News on Tibet

[Mr. G]

March 10, 2012 is the anniversary of one of the most momentous days in Tibetan history; on this day in 1959 thousands of Tibetans in Tibet took to the streets of Lhasa to protest against Chinese rule and protect their leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

We demand a coordinated international response by world leaders to condemn China's repressive measures in the affected regions and across Tibet, and to institute multi-lateral mechanisms to advocate for the Tibetan people. Most immediately, we call on China to withdraw its security forces from Tibet areas now, and stop the ongoing harassment and torture of monks

[Mr. G]

Statement of Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay on the 53rd Tibetan National Uprising Day


Detailed statement, visit http://www.tibet.net/


The 53rd Anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day at the Tsulagkhang in Dharamsala, India, on 10 March 2012

[Adamantine]

There has been a virtual media blackout about this, so I wanted to spread the word here:
3 brave Tibetans, -one a monk as well as a tulku recognized by HH the Dalai Lama, and one an elderly man, have been observing a strict hunger strike since the first day of Losar (the Tibetan New Year) outside the United Nations in NYC. After 25 days their health is clearly deteriorating. They have 5 requests, the most poignant of which is for the United Nations to simply do what they are supposed to be committed to doing: investigating human rights violations among the countries included in it's fold-- in this case, China. So far, other than lip-service there has been no action. Please follow the link below and sign the petition, and Call the UN to Petition Them for the 5 Point Appeal for TIBET: Fred Kirumgi is the press secretary at this number 917.367.3431

The five points are:

1. Send a fact-finding delegation to assess the critical situation in Tibet

2. Pressure China to stop the undeclared martial law in Tibet

3. Pressure China to allow international media to investigate and report on the ongoing atrocities in Tibet

4. Pressure China to release all political prisoners including Gedun Choekyi Nyima and Tulku Tenzin Delek

5. Pressure China to stop the so-called patriotic re-education campaign in Tibet.

Follow this link:

http://tibettruth.com/2012/03/17/does-the-un-want-the-deaths-of-tibetan-activists-on-its-doorstep/

[Karma K Sonam]

I emailed the BBC here in the UK to ask why this had recieved no coverage. I've yet to have a reply.

[Adamantine]

I emailed the BBC here in the UK to ask why this had recieved no coverage. I've yet to have a reply.

My theory is that China most likely owns considerable stock in a number of major media outlets throughout the Western world. . .

Anyway, in terms of their influence at the UN check this Adbuster's article from 2009: http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/79/unrestricted_warfare.html

DEFT MOVES AT THE UN

The United Nations is becoming a powerful amplifier of the Chinese worldview. Unlike Russia, which comports itself with a swagger – enjoying its ability to overtly frustrate US and EU plans – China tends to opt for a conciliatory posture. It is prepared to veto things when it has to, but it prefers to hide behind others, and block things without getting the blame. In the run-up to the Iraq War, although China opposed military action, it allowed France, Germany and Russia to lead the international opposition to it. In 2005 when there was a debate about enlarging the United Nations Security Council, China encouraged African countries to demand their own seat with a veto which effectively killed off Japan’s bid for a permanent Security Council seat. Equally, Beijing has been willing to allow the Organization of Islamic States to take the lead in weakening the new Human Rights Council. This subtle diplomacy has been devastatingly effective – contributing to a massive fall in US influence: in 1995 the USA won 50.6 percent of the votes in the United Nations general assembly; by 2006, the figure had fallen to just 23.6 percent. On human rights, the results are even more dramatic: China’s win-rate has rocketed from 43 percent to 82 percent, while the USA’s has tumbled from 57 per cent to 22 percent. The New York Times’ UN correspondent James Traub has detected a paradigm shift in the United Nations’ operations: "it’s a truism that the Security Council can function only insofar as the United States lets it. The adage may soon be applied to China as well." Traub may be right. China’s capacity to influence the United Nations is increasing, and soon we may be complaining about Chinese behavior on big policy issues, rather than saying "if only the USA would act differently."

[Mr. G]

Tibetan Self Immolation Protest - Prime Minister Dr. Lobsang Sangay Speaks Out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l5-rBXTmB8

[Mr. G]

Reports identify Chinese grad student in hacks against Tibetans, others

Antivirus provider Trend Micro has released a research paper that links breaches against the computers of Tibetan activists and companies in Japan and India to a hacker in the Chinese underground.

An article published on Thursday in the New York Times later identified the intruder as a Chinese former graduate student who now "apparently" works for Tencent, China’s leading Internet portal company, according to online records cited by the news organization. It was one of the few times people investigating espionage-style malware attacks have put a public face on an alleged perpetrator.

Trend Micro researchers tracked the targeted campaign called "Luckycat," which initially was believed to target Indian military research institutions. They found that it also attacked military research institutes and aerospace, energy, engineering, and shipping companies in Japan, as well as Tibetan activists. The campaign began as early as June, 2011, and can be credited with at least 90 attacks that compromised 233 computers

Read More Here...

[Mr. G]

China Said to Detain Returning Tibetan Pilgrims

DHARAMSALA, India — Hundreds of Tibetans who attended an important Buddhist ceremony in January in India have been detained without charge by Chinese security officers on their return to Tibet, according to family members and friends living in exile in India, international human rights groups and officials with the Tibetan exile government. This is the first time that the Chinese authorities have detained large numbers of Tibetan pilgrims returning from the ceremony, held regularly in India among other places.

Read More Here...

[justsit]

Tibetan Hunger Strike Ends.

Fooled again.

[Paul]

BBC: Self-immolations shake Tibetan resolve

A series of self-immolations in protest against Chinese rule has shaken exiled Tibetans' faith in their spiritual leader and the path of non-violence.

At 76, the Dalai Lama has announced his retirement as a political leader, but retains his role as spiritual leader of some five million Tibetans.

But he has remained strangely quiet on the subject of the self-immolations - 32 of which have taken place in the past year alone.

"Now this is very, very sensitive political issue," he explains with due solemnity.


Exiled Tibetan monks are growing frustrated with the Dalai Lama's handling of self-immolations
"If I get involved in that, then the retirement from political power is meaningless. Whatever I say the Chinese government they immediately manipulate."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17745634

[Mr. G]

The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) has released a report examining the impact Chinese rule has had on Tibetan culture. The report, titled 60 Years of Chinese Misrule / Arguing Cultural Genocide in Tibet, was published on April 25, the birthday of Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima (who was taken in to custody by Chinese authorities in 1995 and has not been seen since).

In part, the report finds that Chinese authorities “have engaged in a consistent effort over 60-plus years to replace authentic, organic Tibetan culture with a state-approved and controlled version that comports with the ideological, political, and economic objectives of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Read More Here...

[phantom59]

An internal notice sent to all the prisons and detention centers of the Tibet Autonomous Region in March 2012, has barred all prisoners from meeting their friends and family

Most of the detention centres and prisons of the Tibet Autonomous Region are situated on the north west of Lhasa. These prisons were built rapidly in 1983 and was used ever since for secret detention of political prisoners and dissidents.
Many respected monks from the three main monasteries of Tibet were also reportedly arrested and detained in these prisons and tortured.

http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?&id=10750

[Mr. G]

Leaked video: Chinese Security Forces Conducted Night Raid and Seal-off Drepung Monastery and Ramoche in Lhasa Capital of Tibet in 2008

[plwk]

'I strongly wish self-immolations would stop soon'
Read more here

[plwk]

New Delhi: - Speaking at a press conference held Saturday (2 February) in New Delhi, Kirti Rinpoche, the head lama of Kirti monasteries, where more than 30 of the 99 self-immolations occurred, spoke out against the recent conviction of eight Tibetans for allegedly inciting self-immolations. Kirti Rinpoche, a former minister of the Tibetan administration in exile strongly condemned the harsh prison sentences for eight innocent Tibetans in his homeland in Ngaba county, eastern Tibet.

The six Tibetans were falsely accused of establishing links with outside groups and sending photographs of Tibetan self-immolators. Calling the sentences as unjustified and against international norms, Kirti Rinpoche said, the Chinese government is playing with the lives of innocent Tibetans and the world community should investigate what really is going on in Tibet.

He said, the eight Tibetans convicted are innocent, adding that the Chinese government have arrested them only because they are relatives or friends with the Tibetan self-immolators.

Kirti Rinpoche denied the charges leveled against the Tibetans and appealed the world media and international monitors to support their case and plead for justice.

Eight Tibetans including Lobsang Tsering who was given a death sentence with a two year reprieve, were pronounced with varying prison terms by two Chinese courts in Ngaba and Labrang on 31 January 2013.

When Rinpoche response to whyy are these self-immolation incidents concentrated in Ngaba area, he said from 1959 to 1985, he said, most of the Tibetans were driven into communes and forced to do hard labors. Many Tibetans met untimely deaths due to hard labor, starvation, suicide, torture etc.

"Although it is true that the Chinese government brought economic development, mainly infrastructure development, inside Tibet since 1985 but again, the question is who actually benefited from this development? Newly developed transport facilities, he said, assisted the Chinese government to extract resources from Tibet and facilitated in bringing in more Chinese immigrants into Tibet; newly constructed high raise buildings accommodated the government and military officials as well as elite community," Kirti Rinpoche added.

Rinpoche told the reporters that, "since Ngaba is on the frontline, Tibetans there had suffered for three generations: First during 1936-37 when the red armies of CPC undertook the Long March in Ngaba area they looted the monasteries and local grain-storages and compelled Tibetans of that generation to experience starvation for the first time in the region."

"Since 1959, his own generation had to undergo untold sufferings as a result of Chinese government's repressive policy; and third since 2008, the younger generation who are brought up under the Red Flag have to undergo so much repression and suppression that teenagers who undertook self-immolation were forced to choose death over living under such a condition," Rinpoche added.

Therefore, Rinpoche stated that, it is 'apparent that it is an outburst of wound that has been inflicted for three generations. Rinpoche did emphasize that the teenagers who undertook self-immolation have offered their lives to draw attention to the plight of the Tibetans inside Tibet from both the Chinese authorities in Beijing as well as from international community.'

More than 45 reporters and media-persons attended the press conference at Jantar Mantar hall in New Delhi, where the Tibetan People's solidarity campaign successfully concluded. (Watch a short video of the event.)

The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) based in Dharamsala, India on Friday 'categorically condemned the harsh prison sentences for eight Tibetans in eastern Tibet. It is unacceptable as the verdicts have been given out without due process and proper representation.'

Lobsang Kunchok, 40, of Kirti monastery and Lobsang Tsering, 31, from Ngaba, who received death sentence with a two-year reprieve and 10-year imprisonment respectively for allegedly inciting Tibetans to self-immolate by a Chinese court

The series of rushed sentences clearly show that Tibetans in Tibet are denied basic human rights. It is also evident that these are done in utter disregard to the Tibetan aspiration and deep anguish at the continuing self-immolations in Tibet. 99 Tibetans have self-immolated so far.

Tibet's administration in exile stated that it "holds the Chinese leadership solely responsible for the growing unrest and deteriorating situation in Tibet. We believe the world cannot remain a silent witness to this growing tragedy in Tibet."

[plwk]

Another tragic self-immolation has occurred in Tibet (Video)