, TYC said that the current acts of resistance came in a year when China “celebrated” 60 years of their “peaceful liberation” of Tibet and the 90th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China.

“These sacrifices mark those watersheds in our history and expose China’s continuing lies that they “peacefully liberated” Tibet and thereby ended serfdom, poverty and misery.”

USA Tibet Report 2010. Click here for details.

[Wednesday, 9 November, 2011]

OTTAWA, Canada: Four Canadian members of Parliament representing all four federal political parties, have spoken up for Tibet in the Canadian House of Commons on 2 November in solidarity with the Tibetan people.

Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP): Mr. Speaker, as a member of Parliament, I rise with pride today, but also with solemnity, on the occasion of marking a vigil which is taking place outside these doors. Canadian Tibetans are in vigil in solidarity with so many Tibetans who are experiencing oppression due to the Chinese government policies toward Tibet. The desperation of these people has now led to self-immolation acts, an act of desperation for anyone who understands Buddhist religion and culture. This is the sign that things have become a crisis for those in Tibet. In the words of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, “We must find a peaceful way forward”. The European parliament, just days ago, October 27, passed a resolution calling on China to act. I would urge all Hon. Members to join with the European Union and help protect religious rights in Tibet.

Mr. Wayne Marston (Hamilton East—Stoney Creek, NDP): Mr. Speaker, today, Tibetans and supporters from around the world are gathering to take part in a global day of action. From Zurich, to San Diego, to Vancouver, to right outside our doors, people are coming together to seek justice for the people of Tibet. Ten young Tibetans have set themselves on fire in eastern Tibet since March 2011. In fact, eight since September. These unprecedented and truly desperate acts are a cry to the outside world for help. China has intensified its violent crackdown in Ngaba and across Tibet. Tibetan monasteries continue to be sacked and monks continue to be sentenced without fair trial. It is time for the government to act. It is time for the Government of Canada to take a lead in coordinating an international response to condemn the Chinese government’s repressive measures against the Tibetans. Canada should also work to ensure the United Nations to immediately send a fact finding mission to Ngaba to assess the situation. We cannot afford to waste another day.

Hon. Irwin Cotler (Mount Royal, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, 10 young Tibetans have set themselves ablaze, a set of unprecedented and desperate actions, to protest the Chinese repression of Tibetan rights and assaults on the monks and nuns of Tibetan monasteries. Accordingly, we call on the Chinese authorities to release those imprisoned simply because they exercised their right to freedom of religion and expression, to cease and desist from their assaults on the Tibetan people, and to enter into dialogue with the Tibetan leadership. We call on the Canadian government, in concert with world leaders, on this global day of action, to stand in solidarity with the Tibetan people to condemn the repression by Chinese authorities and to nurture dialogue with the Tibetan leadership with a view to protecting the human security of the Tibetan people.

Mr. Gordon Brown (Leeds—Grenville, CPC): Mr. Speaker, today Tibetans and supporters have gathered outside this very building in a desperate cry to stop the crackdown on religious freedom in their region.
Canada has expressed its serious concerns about the human rights situation in China, including continuing restrictions on the freedoms of expression, association, religion and belief of ethnic
Tibetans. We remain concerned about the arbitrary detention and treatment of political prisoners in Tibet and have raised the issue of Tibetans and other religious minorities in China in bilateral
meetings and on the international stage, including at the United Nations General Assembly.
Our government takes the issue of religious freedom in China and around the world very seriously. The freedoms of religious belief and practice are at the heart of our principled foreign policy. We do not hesitate to raise such issues as part of mutually respectful, mature dialogue between our two countries and encourage substantive dialogue between Chinese leaders and religious minorities.

On the posters, they call them “the burning martyrs”. Above photographs of the 11 Tibetan monks, former monks and nuns who have set fire to themselves this year in an unprecedented series of demonstrations in Sichuan, south-west China, the question asked is: “How many more?”

Their images line the streets of Dharamsala, the Indian Himalayan foothill town which is a refuge to the Tibetan community in exile. And with seven suicide protests in the last four weeks alone, the question is ever more urgent. Most of those who have set themselves on fire have died.

On Thursday monks who have recently made the perilous journey across the Himalayas to exile in India claimed leaflets were circulating in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in China listing the names of scores of young people ready to publicly burn themselves alive to protest against Chinese policies .

Senior monks from the Kirti monastery in Aba county, the centre of the protests so far, told the Guardian that they feared it was inevitable many more would die over the coming months.

“I am 100% sure there will be more. The situation is suffocating and there is no other way to demonstrate anger,” said Kanyang Tsering, 32, a monk from Kirti living in Dharamsala.

Tsering said the towns and villages surrounding Kirti monastery were under heavy security. “There are more soldiers and police than people. All over Tibet this is happening but in Kirti it is particularly bad.”

Kirti is not in the official Tibetan Autonomous Region, but exiles claim several Tibetan-dominated areas of south-west China as Tibet.

Film of the area taken by journalists from the AFP news agency last month showed a heavy presence of Chinese security authorities with patrols equipped with fire extinguishers to stop further attempts at self-immolation.

Until two years ago, when a monk burned himself to death in Aba county, the practice was unknown among Tibetan clerics. But since the start of a security clampdown provoked by the second case, in March this year, there has been a series of such suicide protests. Analysts have observed that they have taken place in locations that saw significant violence during unrest in March 2008.

Tibetan sources in Dharamsala also said two monks had been arrested in Kirti monastery in the last week and “taken away for unknown reasons”. Out of 2,500 monks at the start of the year, only a few hundred remained in the monastery, the sources said, with many reportedly detained or sent home.

The sources also claimed that 200 officials were now based in the monastery, monitoring life there and interfering with day-to-day religious practices.

They said officials had renewed efforts to enforce rules that all under-18s must attend the government school, threatening families with fines of 3,000 yuan (about £300) per child – a large sum relative to local incomes – if their children had become monks or were studying at monastery schools.

Police and government officials in Aba said they knew nothing of the detentions or other restrictions. The Chinese government has said Tibetans are free to practise their faith.

The self-immolations are, however, controversial even among Tibetans.

One long-term Tibetan resident of Dharamsala said that the “emotional reaction” of the community was “oh no, not another one” whenever news broke of a further suicide, even if “people understand why they are doing it”.

The Karmapa Lama, one of the most senior Tibetan religious figures, has urged Tibetans in China to find other ways to challenge Beijing’s policies.

Many see the 25-year-old Karmapa Lama, who is based near Dharamsala, as a possible successor to the Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader of exiled Tibetans.

“These desperate acts … are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live. But I request the people of Tibet to preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause of Tibet,” he said.

“In Buddhist teaching life is precious. To achieve anything worthwhile we need to preserve our lives.”

His position differs, however, from that taken by the Dalai Lama himself, who – though he has expressed deep sorrow at the deaths, which he blamed on Chinese policies – has not appealed to Tibetans to halt such acts. Tsering, the Kirti monk in Dharamsala, said that the act of suicide was shocking to most Buddhists but was justified by the “motivations” of those killing themselves. “They are doing it for the good of all people in the region, nothing else,” he said.

The Chinese government has accused the Dalai Lama of “terrorism in disguise” because he has led prayers for those who have set fire to themselves.

The Karmapa Lama said that “Tibetans are few in number, so every Tibetan life is of value to the cause of Tibet”.

The real source of the problem lay in the “desperate circumstances” facing Tibetans, and using force was counter-productive, he said.

Professor Robert Barnett, an expert on Tibet at the University of Columbia, said that China had seen other self-immolations, often in property disputes, without the kind of security clampdown that followed this year’s first death.

The reaction was “presumably because of the potential for even one Tibetan case to resonate with the entire [Tibetan] population”, he said.

“For several years the authorities have been piling pressure on the monastery – and on monasteries in general. It is not just that officials were over-zealous after March. This is the state reaping rewards for years of policy … [It may be] that officials are going further than Beijing expects, but that this is working on top of what is already a volcano.”

A foreign ministry official accused the Dalai Lama last month of inciting further cases by glorifying those who had set themselves on fire. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China, while he says he seeks meaningful autonomy.

The tight restrictions on the area mean that it is impossible to know exactly what has driven the Tibetans to kill themselves. In some cases witnesses reported them chanting slogans demanding an end to Chinese rule, however, and according to the friend of a monk who killed himself in March, the aim of the demonstrations is “to attract international attention to [the] struggle”.

The Karmapa Lama, one of the most senior religious figures from Tibet, has urged Tibetans in Tibet  to end a spate of self-immolations and find other ways to challenge Beijing’s policies.

Eleven monks, former monks and nuns have set fire to themselves in this year.

Many see the 25-year-old Karmapa as a possible successor to the Dalai Lama as the spiritual leader of exiled Tibetans. Both have expressed deep sorrow at the deaths and blamed Chinese policies for the self-immolations.

The Karmapa Lama praised the bravery and “pure motivation” of those involved, saying each case had filled his heart with pain.

“These desperate acts … are a cry against the injustice and repression under which they live,” he said.

But he added: “I request the people of Tibet to preserve their lives and find other, constructive ways to work for the cause of Tibet.”

“The situation is unbearably difficult, but in difficult situations we need greater courage and determination.”

Drawing on both his religion and the wider challenges facing Tibetans he added: “Most of those who have died have been very young. They had a long future ahead of them, an opportunity to contribute in ways that they have now foregone. In Buddhist teaching life is precious. To achieve anything worthwhile we need to preserve our lives. We Tibetans are few in number, so every Tibetan life is of value to the cause of Tibet.”

Until two years ago – when a monk died after setting fire to himself in Aba county, where most of the cases have occurred – the practice was unknown among clerics.

But since the start of a security clampdown provoked by the second case, in March this year, there has been a series of such immolations.

The Karmapa Lama said that, like the Dalai Lama, he believed that the real source of the problem lay in the “desperate circumstances” facing Tibetans and that using force was counterproductive.

“Repressive measures can never bring about unity and stability,” he said.

“I appeal to the Chinese leaders to heed Tibetans’ legitimate demands and to enter into meaningful dialogue with them instead of brutally trying to achieve their silence.”

Aba – and in particular its largest monastery, Kirti – remains under heavy security.

Exile sources in Dharamsala said two monks were arrested in the monastery in the last week and taken away for unknown reasons. The numbers have already dwindled from 2,500 monks at the start of the year to a few hundred, with many reportedly detained or sent home.

The sources also alleged that 200 officials were now based in the monastery, monitoring life there and interfering with day-to-day religious practices.

They said officials had renewed efforts to enforce rules that all under-18s must attend the government school, threatening families with fines of 3000 yuan per child – a large sum relative to local incomes – if their children had become monks or were studying at monastery schools.

Police and government officials in Aba said they knew nothing of the detentions or other restrictions.

The Chinese government has said Tibetans are free to practise their faith and accused the Dalai Lama of “terrorism in disguise” because he has led prayers for those who have set fire to themselves.

A foreign ministry official said last month that the spiritual leader was inciting further cases by glorifying those who had self-immolated. Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of seeking to split Tibet from China, while he says he seeks meaningful autonomy.

Separately, the Associated Press reported that a man in Tibetan monks’ robes set fire to himself in Kathmandu, Nepal on Thursday in protest at Chinese policies.

 

Thousands of people have turned out to greet the Dalai Lama on his first visit to Mongolia since 2002, despite Chinese government protests.

Tibet’s spiritual leader visited the country’s largest monastery in Ulan Bator, in a visit which the government stressed was purely religious. However the Chinese government accused the exiled leader of having a “splittist” agenda for his homeland. Mongolia is a majority Buddhist country with strong traditional ties to Tibet. The Dalai Lama arrived at the Gandantegcheling monastery traditionally dressed in saffron and maroon coloured robes, amid cheering crowds. He shook hands and touched people on the forehead as they held out their hands to receive his blessing. Later, his followers touched the chair on which he sat to deliver his 20-minute address, which focused on family values. The 1989 Nobel peace prize winner will spend a week in Mongolia where he will give several lectures and appear on TV. Government sources say a personal meeting with the president is likely.

‘Private visit’

The Chinese authorities issued a statement which said: “The Dalai Lama is not merely a religious figure, but a political exile who over a lengthy period has engaged in splittist activities and hurt national unity. “China is resolutely opposed to any country offering him a stage to engage in the above-mentioned activities.”

Foreign ministry officials in Mongolia stressed the visit had been organised by the Gandantegcheling monastery and not the government.

The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 amid an uprising against the Chinese military, has said he only wants limited autonomy for his homeland, but China believes he has separatist aims.

During his last visit to Mongolia in 2002, trains were held up at the Chinese border. This morning, an Air China flight bound for the Mongolian capital was delayed. Officials in Beijing said weather conditions were poor, despite sunshine in Ulan Bator