Here goes a couple of articles and videos on the worsening condition in Amdo and Sichuan - with the repressive nature of the Chinese government, travel restrictions for foreigners and journalists, and the huge military presence, one wonders how much worse it really is.
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Tibetan monk sets fire to himself in latest anti-China protest
Nineteen-year-old monk is second person to self-immolate in three days and the 23rd to do so in the last year
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Reuters in Beijing
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 February 2012 11.06 EST
Article history
A Tibetan monk set fire to himself in south-west China on Monday, an overseas Tibetan rights group said, in the latest reported incident of anti-Chinese protest.
The Free Tibet group said the 19-year-old monk, Lobsang Gyatso, set fire to himself in Aba county, known as Ngaba in Tibetan, in Sichuan province.
"Chinese state security personnel extinguished the flames and forcibly removed him from the scene. Lobsang's whereabouts and wellbeing are unknown," the group said in an emailed statement.
Reuters was unable to reach government officials in Sichuan to request comment. The monk is the 23rd Tibetan to self-immolate in the last year. He is also the second Tibetan teenager to do so in the last three days in Aba.
China's Xinhua state news agency confirmed that a nun who set herself on fire on Saturday had died.
The self-immolations are a small but potentially destabilising challenge to China's regional policies, and the government has branded those who set themselves alight as terrorists.
Activists say China violently stamps out religious freedom and culture in Tibet, the mountainous region that has been under Chinese control since 1950.
China rejects criticism that it is eroding Tibetan culture and faith, saying its rule has ended serfdom and brought development to a backward region.
Protests by self-immolation have become more common in Tibet and in ethnic Tibetan regions of China and at least 15 Tibetans are believed to have died from their injuries. Exiled Tibetan leaders say they fear a crackdown in the region to coincide with the Tibetan new year on 22 February.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has blamed the self-immolations on "cultural genocide" by the Chinese but he has not directly called for them to stop.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tibet Justice Center on Tibet; Links to write to President O. and your Representatives
Board of Directors
Prof. Robert D. Sloane, Chair Nima R.T. Binara, Esq.
Dennis Cusack, Esq.
John Isom
Joshua Levenberg, Esq. Wangchuk Shakabpa, Esq. Yodon Thonden, Esq.
2138, Year of the Iron Rabbit
26 January 2012
Chinese Forces Fire on Unarmed Tibetans,
Escalating Crackdown in Eastern Tibet
TJC Joins Efforts to Intensify Multilateral Pressure on China as
Tibetans Continue to Self-Immolate for Freedom
Tibet Justice Center has joined 184 Tibet-advocacy NGOs around the world today to strongly condemn China's policies and continued crackdown in Tibet, which have provoked an unprecedented wave of self-immolations by Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople. Each individual who has carried out the act of self-immolation has demanded freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama.
Palden Choetso, a 35-year-old Buddhist nun who self-immolated on 3 November 2011, in Eastern Tibet.
TJC has learned that on 23 January Tibetans in Drango, Kardze, eastern Tibet, began demonstrating, possibly following the arrests of Tibetans suspected of distributing political leaflets in the area. Chinese security forces opened fire and used tear gas on large numbers of Tibetans, many of who are displaced farmers and nomads. Protestors carried Tibetans flags and shouted slogans for Tibetan freedom as they marched towards a government office. A Tibetan named Yonten is reported to have been killed and a number of others injured.
These events follow an incident in Ngaba, Eastern Tibet, on 14 January, when Chinese security forces severely beat two Tibetans and shot at least two others after layman Lobsang Jamyang self-immolated. Tibetans became distressed and angry after witnessing Chinese police beating Lobsang Jamyang; they began to protest and attempted to reclaim the dying man, but police beat and opened fire on some in the crowd. There have been unconfirmed reports that a woman was killed and, as in Drango, those injured are apparently not seeking medical help for fear of arrest.
To date there have been 17 self-immolations in Tibet since February 2009, and four since the start of 2012. At least 12 of these self-immolations have been fatal. One of these, 42-year old respected monk Lama Sopa who set light to himself and died on 8 January, left behind a tape-recording in which he paid his respects to those who had self-immolated before him. He said, “Tibet’s future as a glorious country depends on the efforts of these heroes and heroines and all of you united as one." He offered his life for the “well-being of Tibet’s six million people and especially of all high lamas, headed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
Since demonstrations began occurring across the Tibetan Plateau in 2008 much of the formerly independent nation has undergone repeated lock-down and been flooded with armed troops, virtually closed off from the world. Many monasteries have been all but shut down and Tibetans are routinely harassed by the authorities in the streets, in their workplaces and in their homes.
Tibetans across the Tibetan Plateau are now facing yet another cut-off from the outside world, beginning mid-February through March, according to reports. The ban encompasses two important events; the Tibetan New Year, from February 22-24 and the Tibetan national uprising day, which is commemorated on March 10. Three years ago, demonstrations on March 10, 2008 had led to the biggest ever pan-Tibet uprisings seen for decades.
Tibet Justice Center joins with Tibetans in Tibet and around the world to vehemently condemn China's use of force against unarmed Tibetan protestors. We urge China to cease all extralegal actions and policies that are contributing to unrest and self-immolations in Tibet, and to respond positively to the calls of Tibetans for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama.
We further urge governments to vigorously pursue actions in appropriate international forums that will convince the government of the People’s Republic of China on the severity of the situation in Tibet and on the legitimate concerns of the inter-national community that Tibetans enjoy the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants to which China is a party.
Whom to Contact
In the United States you can contact President Obama and Members of Congress. You can write to President Obama here – http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments – to members of the US Senate here – http://www.senate.gov/ (click at upper right to find your senator) – and to members of the US House of Representatives here – http://www.house.gov/ (at upper right, enter your zip code and click to find your representative).
You can contact your country's embassy in Beijing directly and ensure they are aware of these demands. Ask them to seek full and detailed information about casualties and obtain assurances that those needing medical attention receive it without fear of arrest.
For a list of embassies, see http://www.chinahighlights.com/embassy/embassy-in-china/beijing/.
Finally, you can all local government offices in the affected regions and tell them the world is watching their violent response to Tibetan protests. Contact information for offices in Ngaba, Golog and Drango (Luhuo) can be found at http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/article.php?id=1235.
Suggested Text
Suggested Email Subject: Enough! It's Time to Condemn China's Use of Force Against Unarmed Tibetan Protesters
Dear Person's Name Here :
China continues to intensify its crackdown in Tibet, which has provoked an unprecedented wave of self-immolations by Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople. Each individual who has carried out the act of self-immolation has demanded freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama.
Person's Name Here , I urge you to condemn China's use of force against unarmed Tibetan protestors, and further urge that China cease all extralegal actions and policies that are contributing to unrest and self-immolations in Tibet, and to respond positively to the calls of Tibetans for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans that have been detained should be released, and those injured be able to obtain medical help without fear of arrest.
Your Country’s Name Here must vigorously pursue actions in appropriate international forums that will focus the attention of the government of the People’s Republic of China on the severity of the situation in Tibet, and on the legitimate concerns of the international community that Tibetans enjoy the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants to which China is a party.
Person's Name Here , please call on China to cease all actions and policies that are contributing to the tensions, unrest and self-immolations in Tibet; to allow peaceful protest and to respond positively to the calls of Tibetans for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. Finally, I urge you to send diplomats to affected Tibetan areas, and demand from China assurances that foreign journalists will be allowed unfettered access to the Tibet Autonomous Region (including during the closure of the TAR from late February to mid-March) and Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan.
Sincerely,
Prof. Robert D. Sloane, Chair Nima R.T. Binara, Esq.
Dennis Cusack, Esq.
John Isom
Joshua Levenberg, Esq. Wangchuk Shakabpa, Esq. Yodon Thonden, Esq.
2138, Year of the Iron Rabbit
26 January 2012
Chinese Forces Fire on Unarmed Tibetans,
Escalating Crackdown in Eastern Tibet
TJC Joins Efforts to Intensify Multilateral Pressure on China as
Tibetans Continue to Self-Immolate for Freedom
Tibet Justice Center has joined 184 Tibet-advocacy NGOs around the world today to strongly condemn China's policies and continued crackdown in Tibet, which have provoked an unprecedented wave of self-immolations by Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople. Each individual who has carried out the act of self-immolation has demanded freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama.
Palden Choetso, a 35-year-old Buddhist nun who self-immolated on 3 November 2011, in Eastern Tibet.
TJC has learned that on 23 January Tibetans in Drango, Kardze, eastern Tibet, began demonstrating, possibly following the arrests of Tibetans suspected of distributing political leaflets in the area. Chinese security forces opened fire and used tear gas on large numbers of Tibetans, many of who are displaced farmers and nomads. Protestors carried Tibetans flags and shouted slogans for Tibetan freedom as they marched towards a government office. A Tibetan named Yonten is reported to have been killed and a number of others injured.
These events follow an incident in Ngaba, Eastern Tibet, on 14 January, when Chinese security forces severely beat two Tibetans and shot at least two others after layman Lobsang Jamyang self-immolated. Tibetans became distressed and angry after witnessing Chinese police beating Lobsang Jamyang; they began to protest and attempted to reclaim the dying man, but police beat and opened fire on some in the crowd. There have been unconfirmed reports that a woman was killed and, as in Drango, those injured are apparently not seeking medical help for fear of arrest.
To date there have been 17 self-immolations in Tibet since February 2009, and four since the start of 2012. At least 12 of these self-immolations have been fatal. One of these, 42-year old respected monk Lama Sopa who set light to himself and died on 8 January, left behind a tape-recording in which he paid his respects to those who had self-immolated before him. He said, “Tibet’s future as a glorious country depends on the efforts of these heroes and heroines and all of you united as one." He offered his life for the “well-being of Tibet’s six million people and especially of all high lamas, headed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama."
Since demonstrations began occurring across the Tibetan Plateau in 2008 much of the formerly independent nation has undergone repeated lock-down and been flooded with armed troops, virtually closed off from the world. Many monasteries have been all but shut down and Tibetans are routinely harassed by the authorities in the streets, in their workplaces and in their homes.
Tibetans across the Tibetan Plateau are now facing yet another cut-off from the outside world, beginning mid-February through March, according to reports. The ban encompasses two important events; the Tibetan New Year, from February 22-24 and the Tibetan national uprising day, which is commemorated on March 10. Three years ago, demonstrations on March 10, 2008 had led to the biggest ever pan-Tibet uprisings seen for decades.
Tibet Justice Center joins with Tibetans in Tibet and around the world to vehemently condemn China's use of force against unarmed Tibetan protestors. We urge China to cease all extralegal actions and policies that are contributing to unrest and self-immolations in Tibet, and to respond positively to the calls of Tibetans for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama.
We further urge governments to vigorously pursue actions in appropriate international forums that will convince the government of the People’s Republic of China on the severity of the situation in Tibet and on the legitimate concerns of the inter-national community that Tibetans enjoy the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants to which China is a party.
Whom to Contact
In the United States you can contact President Obama and Members of Congress. You can write to President Obama here – http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments – to members of the US Senate here – http://www.senate.gov/ (click at upper right to find your senator) – and to members of the US House of Representatives here – http://www.house.gov/ (at upper right, enter your zip code and click to find your representative).
You can contact your country's embassy in Beijing directly and ensure they are aware of these demands. Ask them to seek full and detailed information about casualties and obtain assurances that those needing medical attention receive it without fear of arrest.
For a list of embassies, see http://www.chinahighlights.com/embassy/embassy-in-china/beijing/.
Finally, you can all local government offices in the affected regions and tell them the world is watching their violent response to Tibetan protests. Contact information for offices in Ngaba, Golog and Drango (Luhuo) can be found at http://www.studentsforafreetibet.org/article.php?id=1235.
Suggested Text
Suggested Email Subject: Enough! It's Time to Condemn China's Use of Force Against Unarmed Tibetan Protesters
Dear Person's Name Here :
China continues to intensify its crackdown in Tibet, which has provoked an unprecedented wave of self-immolations by Tibetan monks, nuns and laypeople. Each individual who has carried out the act of self-immolation has demanded freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama.
Person's Name Here , I urge you to condemn China's use of force against unarmed Tibetan protestors, and further urge that China cease all extralegal actions and policies that are contributing to unrest and self-immolations in Tibet, and to respond positively to the calls of Tibetans for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. Tibetans that have been detained should be released, and those injured be able to obtain medical help without fear of arrest.
Your Country’s Name Here must vigorously pursue actions in appropriate international forums that will focus the attention of the government of the People’s Republic of China on the severity of the situation in Tibet, and on the legitimate concerns of the international community that Tibetans enjoy the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants to which China is a party.
Person's Name Here , please call on China to cease all actions and policies that are contributing to the tensions, unrest and self-immolations in Tibet; to allow peaceful protest and to respond positively to the calls of Tibetans for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama. Finally, I urge you to send diplomats to affected Tibetan areas, and demand from China assurances that foreign journalists will be allowed unfettered access to the Tibet Autonomous Region (including during the closure of the TAR from late February to mid-March) and Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan.
Sincerely,
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
US may be inching towards more concrete action on Tibetan isssues...
US 'concerned' over Tibetan self-immolations
AFP – 20 hrs ago....
.
The United States said Monday it was "seriously concerned" over self-immolations by Tibetan monks, adding they represent deep frustration over curbs on religious freedom in China.
"We're seriously concerned by reports that three more Tibetans have self-immolated over the past few days," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding Washington has consistently raised the issue with Beijing.
State media said a Tibetan monk died after setting himself on fire in Qinghai in northwest China, taking to 15 the number of people who have set themselves on fire in Tibetan areas in less than a year in apparent protest.
It was the first time the Tibetan-inhabited province has been hit by such a death. Most self-immolations have taken place in neighboring Sichuan province, in what rights groups say are protests against perceived religious repression.
"These actions clearly represent... enormous anger, enormous frustration with regard to the severe restrictions on human rights, including religious freedom, inside China," Nuland said, referring to the wave of self-immolations.
"And we have called the Chinese government policies counterproductive," she said.
The US have also "urged the Chinese government to have a productive dialogue, to loosen up in Tibet and allow journalists and diplomats and other observers to report accurately, and to respect the human rights of all of their citizens," she said.
The State Department issued a similar statement in October.
During a visit to Honolulu for an Asia-Pacific summit in November, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed alarm over the wave of self-immolations.
The Tibetan government-in-exile based in India says that it does not encourage self-immolations but understands the frustrations behind them.
Thousands of Tibetans in India have attended protests or prayers to criticize China's rule of the predominantly Buddhist region.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for safety in India in 1959. He met in July with US President Barack Obama, angering China.
..
AFP – 20 hrs ago....
.
The United States said Monday it was "seriously concerned" over self-immolations by Tibetan monks, adding they represent deep frustration over curbs on religious freedom in China.
"We're seriously concerned by reports that three more Tibetans have self-immolated over the past few days," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said, adding Washington has consistently raised the issue with Beijing.
State media said a Tibetan monk died after setting himself on fire in Qinghai in northwest China, taking to 15 the number of people who have set themselves on fire in Tibetan areas in less than a year in apparent protest.
It was the first time the Tibetan-inhabited province has been hit by such a death. Most self-immolations have taken place in neighboring Sichuan province, in what rights groups say are protests against perceived religious repression.
"These actions clearly represent... enormous anger, enormous frustration with regard to the severe restrictions on human rights, including religious freedom, inside China," Nuland said, referring to the wave of self-immolations.
"And we have called the Chinese government policies counterproductive," she said.
The US have also "urged the Chinese government to have a productive dialogue, to loosen up in Tibet and allow journalists and diplomats and other observers to report accurately, and to respect the human rights of all of their citizens," she said.
The State Department issued a similar statement in October.
During a visit to Honolulu for an Asia-Pacific summit in November, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed alarm over the wave of self-immolations.
The Tibetan government-in-exile based in India says that it does not encourage self-immolations but understands the frustrations behind them.
Thousands of Tibetans in India have attended protests or prayers to criticize China's rule of the predominantly Buddhist region.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet for safety in India in 1959. He met in July with US President Barack Obama, angering China.
..
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Krakauer article from The New Yorker
News Desk
Notes on Washington and the world by the staff of The New Yorker.
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Main
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December 28, 2011
Why Is Nepal Cracking Down on Tibetan Refugees?
Posted by Jon Krakauer
Friction between Chinese authorities and the five million Tibetans who live within the borders of China is on the rise, and nowhere is the strife more apparent than in the neighboring nation of Nepal. Last month in Kathmandu, I spoke with five young Tibetans who had just journeyed across the Himalayas to escape draconian policies imposed by the Beijing government in their homeland. More than six hundred Tibetans have fled to Nepal this year, even though it’s a dangerous undertaking. Asylum seekers have lost limbs to frostbite, perished in blizzards, and been arrested by Chinese border patrols. Some have been shot. The youngest of the refugees I met was a fourteen-year-old girl. She was aware of the hazards but lit out for the border anyway, hoping that if she made it into Nepal she’d find safe passage to India, where in 1959 the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government-in-exile, and where more than a hundred thousand Tibetan refugees presently reside.
According to an informal arrangement hammered out twenty-two years ago between the government of Nepal and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (U.N.H.C.R.), Kathmandu pledged to allow Tibetans to travel through Nepal en route to India, and to facilitate their transit. Lately, however, this established protocol has been ignored with increasing frequency. Nepalese police have been apprehending Tibetans far inside Nepal, robbing them, and then returning them to Tibet at gunpoint, where they are typically imprisoned and not uncommonly tortured by the Chinese. According to “Tibet’s Stateless Nationals,” a hundred-and-thirty-three-page report issued by the Tibet Justice Center, a relatively small number of these Tibetans have been beaten, raped, and/or shot by the Nepalese police—abuses confirmed by several refugees with whom I spoke during my recent visit to Nepal.
These violations of the U.N.H.C.R. agreement and international law were bought and paid for by Beijing. According to a confidential U.S. embassy cable published by WikiLeaks in 2010, China “rewards [Nepalese forces] by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China.” Another cable stated, “Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols … and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal.”
With an annual per capita income of $645—less than two dollars a day—Nepal is desperate for whatever alms China offers, never mind the strings attached. In 2009, Beijing promised to promote tourism to Nepal, invest in major Nepalese hydropower projects, and increase its financial assistance by approximately eighteen million dollars annually. In return, Kathmandu pledged to endorse Beijing’s “one-China policy” (which decrees that both Taiwan and Tibet are “inalienable parts of Chinese territory”) and to prohibit “anti-Chinese activities” within Nepal. Activities deemed unacceptable include gathering for prayers on the birthday of the Dalai Lama and displaying the Tibetan flag. On November 10th, after a Buddhist monk in Kathmandu doused his robes with kerosene and ignited himself to protest Chinese thuggery, a spokesman for Nepal’s Home Ministry declared that the government was considering revoking “all the rights granted to Tibetans residing in Nepal,” despite the fact that Nepal’s constitution guarantees such rights as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to all persons, and Nepal’s Supreme Court has ruled that restricting Tibetans’ civil rights is illegal.
An estimated twenty thousand Tibetan refugees now live in Nepal, mostly in settlements established after the 1959 invasion of Lhasa by the People’s Liberation Army prompted many Tibetans to flee. For the next thirty years, Nepal welcomed Tibetans, and every Tibetan in the country was issued a “refugee identity certificate,” known as an “R.C.” But Kathmandu stopped accepting additional Tibetan refugees in 1989, ceding to pressure from Beijing, and that pressure has been intensifying. Since 1998, the Nepalese government has refused to issue R.C.s to Tibetans, including children born in Nepal to refugee parents who’ve been residing in the country for decades.
The upshot is that a generation of Tibetans who’ve spent their entire lives in Nepal don’t exist as far as the Nepalese bureaucracy is concerned. Lacking R.C.s, these young refugees cannot obtain driver’s licenses, apply for jobs, or open bank accounts. It is difficult or impossible for them to attend Nepalese schools. Without an R.C., a Tibetan has no legal right to remain in Nepal and may be deported to China at any time—yet Kathmandu refuses to provide these refugees with travel documents that would allow them to immigrate to nations such as the U.S., Canada, and India, where they have been offered asylum.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was slated to travel to Kathmandu on December 19th for an official state visit, leading a hundred-and-one-member delegation from Beijing. Wen was expected to sign a commitment to provide Nepal with a five-billion-dollar line of credit—in return for promises from Nepal to clamp down even harder on Tibetan refugees. At the last minute, however, Beijing postponed the visit indefinitely; according to an official quoted by AFP, the delay had to do with security concerns, specifically the “possibility of protests from Tibetan exiles.” The Chinese ambassador to Kathmandu, Yang Houlan, had previously warned that “Nepal is turning into a playground for anti-China activities,” prompting speculation that Beijing is using the postponement of Wen’s visit as a cudgel to discourage Nepal from softening its policies toward Tibetan refugees.
At a refugee settlement outside the city of Pokhara, a Tibetan in his twenties proposed a simple step to dial down the tension: “If the government is worried about Tibetans threatening Nepal’s security, give us R.C.s.” Such a move would be win-win for all parties, he suggested, because it would allow the authorities to “know what we are doing, and we can get education and jobs.”
“How would it harm China for me to have an identity card?” a Tibetan teen-ager wondered at another refugee settlement. “I was born in Nepal. I’m seventeen years old. All I want is the opportunity for education and a job. How does denying me such things help anyone?”
He has a point. Nepal’s bullying of its Tibetan community is more likely to incite unrest inside China than to dampen it. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly and unequivocally stated that he and his followers “do not seek independence for Tibet.” But few Chinese trust such assurances from a man their leaders have long characterized as a conniving monster. Beijing is adamant that granting concessions to any Tibetans, even Tibetans in exile, poses a dire threat. The great fear is that Tibetan dissent will inflame other ethnic groups inside China, initiating a chain reaction that culminates in the People’s Republic suffering the same fate as the Soviet Union. Given Chinese perceptions of what’s at stake, and Beijing’s ability to purchase apparently limitless influence in Kathmandu, the future doesn’t look bright for Tibetan youth now coming of age in Nepal.
Photograph by Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images.
.
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Nepal;
Tibet
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I would like to see these alleged statements by the US lauding the Nepalese government's handling the Tibetan situation in Nepal. Earlier this year, in the "2010 Human Rights Report) released by the State Department, the report condemned the Nepalese Government for confirmed reports of the Nepalese government returning Tibetans to Chinese occupied Tibet. What sort of government returns refugees to the country they are fleeing from, fully aware of what will happen to them once they are in the hands of such repressive authorities? The Maoists and UPN-CML reneged on the "Gentleman's Agreement" in 2008, as cited in the article "Nepal Deporting Tibetans to China Secretly" in the "Indian Defense Review" issue of April 15, 2011, or read more about this and other articles concerning Nepal and Tibet at dwhammerblog.blogspot.com.
Posted 12/29/2011, 7:26:24pm by dwh
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Oh please "JRINALDI" you are too much of an apologist. I have no view on Tibetan independence, but the fact that Nepalese police are robbing and raping Tibetans is a bit over-the-top no? Or is that the Nepalese police are only raping 30% of the refugees, while the Chinese government is demanding that they rob and rape 100%?
Posted 12/29/2011, 2:33:22pm by PxP
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No, the UN Agreement has stipulated that Tibetans be allowed to transit through Nepal to India. The sticking point is that Nepal does not, in its constitution, recognize refugees as a valid, existential and political status. From what I have read the US Government has not indicated that they feel that the Nepalese government is doing a "good" job, and have, in fact, registered deep concern over the treatment of Tibetan refugees in Nepal. I live part time in Nepal, and have assisted Tibetan refugees at the Tarshi Palkhiel Refugee Camp outside of Pokhara, and I can attest from personal experience that what Mr. Krakauer states here is spot on. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, offered a few years ago to send refugees back to Tibet, a violation of many UN Human Rights agreements that the Nepalese government has signed on to. There have been videos taken of Chinese border guards shooting Tibetan refugees attempting to cross into Nepal in the Himalaya. Nepalese police brutalized pro-Tibet protesters during the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Kathmandu and Lalitpur. I helped a Tibetan family relocate from the refugee camp, to the US, and on to Canada, and though the husband, like many Tibetans of his generation, was born in Nepal in the refugee camp (he is 43 now), and had the right to residency status, he was never granted this status, and the government let it be known that it would cost thousands of dollars to have his status readjusted, on top of the regular fees. Almost everyone of his generation in the camp, and outside of it, born in exile in Nepal, cannot get their ID cards, and therefor exist in legal limbo: they cannot work, own land, even travel. Really, the list of crimes and prejudicial acts against Tibetans, legally residing in the country, and those of Tibetan origins, such as the Tamang, Sherpas, and others, is too long to reiterate. But the assertion that China, through the Maoist Party in Nepal, is trying to control Nepal's domestic policy, is undeniable. The International Campaign for Tibet has had its Nepal workforce team detained and beaten up by Chinese government squads IN Nepal. Why should the US worry about irritating a "volatile" China, when their policy towards Tibet, and those who are in a position to help Tibetans, has been perfectly clear for the past 60 years - exterminate Tibet. I suspect that part of China's contempt for Nepal's right to sovereignity stems from the fact that the Nepalese Government allowed the CIA to train Khampa guerillas, and launch attacks, from Mustang, a semi-autonomous region in Nepal, up until Nixon signed detente with Mao, then disbanded the entire operation, but now I'm getting a little off track. In short, China cries foul when it deems that foreign powers are meddling in its internal affairs. Yet it is doing the same here to Nepal, but some posters condemn Americans for "irritating" the Chinese - is this our biggest concern in foreign affairs? Maybe himalayanaid.org receives significant funding from the Chinese.
Posted 12/29/2011, 12:55:41pm by dwh
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Your assessment is fundamentally incorrect in one key aspect: The UN agreement, as it is, simply stipulates that transiting Tibetans that are captured by Nepali forces in Nepal are to be turned over to the UNHCR for a determination of status. It is tremendously irresponsible and dangerous to put forward the idea that Nepal must somehow guarantee safe passage for Tibetans. Such false assertions irritate a volatile China which in turn pressures Nepal to increase its oppression of Tibetans. It would certainly have benefited your level of accuracy here if you would have done a bit of research on the U.S. position regarding this issue as offered by Ambassador Scott DeLisi. You would have uncovered the fact that the U.S. believes Nepal is doing a good job in handling Tibetans considering the tremendous pressures exerted upon their efforts by a China that seeks a more repressive treatment. James Rinaldi himalayanaid.org
Posted 12/28/2011, 8:32:34pm by JRinaldi
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Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/why-is-nepal-cracking-down-on-tibetan-refugees.html#ixzz1hyShjz00
Notes on Washington and the world by the staff of The New Yorker.
.
« Ben Nelson and the Politics of Pork and Polarization
Main
To-Do List: Betrayal in the Bachmann Camp? »
December 28, 2011
Why Is Nepal Cracking Down on Tibetan Refugees?
Posted by Jon Krakauer
Friction between Chinese authorities and the five million Tibetans who live within the borders of China is on the rise, and nowhere is the strife more apparent than in the neighboring nation of Nepal. Last month in Kathmandu, I spoke with five young Tibetans who had just journeyed across the Himalayas to escape draconian policies imposed by the Beijing government in their homeland. More than six hundred Tibetans have fled to Nepal this year, even though it’s a dangerous undertaking. Asylum seekers have lost limbs to frostbite, perished in blizzards, and been arrested by Chinese border patrols. Some have been shot. The youngest of the refugees I met was a fourteen-year-old girl. She was aware of the hazards but lit out for the border anyway, hoping that if she made it into Nepal she’d find safe passage to India, where in 1959 the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan government-in-exile, and where more than a hundred thousand Tibetan refugees presently reside.
According to an informal arrangement hammered out twenty-two years ago between the government of Nepal and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (U.N.H.C.R.), Kathmandu pledged to allow Tibetans to travel through Nepal en route to India, and to facilitate their transit. Lately, however, this established protocol has been ignored with increasing frequency. Nepalese police have been apprehending Tibetans far inside Nepal, robbing them, and then returning them to Tibet at gunpoint, where they are typically imprisoned and not uncommonly tortured by the Chinese. According to “Tibet’s Stateless Nationals,” a hundred-and-thirty-three-page report issued by the Tibet Justice Center, a relatively small number of these Tibetans have been beaten, raped, and/or shot by the Nepalese police—abuses confirmed by several refugees with whom I spoke during my recent visit to Nepal.
These violations of the U.N.H.C.R. agreement and international law were bought and paid for by Beijing. According to a confidential U.S. embassy cable published by WikiLeaks in 2010, China “rewards [Nepalese forces] by providing financial incentives to officers who hand over Tibetans attempting to exit China.” Another cable stated, “Beijing has asked Kathmandu to step up patrols … and make it more difficult for Tibetans to enter Nepal.”
With an annual per capita income of $645—less than two dollars a day—Nepal is desperate for whatever alms China offers, never mind the strings attached. In 2009, Beijing promised to promote tourism to Nepal, invest in major Nepalese hydropower projects, and increase its financial assistance by approximately eighteen million dollars annually. In return, Kathmandu pledged to endorse Beijing’s “one-China policy” (which decrees that both Taiwan and Tibet are “inalienable parts of Chinese territory”) and to prohibit “anti-Chinese activities” within Nepal. Activities deemed unacceptable include gathering for prayers on the birthday of the Dalai Lama and displaying the Tibetan flag. On November 10th, after a Buddhist monk in Kathmandu doused his robes with kerosene and ignited himself to protest Chinese thuggery, a spokesman for Nepal’s Home Ministry declared that the government was considering revoking “all the rights granted to Tibetans residing in Nepal,” despite the fact that Nepal’s constitution guarantees such rights as freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to all persons, and Nepal’s Supreme Court has ruled that restricting Tibetans’ civil rights is illegal.
An estimated twenty thousand Tibetan refugees now live in Nepal, mostly in settlements established after the 1959 invasion of Lhasa by the People’s Liberation Army prompted many Tibetans to flee. For the next thirty years, Nepal welcomed Tibetans, and every Tibetan in the country was issued a “refugee identity certificate,” known as an “R.C.” But Kathmandu stopped accepting additional Tibetan refugees in 1989, ceding to pressure from Beijing, and that pressure has been intensifying. Since 1998, the Nepalese government has refused to issue R.C.s to Tibetans, including children born in Nepal to refugee parents who’ve been residing in the country for decades.
The upshot is that a generation of Tibetans who’ve spent their entire lives in Nepal don’t exist as far as the Nepalese bureaucracy is concerned. Lacking R.C.s, these young refugees cannot obtain driver’s licenses, apply for jobs, or open bank accounts. It is difficult or impossible for them to attend Nepalese schools. Without an R.C., a Tibetan has no legal right to remain in Nepal and may be deported to China at any time—yet Kathmandu refuses to provide these refugees with travel documents that would allow them to immigrate to nations such as the U.S., Canada, and India, where they have been offered asylum.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was slated to travel to Kathmandu on December 19th for an official state visit, leading a hundred-and-one-member delegation from Beijing. Wen was expected to sign a commitment to provide Nepal with a five-billion-dollar line of credit—in return for promises from Nepal to clamp down even harder on Tibetan refugees. At the last minute, however, Beijing postponed the visit indefinitely; according to an official quoted by AFP, the delay had to do with security concerns, specifically the “possibility of protests from Tibetan exiles.” The Chinese ambassador to Kathmandu, Yang Houlan, had previously warned that “Nepal is turning into a playground for anti-China activities,” prompting speculation that Beijing is using the postponement of Wen’s visit as a cudgel to discourage Nepal from softening its policies toward Tibetan refugees.
At a refugee settlement outside the city of Pokhara, a Tibetan in his twenties proposed a simple step to dial down the tension: “If the government is worried about Tibetans threatening Nepal’s security, give us R.C.s.” Such a move would be win-win for all parties, he suggested, because it would allow the authorities to “know what we are doing, and we can get education and jobs.”
“How would it harm China for me to have an identity card?” a Tibetan teen-ager wondered at another refugee settlement. “I was born in Nepal. I’m seventeen years old. All I want is the opportunity for education and a job. How does denying me such things help anyone?”
He has a point. Nepal’s bullying of its Tibetan community is more likely to incite unrest inside China than to dampen it. The Dalai Lama has repeatedly and unequivocally stated that he and his followers “do not seek independence for Tibet.” But few Chinese trust such assurances from a man their leaders have long characterized as a conniving monster. Beijing is adamant that granting concessions to any Tibetans, even Tibetans in exile, poses a dire threat. The great fear is that Tibetan dissent will inflame other ethnic groups inside China, initiating a chain reaction that culminates in the People’s Republic suffering the same fate as the Soviet Union. Given Chinese perceptions of what’s at stake, and Beijing’s ability to purchase apparently limitless influence in Kathmandu, the future doesn’t look bright for Tibetan youth now coming of age in Nepal.
Photograph by Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images.
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Keywords
China;
Nepal;
Tibet
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I would like to see these alleged statements by the US lauding the Nepalese government's handling the Tibetan situation in Nepal. Earlier this year, in the "2010 Human Rights Report) released by the State Department, the report condemned the Nepalese Government for confirmed reports of the Nepalese government returning Tibetans to Chinese occupied Tibet. What sort of government returns refugees to the country they are fleeing from, fully aware of what will happen to them once they are in the hands of such repressive authorities? The Maoists and UPN-CML reneged on the "Gentleman's Agreement" in 2008, as cited in the article "Nepal Deporting Tibetans to China Secretly" in the "Indian Defense Review" issue of April 15, 2011, or read more about this and other articles concerning Nepal and Tibet at dwhammerblog.blogspot.com.
Posted 12/29/2011, 7:26:24pm by dwh
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Oh please "JRINALDI" you are too much of an apologist. I have no view on Tibetan independence, but the fact that Nepalese police are robbing and raping Tibetans is a bit over-the-top no? Or is that the Nepalese police are only raping 30% of the refugees, while the Chinese government is demanding that they rob and rape 100%?
Posted 12/29/2011, 2:33:22pm by PxP
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No, the UN Agreement has stipulated that Tibetans be allowed to transit through Nepal to India. The sticking point is that Nepal does not, in its constitution, recognize refugees as a valid, existential and political status. From what I have read the US Government has not indicated that they feel that the Nepalese government is doing a "good" job, and have, in fact, registered deep concern over the treatment of Tibetan refugees in Nepal. I live part time in Nepal, and have assisted Tibetan refugees at the Tarshi Palkhiel Refugee Camp outside of Pokhara, and I can attest from personal experience that what Mr. Krakauer states here is spot on. Prachanda, the Maoist leader, offered a few years ago to send refugees back to Tibet, a violation of many UN Human Rights agreements that the Nepalese government has signed on to. There have been videos taken of Chinese border guards shooting Tibetan refugees attempting to cross into Nepal in the Himalaya. Nepalese police brutalized pro-Tibet protesters during the run up to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 in Kathmandu and Lalitpur. I helped a Tibetan family relocate from the refugee camp, to the US, and on to Canada, and though the husband, like many Tibetans of his generation, was born in Nepal in the refugee camp (he is 43 now), and had the right to residency status, he was never granted this status, and the government let it be known that it would cost thousands of dollars to have his status readjusted, on top of the regular fees. Almost everyone of his generation in the camp, and outside of it, born in exile in Nepal, cannot get their ID cards, and therefor exist in legal limbo: they cannot work, own land, even travel. Really, the list of crimes and prejudicial acts against Tibetans, legally residing in the country, and those of Tibetan origins, such as the Tamang, Sherpas, and others, is too long to reiterate. But the assertion that China, through the Maoist Party in Nepal, is trying to control Nepal's domestic policy, is undeniable. The International Campaign for Tibet has had its Nepal workforce team detained and beaten up by Chinese government squads IN Nepal. Why should the US worry about irritating a "volatile" China, when their policy towards Tibet, and those who are in a position to help Tibetans, has been perfectly clear for the past 60 years - exterminate Tibet. I suspect that part of China's contempt for Nepal's right to sovereignity stems from the fact that the Nepalese Government allowed the CIA to train Khampa guerillas, and launch attacks, from Mustang, a semi-autonomous region in Nepal, up until Nixon signed detente with Mao, then disbanded the entire operation, but now I'm getting a little off track. In short, China cries foul when it deems that foreign powers are meddling in its internal affairs. Yet it is doing the same here to Nepal, but some posters condemn Americans for "irritating" the Chinese - is this our biggest concern in foreign affairs? Maybe himalayanaid.org receives significant funding from the Chinese.
Posted 12/29/2011, 12:55:41pm by dwh
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Your assessment is fundamentally incorrect in one key aspect: The UN agreement, as it is, simply stipulates that transiting Tibetans that are captured by Nepali forces in Nepal are to be turned over to the UNHCR for a determination of status. It is tremendously irresponsible and dangerous to put forward the idea that Nepal must somehow guarantee safe passage for Tibetans. Such false assertions irritate a volatile China which in turn pressures Nepal to increase its oppression of Tibetans. It would certainly have benefited your level of accuracy here if you would have done a bit of research on the U.S. position regarding this issue as offered by Ambassador Scott DeLisi. You would have uncovered the fact that the U.S. believes Nepal is doing a good job in handling Tibetans considering the tremendous pressures exerted upon their efforts by a China that seeks a more repressive treatment. James Rinaldi himalayanaid.org
Posted 12/28/2011, 8:32:34pm by JRinaldi
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Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/why-is-nepal-cracking-down-on-tibetan-refugees.html#ixzz1hyShjz00
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