From the Warriors

Speak up for Tibet

2008-03-25T09:38:00.001-07:00

This is a video I saw some years ago, but I think
it should be of all time.

Celebrities support Tibet not because they think
it's a Romantic Movement, or Tibet has a mystic
culture. They support because they know that
the atrocities on the Tibetans by the Chinese govt.
is true, that people are being killed, and Tibetans
are deprived of decent living.

They support because of the injustice done by the
Chinese govt. on the Tibetans.

Bald Days

2008-03-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

That's Jigme, Karma, Jampa and their friend.

Solidarity!

2008-03-23T09:49:00.000-07:00

Norgay is one of the first Tibetan to shave their
head after series of protest in Tibet to show their
solidarity to Tibetans in Tibet. Norgay is
Tendor's (Everest Base Camp Protest) cousin.

2008-03-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

Peaceful, Strong and Fearless. That's Tibetan!

2008-03-22T09:46:00.000-07:00

Another way for Tibetans in Exile to show
solidarity to Tibetans in Tibet who faced
and are still facing death for speaking out
what they believe, for speaking out the truth.

As Lhad says, it's the BATTLE CRY

2008-03-19T10:46:00.001-07:00

Watch the video footage from Bora Amdo protest.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVtgKbS0ijY&eurl=http://tibetanuprising.org/

India’s Muddle Path

2008-03-19T10:26:00.001-07:00

New Delhi has a major stake in Tibet, with its security tied to the developments there

By Brahma Chellaney

The Hindustan Times, March 19, 2008

When Burma’s junta last September killed at least 31 people during monk-led protests in Rangoon, it triggered international outrage and a new wave of US-led sanctions. Now the junta’s closest associate, the world’s largest autocracy in Beijing, has cracked down on monks, nuns and others in Tibet, with an indeterminate number of people killed. The muted global response thus far raises the question whether China has accumulated such power as to escape international censure over highly repressive actions.

For India, the Chinese crackdown on monk-led pro-independence protests in Tibet — the biggest in almost two decades — is an opportunity to highlight a festering issue that is at the heart of the India-China divide. That divide cannot be bridged unless Beijing begins a process of reconciliation and healing in Tibet by coming to terms with the reality that nearly 60 years of oppression have failed to crush the grassroots Tibetan resistance. By laying claim to Indian territories on the basis of alleged Tibetan ecclesiastical or tutelary links to them, Beijing itself underlines the centrality of the Tibet issue.

While China unabashedly plays the Tibet card against India, such as by staking a claim not just to Tawang but to the whole of Arunachal Pradesh — a state nearly thrice the size of Taiwan — New Delhi fights shy to even shine a spotlight on the Tibet issue. Worse, India has unwittingly strengthened China’s Tibet-linked claims to Indian territories, including occupied Aksai Chin, by recognizing Tibet as part of the People’s Republic. Even when the Dalai Lama backs the Indian position on Arunachal, New Delhi is too coy to translate such support into diplomatic advantage.

It is a testament to India’s pusillanimity that, even as Chinese security forces arbitrarily arrest and publicly parade young Tibetans, New Delhi has received fulsome praise from Premier Wen Jiabao, who, while calling the Tibet issue a “very sensitive one in our relations with India”, said, “We appreciate the position and the steps taken by the Indian government in handling Tibetan independence activities masterminded by the Dalai clique”. The orchestrated attacks on the Dalai Lama are a reminder that a line of moderation vis-à-vis Beijing is counterproductive. Two decades after he changed the Tibetan struggle for liberation from Chinese rule to a struggle for autonomy within the People’s Republic, the Dalai Lama has little to show for his ‘middle way’, other than having made himself a growing target of Chinese vilification.

It is past time India reclaimed leverage by subtly changing its stance on Tibet. It can do that without provocation. Indian policy has been held hostage for long by a legion of panda-huggers, who bring discredit to our democracy and comfort to our adversary. These Sinophiles believe the only alternative to continued appeasement is confrontation. They cannot grasp the simple fact that between appeasement and confrontation lie a hundred different options. A false choice — pay obeisance to Beijing or brace up for confrontation — has been used to block any legitimate debate on policy options.

Today, several developments are underscoring the need for a more nuanced approach on Tibet that adds elasticity and leverage to Indian diplomacy. These include China’s frenetic build-up of military and transport capabilities on the vast Himalayan plateau; its refusal to clarify the frontline with India; and its latent threat to fashion water as a weapon.

Tibet’s vast glaciers and high altitude have endowed it with the world’s greatest river systems. With global warming likely to aggravate water woes, China’s control over the riverhead of Asia’s waters carries major security implications for lower-riparian states like India. As World Bank Vice-President Ismail Serageldin warned in 1995, “If the wars of this century were fought over oil, the wars of the next century will be fought over water.”

Tibet’s forcible absorption not only helped China to expand its landmass by one-third, but also has given it a contiguous border, for the first time in history, with India, Bhutan and Nepal, and an entryway to Pakistan and Burma. By subsequently annexing Aksai Chin, China was able to link Tibet with another vast, restive region, Xinjiang, home to Turkic-speaking Muslim ethnic groups and seat of a short-lived independent East Turkestan Republic up to 1949. Today, China is recklessly extracting Tibet’s immense mineral deposits, unmindful that such activities and its new hydro and railway projects are playing havoc with Tibet’s fragile ecosystem — critical to the climate security of India and other regional states.

Tibet’s security and autonomy are tied to India’s own well-being. If the ‘Roof of the World’ is on fire, India can hardly be safe. Tibet indeed symbolizes that a sustainable regional order has to be built on a balance among the market, culture and nature. Tibet is likely to determine whether we will see a more cooperative or a more competitive Asia — a stable, peaceful Asia that expands its economic and cultural renaissance, or an Asia riven by Great Power rivalries and the continued suppression of conquered nationalities.

Against this background, India needs to do at least three things. First, softly put the focus on the core issue, Tibet, including on China’s denial of autonomy to that region, in breach of the ‘17-Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet’ imposed on the Tibetans in 1951. New Delhi could sugar-coat this by saying China’s own security would be advanced if it reached out to Tibetans and concluded a deal that helped bring back the Dalai Lama from his long exile in India. The onus should be placed squarely on Beijing to ensure that Tibet, having ceased to be a political buffer, now becomes a political bridge between India and China.

The choice before India is to either stay stuck in a defensive, unviable negotiating position, where it has to fend off Chinese territorial demands, or to take the Chinese bull by the horns and question the very legitimacy of Beijing’s right to make territorial claims ecclesiastically on behalf of Tibetan Buddhism when it still has to make peace with Tibetans.

Second, if Tibet is to be the means by which India coops up the bull in its own China shop, it has to treat the Dalai Lama as its most powerful ally. As long as the Dalai Lama is based at Dharamsala, he will remain India’s biggest strategic asset against China. The Tibetans in Tibet will neither acquiesce to Chinese rule, as their latest defiance shows, nor side with China against India. If after the death of the present incumbent, the institution of the Dalai Lama gets captured by Beijing (the way it has anointed its own Panchen Lama), India will be poorer by several army divisions against China. To foil China’s scheme, India should be ready with a plan.

Third, India has to stop gratuitously referring to Tibet as part of China. From Nehru to Vajpayee, no Indian PM returned from a Beijing visit without referring to Tibet, in some formulation or the other, as part of China. Last January, Manmohan Singh became the first PM to return from Beijing without making any unwarranted reference to Tibet to please his hosts. The ‘T’ word is conspicuously missing from the joint communiqué — a key point the media failed to catch. If this is not to be a one-shot aberration, Indian policy has to reflect this, however unobtrusively.

Brahma Chellaney is Professor of Strategic Studies at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

Visit Brahma's Blog: http://chellaney.spaces.live.com/

China Terrorizes Tibet

2008-03-18T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is the editorial from today's New York Times. Thanks Mr. Editor for the treat! Lhadon, my big big boss loved the last part, 'China had a chance to shine for its Olympic coming-out party and is blowing it. Its leaders will continue to have to battle protests and unrest — and endure international reproach — until they ensure more freedom for all their citizens, including greater religious tolerance and freedom for Tibet.'

Published: March 18, 2008

It was impossible not to notice that the United States removed China from its list of top 10 human rights violators just as the biggest anti-China protests in 20 years erupted in Tibet. Even when handed that undeserved dispensation, the Beijing government cannot control its authoritarian nature.

A week of protests in Tibet turned violent last Friday as Chinese security forces clashed with hundreds of Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans. Information was hard to verify — nearly all foreigners are barred from entering and Tibetans have no freedom — but news reports said a market in the capital was burned; at least 16, and perhaps many more, people were killed; and paramilitary police and troops were deployed. Over the weekend, rioting spread to neighboring provinces, and demonstrations even reached Beijing.

The protests began March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. The Chinese took Tibet by force in 1951, and the region has been a source of tension ever since. Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama — who, much to Beijing’s fury, met President Bush at the White House last October — has urged greater religious and cultural freedom for Tibet. But talks with Beijing have gone nowhere.

To earn the right to play host to this summer’s Olympics, Beijing promised to improve its human rights record. As its behavior in Tibet — and the recent arrest of the human rights advocate Hu Jia and others — demonstrates, China does not take that commitment seriously.

In its annual human rights report on 190 countries, the State Department conceded that Beijing’s overall performance remained poor. But in what looked like a political payoff to a government whose help America desperately needs on difficult problems, the department dropped China from its list of 10 worst violators.

Whatever gain China may have gotten from being elevated above the likes of North Korea, Myanmar, Iran and Sudan was lost by the crackdown on Tibet.

China had a chance to shine for its Olympic coming-out party and is blowing it. Its leaders will continue to have to battle protests and unrest — and endure international reproach — until they ensure more freedom for all their citizens, including greater religious tolerance and freedom for Tibet.

Dalai Lama calls for Olympic protests

2008-01-19T13:09:00.000-08:00

Published: Friday, 18 January 2008, 8:02PM

The Dalai Lama has urged his supporters to demonstrate throughout the Beijing Olympics.

Speaking exclusively to ITV News, Tibet's spiritual leader has called for peaceful protests during the games.

Such a move could lead to China's human rights record overshadowing the sporting event which is to be held later this year.

He wants to highlight the plight of the Tibetan people who he claims are still victims of aggressive Chinese rule.

China insists that it had a historical right to govern what it claimed was an inalienable part of Chinese Territory.

Many Tibetans feel that the decision to award the games to China is at odds with the goal of the Olympic movement, which is to build a peaceful and better world and promote international understanding by educating the youth of the world through sport and culture.

Campaigners fear Beijing will use the Olympics to inaccurately present China as a free and open society to the outside world.

ITV News correspondent John Ray has travelled to Tibet and India to meet the Dalai Lama and the monks who risk everything to support their leader.

Religious Persecution Continues, It Hardly Matters Whether There’s a Bible Ban or Not in China

2007-11-15T01:20:00.000-08:00

By Paul Schratz, The B.C. Catholic, Canada, November 12, 2007-

A Vatican official last month told the United Nations General Assembly he hoped the 2008 Olympic Games in China would help promote international peace and respect for human rights.

It remains to be seen what the impact will be on world peace, but things weren’t off to a good start on the human rights front last week with the controversy over China’s “ban” on Bibles at the Olympics.

Initial reports were that the Scriptures would not be allowed at the Games. Within days, China clarified that in fact athletes would be allowed to have one Bible for personal use, sort of like toothpaste.

That was later amended to say athletes were free to bring their Bibles as long as they didn’t distribute them.
China did its best to play the aggrieved party, declaring the whole controversy founded on rumour and asserting how generous it would be when it comes to visitors’ religious freedoms.

The real irony is that it hardly matters whether or not China bans Bibles for two weeks. With the level of religious persecution that goes on in that country, who cares if there’s a brief show of tolerance.

Millions of Chinese people of faith live under an atheistic regime that forces churches to operate under government dictate. Practitioners of the Falun Gong movement are particularly persecuted, and religious leaders and followers are routinely jailed.

The government’s long arm has even extended to the Buddhist belief in reincarnation, with Beijing ordering Tibet’s living Buddhas to get permission before reincarnating.

When Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Vatican’s permanent observer to the United Nations, addressed the UN Oct. 31, he pointed out that the Vatican views the Olympics as an important moment of dialogue that can help countries bridge political and other differences.

He said “dialogue and encounter through sport hold great potential in the area of peace-building and conflict prevention.”

Rather than moving toward more tolerance, China appears interested in simply putting on a respectable face while doing nothing in the human rights department to earn a positive reputation.

“While the rule of law and justice remain the foundation of durable peace, sport provides the tool for warring factions to come together for a common purpose,” he said.”

Sadly, China shows little interest in anything other than coming off as respectable, while doing little in the human rights department to show it’s worthy of the title.

As Archbishop Migliore pointed out, one of the lessons of the Olympics is that life is not about the triumph, but the struggle. The Vatican church and sports desk was established to promote a human-centred approach to sports and to help “reclaim the ideal of sport as a real school of humanity, camaraderie, solidarity, and excellence.” In this way, he said, sports figures can continue to be models for youth.

It’s a point China still needs to learn, along with the fact that it is in a state’s own interest to ensure that religious freedom - a natural right that is also an individual and social right - is effectively guaranteed for all.

Dignitatis Humanae, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Religious Freedom, described the free exercise of religion in society as the preeminent human freedom.

It called on governments to assume the safeguard of religious freedom of all citizens in an effective manner by just laws and by other appropriate means.

Pope John Paul II referred to religious freedom as the first right. This summer, in his letter to China’s Catholics, Pope Benedict XVI called on Beijing to respect “authentic religious freedom,” warning that China’s official church was incompatible with Catholic doctrine.

Given China’s track record of controlling all religious activity, jailing those who speak out, controlling churches, and arresting religious leaders, it hardly matters whether there’s a Bible ban or not. Religious persecution continues. Just ask Underground Catholic Bishop Jia Zhiquo, who was arrested in August.

- Original report from The B.C. Catholic : Banned in Beijing

Schoolboys blamed for Tibet graffiti still held incommunicado by China

2007-10-03T00:44:00.000-07:00

safetibet.org[Wednesday, October 03, 2007 12:50]

Four schoolboys from a group of seven detained on around September 7 are still in custody after being beaten for an alleged offence of scribbling graffiti calling for the Dalai Lama’s return or freedom for Tibet on walls in a Tibetan area of Gansu province, China. A fifth boy is reportedly very ill in hospital with possible head injuries following maltreatment in Xiahe detention center, and there are concerns about his condition. Two other boys, both 14, have been sent home upon payment of large fines by their families. All of the boys, who were made to carry out hard labor while in detention, are from nomad families and were studying at Bora Middle School in Labrang (Chinese: Xiahe) county in Gannan prefecture.

A monk from Bora monastery in the same area, Jamyang Gyatso, was released from custody last week after being detained in connection with the same incident. He was reportedly severely beaten while in detention.

Dozens of students were initially detained on the same day as the teenage boys, a day after the graffiti appeared on the walls of the school and the village police station, but all except the seven teenagers were released within two days. School staff were also questioned.

The two boys who were sent home on around September 24, both 14, were allowed to leave on condition that they were confined to their villages, and on the payment of a 4000 yuan ($532) fine each by their parents. One report names these children as Drolma Kyab and Tsekhu (Tsering Dondrub). One child, reportedly called Lhamo Tseten, aged 15, has been taken to a hospital in Labrang for treatment for serious injuries, believed to be head injuries resulting from beatings. Some of the boys were reportedly beaten with electric shock prods. It is not clear if Lhamo Tseten will have to return to detention after he recovers.

The boys who remain in detention are 15-year olds Lhamo Tseten, Chopa Kyab, Tamdrin Kyab, Gonpel.

This was the second such incident in the village since August, when the words ‘Free Tibet’ were written on walls in the school basketball court, according to a report by Human Rights Watch on September 20. Some of the seven detained were among those questioned at the time.

The boys were initially held in a local police facility in the township of Amchok Bora (two townships that are joined together), in what is primarily a nomadic area, populated mainly by Tibetans but with some Chinese and Hui Muslim Chinese traders or restaurateurs. Most but not all of the township leaders are Chinese, and the head of the local police is Chinese. Several days later, the boys were moved by non-uniformed security officials to the nearby county town of Labrang (Chinese: Xiahe), approximately two hours north-east by road.

Former political detainees like the two teenagers who have been returned to their families face isolation, fear and anxiety, combined with a consistent awareness of being under surveillance themselves, and concern about their families, who are also under scrutiny. They are often in a state of poor physical health as a result of maltreatment in prison and may not have access to medical care.

MYANMAR MESS: BLAME BEIJING

2007-10-03T00:13:00.000-07:00

BUT PRESSING CHINA WON'T DO MUCH

New York Post

October 2, 2007 -- AS the junta's misbehavior worsened in Myanmar (as those thugs have re-chris tened Burma) last week, pundits suggested that we should force China to pressure its client to treat the pro-democracy demonstrators politely - by threatening to boycott next year's Beijing Olympics.

Sorry, but Myanmar's far more important to China's vision for the coming decades than the Pollution-and-Oppression Games. The bullies in Beijing see the Olympics as a coming-out party - but Myanmar is a strategic lifeline.

So, sure, if the Myanmar situation worsens as China stonewalls, we can and should punish Beijing by boycotting the 2008 Games. But we have to have realistic expectations regarding the results.

On the flip side, some Westerners argue that China isn't really the decisive player in Myanmar - that Western corporations flying under the radar screen do more to prop up the junta than Beijing does.

Absolute bull. This doesn't mean that greedy multinationals don't lurk out in those jungles - but to ascribe more power to them than to Beijing is like blaming purse-snatchers for the junk-mortgage crisis.

Here's the real situation:
China regards Myanmar as a satellite. Beijing wishes it could just grab the country the way it seized Tibet, but believes the geostrategic cost would be too high. So it supports the junta as the next-best option and develops Myanmar as an economic colony.

Why does China see Myanmar as absolutely critical to its future? After all, it's a bitterly poor country of 55 million, where time didn't just stand still for the last half-century - it actually went backward. And neither the ethnic Burmans (half the population) nor the up-country tribes like the Chinese one bit.

The answers are straightforward:

* Myanmar offers 1,200 miles of coastline on the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, bordering the Indian Ocean. And those waters are a strategic lifeline for China, carrying trade westward and bringing back desperately needed oil from the Middle East and Africa.
China knows that we own the Pacific militarily, but hopes that - in the event of a Sino-U.S. crisis - it could face us down in the Indian Ocean, its backdoor to the world. When I was in Myanmar 11 years ago, the Chinese were already modernizing docks and eyeing the development of new harbors.

* Myanmar offers the promise of its own oil and gas deposits, while its magnificent hardwood forests are being clear-cut to feed China's industrial appetites. (The ecological devastation is stunning.) And Beijing sets the terms of trade.

* The advent of a pro-Western government in Myanmar would mean that, in wartime, China would have no direct access to the Greater Indian Ocean. The equivalent would be for the United States to lose access to the Caribbean - or worse.
China wants to minimize the ugly headlines from Myanmar, but it's not going to pull its support for the junta just to keep the U.S. water-polo team in the Olympics.

The joker in the deck is the brave, persistent and slippery Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, "The Lady," Myanmar's eternally under-house-arrest democracy champion. The only way that Beijing would swing its support behind the pro-democracy movement would be if The Lady cut a back-room deal guaranteeing China's continued presence, influence and access. Watch that space.

Elsewhere, Beijing sees everything breaking its way. It's bought enough influence in America to prevent us from demanding fair exchange rates, honest terms of trade and elementary standards. (Want any lead paint with that baby formula, Ma?) Except for a few perfunctory remarks, China's support of rogue regimes goes unchallenged by Western leaders. And human-rights concerns evaporate when profits are involved.

Above all else, Beijing does not want troublesome ideas popping up among its own people. And the idea that a few thousand Buddhist monks in the streets could bring down an autocratic regime would be troublesome, indeed.

Anyway, does the West really care about Myanmar? Naw. Westerners focus solely on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The country's tribes have been butchered, poisoned, raped en masse, tortured and driven from their homes - but the horrific sufferings of the less-glamorous rate, at best, a conference footnote.

For us, Myanmar's a one-issue country, and the issue is The Lady. Well, she's certainly valiant and gloriously stubborn - but the undocumented ravages of AIDS up on the Chinese border, the ecological devastation of a unique environment, the junta's cultural genocide and Beijing's economic imperialism happen to be a great deal more important than the agenda of the country's urban intellectuals.

There's more to Myanmar's tragedy than one woman locked in her yard. China figured that out long ago; we can't even find the place on a map.

When I was in Myanmar in 1996 (on a counterdrug mission), the locals could no longer afford property in downtown Mandalay - a city central to the country's heritage - because the Chinese had run up real-estate prices astronomically. Up north, the old Burma road, built with American blood in World War II, was crumbling under the convoys of Chinese trucks carrying goods to Myanmar's ports.

Major cities in western China looked to Myanmar for markets, resources and export routes. And the Chinese already had established intelligence listening posts on the Myanmar coast back then. Security cooperation was quiet, but close.

China's got an even tighter grip on the country now.

God knows, the right thing to do would be to call China's bluff on Myanmar. But threatening to boycott the 2008 Olympics won't be enough to get Beijing to abandon the junta. The Chinese would rather win the gold medal in strategy than in field hockey.

Ralph Peters' latest book is "Wars of Blood and Faith."

Tibetan schoolboys detained as China's crackdown in Tibet worsens

2007-10-01T02:16:00.000-07:00

BBS

Teenage Students Held Incommunicado for Graffiti Compiled by Kandy RingerNew York (HRW), September 23: The Chinese government should immediately release seven Tibetan high school students detained on suspicion of writing pro-Tibetan independence slogans on buildings, Human Rights Watch said today. One of the detainees, aged 14, is reported to have been badly beaten during or after the arrest and was bleeding profusely when last seen by relatives.

The seven male students, all from nomad families, are studying at the Amchok Bora village secondary school, in Xiahe (Labrang) county, Gannan prefecture in Gansu province. Four of the boys are 15 years old and three are14. Gannan is designated as one of China's official "Tibetan autonomous" areas.

Human Rights Watch said that police detained some 40 students on or around September 7. The students were alleged to have written slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet the previous day on the walls of the village police station and on other walls in the village. Within 48 hours, all but seven of the students were released from police custody. Police reportedly also questioned school staff about the slogan- writing graffiti incident.

"Arresting teenagers for a political crime shows just how little has changed in Tibet," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Beating up a child for a political crime shows just how far China has to go before it creates the 'harmonious society' China's leaders talk so much about."

The students were initially held in a police station in Amchok Bora, and allowed to see their families. However, on September 10, plainclothes officials believed to be state security moved them to the nearby county town of Xiahe (Labrang), east of the village. Shortly before the children were moved from the village, police had reportedly refused permission for the relatives to take the injured boy for medical treatment. Officials in Xiahe have since refused to reveal the students' location or even to confirm that they are in custody.

The given names of five of the missing boys are Lhamo Tseten, age 15; Chopa Kyab, age 14; Drolma Kyab, age 14; Tsekhu, age 14; and a second Lhamo Tseten, age 15. The names of two others are unknown, and the identity of the wounded detainee is not known. Tibetans rarely use family names.

The students' arrests are the latest example of an increasingly harsh response from Chinese authorities to the slightest hints of dissent over issues as diverse as cultural and religious policies, forced resettlement of Tibetan herders, environmental degradation, replacement of Tibetan cadres with ethnic Chinese ones, and increased migration of ethnic Chinese settlers to traditionally Tibetan regions. Several incidents in recent months have involved clashes between Tibetan residents and police forces.

In late September 2006, Chinese border police opened fire on a group of 73 Tibetans as they walked toward the border with Nepal. Two people, including a teenage nun, were shot and killed, and police subsequently detained about a dozen children. Their whereabouts were not known for four months, and no public investigation has been undertaken into that event.

According to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which China is a State Party, children have the right to freedom of expression. No child should be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, or detained unlawfully or arbitrarily. Children who are legally detained should be held only as a matter of last resort and for the shortest possible period of time. Children in detention have the right to contact with their families and to prompt access to legal assistance.

Human Rights Watch urged UNICEF to urgently raise these cases with the government and seek guarantees of protection for these vulnerable children.

"To end this embarrassing and abhorrent episode, the Chinese government should immediately release the boys, protect them and their parents from further abuse, and explain why they were treated so harshly," said Adams.

An interview with Jamyang Norbu - part 1

2007-09-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

posted by: Lhadon Tethong
www.beijingwideopen.org
September 10th, 2007

I tried something new today. Inspired by my interview with Amber Mac on WebNation, I interviewed Jamyang Norbu via skype. It worked ok besides the occasional feedback (sorry!) and this is the first of three parts.

Jamyang Nor bu is an acclaimed Tibetan writer, thinker and activist. His novel, The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, won the Crossword Book Award - India’s highest literary prize. He has lived many lives in the Tibetan exile community including a brief stint in the Tibetan resistance. He served as Director of the Tibetan Institute of the Performing Arts (TIPA) and a founding member of the Tibetan Youth Congress. Jamyang’s many articles and commentaries on Tibetan society and politics have informed, inspired and sometimes even enraged countless Tibetans. The boldness of his voice, the clarity of his opinions, and the elegance of his language has challenged a generation of Tibetans to open their minds, and encouraged more than a few to pick up the pen and be courageous in their writing.

Jamyang is also my cousin. I remember when I was around 16 years old and he came to Victoria, BC on a speaking tour with Lhasang Tsering - former member of the Tibetan resistance force in Mustang, Nepal; two-term President of the Tibetan Youth Congress; and another giant in the Tibetan freedom struggle. We stayed up late that evening listening to Jamyang and Lhasang talk passionately about the Tibetan political situation. At one point Jamyang was speaking in such an animated way that his plate of food ended up flying from his lap and onto the floor. Little did I know what an important role Jamyang would play in helping to inform and shape my political understanding and activism for Tibet.

We were speaking on the phone today about the timeliness and importance of letting people know about the Boycott campaign - http://www.boycottmadeinchina.org// - when I asked him if he would do a short interview for BeijingWideOpen. I know many young Tibetans want to hear his thoughts and opinions more, and I think others who are new to the Tibet issue would benefit from hearing his views. Jamyang has an incredible ability to take a seemingly muddled topic or debate and make things clear and simple by always focusing on the fundamental human desire for dignity and justice. You can never be sure of what he might say next but one thing is always certain - when it comes to taking on detractors of the Tibetan fight for independence, his words can be like daggers.

To watch the video, go to http://www.beijingwideopen.org/

Tibetan People's Movement Condemn China's New Religious Repression Tactics

2007-09-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

Tibetan Women's Association - GuChuSum - National Democratic Party of Tibet - Students for a Free Tibet, India

The China's State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) released a 14-article measures on reincarnation on July 18, 2007. Those restrictive measures came into effect on September 1st, 2007 openly exhibiting Chinese Government's rampant attempt to undermine religious freedom in Tibet.

When we read the 14-article released by SARA, we found that there were 13 main points structured under 5 sub-categories. Following is a gist from the Chinese government's official 14-article.

The importance of the Golden Urn Process in selecting reincarnations.
As per the hierarchy of the Lama, each reincarnation will have to get approval from one of the following authorities; the Central People's Repulic of China (PRC), SARA, province officials or local authorities. In this way the Chinese government will have complete authority over the reincarnation process in Tibetan Buddhism.
The Chinese government also made it very clear that they will not entertain any international government's policies or any individuals from outside of China to attenuate China's policies.

We recognise the 14-article measures to be no more than the PRC's effort to further restrict Tibetans' religious rights.

This restrictive measure not only goes against the centuries old Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and but distincly hinders the reincarnation process in the future as well. This new policy also tramples upon the religious freedom of every religious persons worldwide. We believe that people of faith everywhere who longs for peace and truth, be it Christians, Muslims, Hindus or Jews will never keep quiet at this outrageous Chinese policy on Tibetan Buddhism.

Tibetans around the world will doubtlessly protest the Chinese government's new policies on Tibetan Lama's reincarnation process.

History of Buddhism springs forth from the Himalayan regions of India, Tibet, Mongol and China. Now, Buddhism has spread so far and wide into the western countries as well. PRC's direct intervention in determining future Lamas of Tibetan Buddhism has crossed all limits as they absolutely reserve no right to interfere in any levels of Tibetan Buddhism.
Many Tibetan Lama's have shouldered great responsibilities in Tibet's history. It is very clear from the history of Tibetan Buddhism that His Holiness the Dalai Lama reserves the right to recognise many high Tibetan Lamas. High ranking lamas of each Buddhist sect also reserves the right to recognise other lamas within their sect. Even after almost 50 years of Tibet's colonization, we, the Tibetan people have invested our trust in His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other high lamas of each sect to recognise future lamas and there is no room for political games in Tibetan Buddhism.
We regard PRC, an athiestic government that views religion as poison, intervening in the Tibetan Buddhist lama selection process as a major obstruction to the future of Tibetan Buddhism. This new policy may also prove to be a hindrance for religious harmony amongst many world religions in the future as well.

Due to the above reasons, we will definitely challenge and campaign against this new restrictive Chinese policy and there is no way that we will compromise on this issue. If the Chinese government wants to create a conducive environment for Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan Lamas to advocate peace and harmony within China itself, then we think it is their utmost responsibility to honor His Holiness the Dalai Lama with the respect and prestige that he deserves for being the spiritual and temporal political leader of Tibetan people. The Chinese government should also respond concretely and as early as possible to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visionary Middle Path approach.

We will never accept this new policy of getting approval from Chinese government to legitimise Tibetan Lamas and we firmly believe that people of conscience around the world who support peace, truth, democracy and freedom will also protest this new policy.

Tibetan exiles demand immediate release of Tibetan patriots

2007-08-30T23:40:00.000-07:00

Phayul[Wednesday, August 29, 2007 18:38]

Dharamsala, August 28: Tibetan People’s Movement jointly led by four leading NGOs today organised a day-long signature campaign demanding unconditional release of O'dho, Apha Bhomo, Rongye Adak, Lothok and Adruk Lopo, who were recently arrested by Chinese authorities on separate occasions for their outspoken protest against Chinese wrongdoings in Tibet.

The signature campaign was followed by Candle Light Vigil later in the evening.

The four organisations; Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), Gu-Chu-Sum: Movement of Ex-Political Prisoners (GCSM), Students for a Free Tibet, India (SFT) and National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT), recently teamed up for a major Tibetan People’s Movement to mar the one year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games in China.

On August 4, the groups organised a huge sporting event in Delhi demanding inclusion of “Team Tibet” in the 2008 Games in Beijing. The event faced tight restriction from Indian Government towards the last moment, but enjoyed wide media attention.

An estimated 700 Tibetans and western supporters participated in the candle light vigil here today that finally culled up at the central courtyard of Tsuglag-Khang for a concluding gathering. Spotting pro-Tibetan banners, Tibetan National Flags and placards, and reciting Buddhist prayers for world peace and well being of all beings, the procession beginning from main McLeod Ganj square rallied the two main streets before moving down the main temple road.

Hundreds of candles flickered in the monsoon air as Adak’s nephew; Ven. Tseten talked about the five political prisoners at the courtyard. At the background, recently acquired pictures of the prisoners and the dramatic happenings this month in Lithang, where Rongye Adak was arrested were repeatedly projected on a screen.

Earlier in the day, the organising groups were collecting signatures for two set of petitions, one addressed to the President of the International Olympics Committee, Mr. Jacques Rogge and another to the Director of the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Ms. Carolyn Hannan. The organisers said that they would use the signature campaign to appeal international organisations to use their influence to facilitate unconditional and immediate release of the five Tibetans arrested by Chinese authorities.

While four are reportedly under detention in Tibet, Prosecutors in Sichuan province's Lithang region on Monday indicted Rongye Adak on the charge of "provocation to subvert state power," the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported. China often uses vaguely defined subversion laws to punish government critics, sometimes with long prison sentences.

Related articles► Dalai Lama Supporter Charged in China

► Chinese authorities transfer Adruk Lopoe to unknown location, arrest another Tibetan nomad

► China arrest two Tibetan women for expressing support for Trulku Tenzin Delek in Lithang

The Economist on China Usurping Reincarnation

2007-08-23T04:46:00.000-07:00

August 22nd, 2007 Posted by Lhasa Rising

The Economist took a critical look at the Chinese government’s ridiculous claim that it has the right to control reincarnations in Tibetan Buddhism:

Now the government wants to control the process, arrogating to itself the right to approve incarnations. Bizarrely, Order Number Five even provides or“livingBuddha permits”… Reincarnation, moreover, is banned in … Xining and Lhasa, the capital of what is now the “Tibet Autonomous Region” of China.

The Economist recognizes that China’s ”apparent determination to control religion in Tibet is especially intense, because Buddhism is so bound up with Tibetans’ identity and nationalism.” As we previously discussed (here and here), this is all a political power-grab by the Chinese government.

The Economist rightly concludes that the Chinese government is likely to install its own illegitimate candidate as Dalai Lama when the current 14th Dalai Lama passes away.

However:

The Dalai Lama has said he may not be reincarnated at all, or, if Tibet is not free, he may be reincarnated in exile. It seems unlikely that China could install a Tibetan leader who also commands the loyalty of Tibetans.

The article ends on a chillingly perceptive note. The current Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has held Tibetans together and insisted that the freedom struggle be nonviolent. After His Holiness, there is likely to be splintering and violence:

And the death of the present Dalai Lama—a robust man, but in his 70s—would remove the most powerful force restraining Tibetans from violent resistance to Chinese rule. Of course, China could crush an armed uprising easily. But it might be a bloody business.

China has declared war on Tibetan civilization by trying to usurp control over reincarnations. The best hope of avoiding bloodshed is to work toward a political solution in Tibet now, before the key factor in Tibetans’ nonviolence is no longer with us. Most countries say they oppose violence and terrorism, and support peaceful initiatives – now let’s see some action.

Click here to visit SFT blog. (Students for a Free Tibet)

Journey through Tihar

2007-08-16T04:14:00.000-07:00

Eight days after the Tibetan People's Mass Movement, and 7 days after the arrest of 9 young Tibetans at the Chinese Embassy in Delhi, I finally got to go to Tihar Jail (The Central Jail) to visit at least Lobsang Shastri, one of those nine, who's name my friend Migmar, who has also been an inmate in the Tihar twice for protesting against the Chinese, knows. (The rule says: one person could visit only one person)

Standing in queue at the window number 7 (jail number 7 is for the temporary prisoners, prisoners of lighter crimes & and where most of the political prisoners are kept and maybe that's the reason why it's next to the Women's cell!). I almost lost hope when the officer behind the window said "Use koi pehle se mil chuke hai"(someone already came to see him). What the hell was I waiting for since 7.30 in the morning! It was around 10 at the time. And then he asked me, "Kal kyu nahi phone se visiting time book kiya?"(Why didn't you book the visiting time on the phone yesterday?) Maybe, there is a way, I felt and I replied back in English, "I only got here this morning!" The guy looked at me and then with a sigh, told me to call my friend Migmar who has to submit his ID.

The visitors in the jail, young and old, rich and poor, who's joy I could see in their face, the joy of seeing their dear ones and yet there was this face of sorrow and shame for they've ended up in this line of people waiting to see criminals, some who were there for what they did and some for things they haven't done. Amidst of all, I was standing there with pride for I was going to see someone I've never met, a young gentleman, who may have been emotionally driven, but went in solely for being a voice for all those unheard voices in Tibet.

The visit was brief and was monitored by officers and senior inmates. During this short meeting, through those iron bars covered with net, I could see Lobsang a meter away. Lobsang had stories to tell, of the police beating them in Chanakyapuri Police Lockup, and then the political discussions they had in their cell, planning actions for future and of course of all nine of them participating in 15th August Celebration, where they performed two songs, "Hum Hai Vikasi" (a song dedicated to the Tibetans who lost their lives in Kargil war and Bangladesh War) and "We shall over come". They started the song by saying, 'India and Tibet has been close for centuries and today is India's Independence Day, India has a history of Freedom Struggle. Us being here is a part of our endeavor to bring Freedom to Tibet and to the Tibetan People. We are happy that we could celebrate India's Independence, but may our dream of Tibet's Independence too come true." And all the high- ranking officers gave a standing ovation. The energy he had while telling us all that they did while in Tihar was so overwhelming. And then, the officer came in to tell us that our time's over.

Meanwhile, TYC and the 4 NGOs did what they planned, SFT conquered Beijing, Tibetan NGOs and Supporters throughout world Championed Tibet's cause. Some went for action, some ended up talking big.

** While waiting for Migmar outside the Jail early morning, the security requested me to go to the visitor's canteen for I guess one can't stand at one place for a long time outside the Jail. But there! I saw this young boy in the canteen who came to me and asked me, "What do you want?" the boy was wearing a T-shirt that said "Athens 2004 Olympics, Torch Relay" Such a clear sign! Beijing, see you at the torch relay!

Open Letter from Rongye Adak’s Family

2007-08-14T03:02:00.000-07:00

Posted by Lhasa Rising

Yesterday, we wrote about the dangerous standoff between hundreds of Tibetans and thousands of Chinese armed police in Lithang. Below is an open letter from the son and nephew of Rongye Adak (Ronggay A’drak), the brave man whose arrest first sparked the confrontation. Please spread it widely.

Letter: Lithang Rongye Adak: the man who spoke up for freedom

Editor’s note: The following is an open letter co-written by a son and a nephew of Ronge Adak, a Tibetan nomad from Lithang. Adrak was arrested on Aug. 1, 2007 after protesting during an official ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of China’s People’s Liberation Army. In front of a crowd of thousands of Tibetan nomads, he took the stage and offered a khata - a ceremonial silk scarf - to the chief lama of the local monastery. He then grabbed the microphone and shouted for the release of Tibetan political prisoners, the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, and ultimately Tibetan independence.

** ** **

If he had not spoken up, the news wouldn’t have been made, but the suppression would have continued silently, the pain in the heart of every individual would have remained buried deep in the hearts and never spoken about, and everything would have been “normal”.Lithang Rongye Adak, a deeply religious man at 53, broke the silence by speaking the truth, the truth that remained suppressed in the hearts of his fellow countrymen. Rongye Adak is a father who besides running his nomadic family acts as a social worker in his local community in Yunru Kha-shul area in Lithang, eastern Tibet.

Tibet, the country that has been invaded, occupied and colonized by China is today being ruled by a military regime and a set of law that dictates upon the native people the orders of the colonial Government of Han Chinese majority from Beijing. The sophistication of governance and the interpretation of it are such that the country is now being transformed from a land of virgin pastures and untouched fresh water and glaciers into a hugely urbanized and industrial area with rampant mining, damming and deforestation. Networks of roads and bridges built are now crisscrossing the country destroying traditional lives of the Tibetans, and all these are done in the name of “development”.

It happened recently on the 1st August, in Lithang where the annual horse racing festival had started and thousands of Tibetans had gathered from all over Kham region to witness the traditional Tibetan festival. As the government officials sat in chairs in a big ceremony, Rongye Adak, a tall sturdy man from Khampa Lithang stepped on to the stage paying his respects to the local Lama, grabbed the mike and gave a surprise speech.

He began by asking fellow Tibetans to stop getting into petty fights among themselves for land and gathering yartsa gunbo, and asked all Tibetans to unite. And when he had the full attention of the crowd he asked whether they want His Holiness the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet. The audience that consisted mostly of nomads responded in unison that they all want their leader to return to Tibet. And everybody cheered, clapping and whistling.

He went on to ask for the release of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the XI Panchen Lama who is in Chinese Government’s custody from 1995, ever since he was taken away at the age of six. The fire of truth raged and there is no stopping. He even demanded the release of Tulku Tenzin Delek who has been sentence for life for an alleged case of bomb blast in Sichuan. And when the Chinese authorities sitting on the stage slowly realized what Adak was saying, Adak had already made his speech. The police grabbed him and took him away. This provoked the audience who was already agitated and moved by the powerful speech by their new found hero.

A strong crowd of six to seven thousand Tibetans demanded that Adak be released immediately. And when police reached for guns, hundreds of nomads took off their shirts and showing their bare chest challenged the police to shoot them. They said what Adak did was only an expression of dissatisfaction which the Chinese law permits as right to free expression.

The stand-off with the police authorities has been going on ever since the incident of 1st August. As the news of Adak’s courageous act of speaking up spread to other villages and towns, more and more people started pouring in to show their support. The police in Lithang are now barring people from traveling in order to control public mobility. Tension is only growing as more and more people are heading towards one destination.

The soft-spoken man, a father of eleven children who lived a simple nomadic life has suddenly become a political prisoner. With his wife taking ill and being hospitalized, his family is suffering. Three of his children are presently studying in different schools and monasteries in India.

This is an appeal to you to spread the message of freedom and justice and also to ask you to appeal to Chinese Government to release Lithang Adak immediately and unconditionally. We also request you to ask your Government and the United Nations to help.

Rongye Jamyang, son of Rongye AdakAtuk

Tseten, nephew of Rongye Adak

Drepung Gomang Monastery,

Mundgod, South India

India not game as Tibet plays football

2007-08-10T02:50:00.001-07:00

Times Of India[Sunday, August 05, 2007 10:36]

By Siddharth Saxena

New Delhi - Football’s universal appeal probably comes from its ability to be ridiculously simple at getting itself kick-started. All you need is to tell your mates to remember to get the ball along. Once that’s achieved, finding a place is never going to be a headache. Heavy irony for a ‘National’team that’s lost the ground beneath its feet,because it is only football that you still turn to.

On Saturday — rainy in parts, humid in most — Team Tibet ran from pillar to post, quite literally, so that they could play a football match. They had the ball, they had the men in good number. All they asked for was a place to play. For most part of the day, the story of the last two days kept repeating itself like some stuck spool of tape — the game kept running the risk of being a non-starter.

It was a long-drawn logistical nightmare. The budget of Rs 25 lakh for the game turned to 30 — the prize money from an eventually-aborted marathon race was quickly used to help pool further resources.Organisers longingly spoke of last April when it was so much easier to burn effigies of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and risk the wrath of the local police than run across four largely-unused football grounds in the Capital only to be told they were not welcome. This, and that there were over 5,000 people having converged from all across the country and Nepal, who quietly turned wherever the authorities pointed their fingers. And all of this, so that Tibet could see their National team play football. Anywhere. As day morphed into late afternoon, it didn’t seem it would happen.

And then, almost as miraculously, the football happened.

Once the ball rolled and the goals came, even if the nature of the opposition was nothing to inundate Tibetan websites the world across with, it made the ordeal worthwhile. Five-nothing?Six-nothing? No one kept count, because in terms of symbolism — made all the more surreal by nearly 3,000 candles which came alight at the venue as dusk descended on the city — few things could have had a greater impact than an an hour or so of international football on a mere college ground.

Had things been easier,would the point have been less direct in getting home? In a classic I-wasthere-but-I-wasn’t-there paradox, it only helped that there were close to 2,000 Tibetans stranded at various points in the Capital as confusion reigned all day.

After being holed out at their Majnu Ka Tila address for a good part of the day, 5,000 Tibetans were told by the cops that there was no need to go to the DDA Sports Complex at Jasola,the venue of the game till the morning at least, as it was out of bounds just as Jawaharlal Nehru and Thyagraj Stadium had become. The stalemate between the cops and the organisers ran into noon and three venuesin the north were identified. Trust a college to have the generosity to welcome the idea of a movement, even if it is the final resting place for football match played more in the corridors of power.

Delhi University’s Kirori Mal College ground in was quickly readied and as Tibetans — young, old, male and female, monk and moneyed — made their way in, there was a buzz in the heavy air that something was afoot. It was Protest Football after all. In this, the score’s different.

EIGHT FREE TIBET ACTIVISTS DETAINED BY CHINA FREED

2007-08-10T02:25:00.000-07:00

China has released and deported the 'Great Wall Six' activists along with SFT Exec Director Lhadon Tethong and her traveling partner Paul Golding

As the one-year countdown celebrations for the 2008 Olympics came to a close in Beijing, eight Tibetan independence activists were deported to Hong Kong. Six of the activists had been arrested early on August 7th for unfurling a large protest banner on the Great Wall of China. The two others were Lhadon Tethong and UK Tibet activist Paul Golding, who were detained by Chinese police in Beijing at approximately 2pm Beijing time on August 8th. The eight were deported from China and put on a plane to Hong Kong, where they arrived at approximately 3am local time.

>> Read SFT's press release here >>
>> Check out a full media roundup for the "GreatWall6" and BeijingWideOpen.org >>

Breaking News: TIBET ACTIVISTS PROTEST 2008 OLYMPICS AT GREAT WALL OF CHINA

2007-08-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

ACTIVISTS DETAINED FOLLOWING DARING BANNER HANG

Six Tibet independence activists from the UK, US, and Canada were detained today after rappelling from the top of the Great Wall of China with a 450-square foot protest banner reading “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008” in English and Chinese. The dramatic action took place on the eve of the one-year countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Chinese authorities removed the activists after two hours; their current whereabouts are unknown.

>> Check out a roundup of news coverage on the SFT Blog here >>
>> W atch video of the protest on Youtube here >>
>> Read the press release about the protest here >>
>> Learn more about joining the August 8th Day of action here >>

SFT's Lhadon Tethong Reports from China

2007-08-10T01:12:00.000-07:00

Lhadon speaks out one year before the Beijing Olympics

SFT's Executive Director Lhadon Tethong is in Beijing for the one-year countdown to the 2008 Olympic Games. From the heart of the nation that has brutally occupied her homeland for over 50 years, she is reporting on the Chinese government's attempts to use the Olympics to obscure the occupation of Tibet, and how we will "challenge them at every turn." Check out Lhadon's new blog: Beijing Wide Open.

Before leaving for Beijing, she recorded a video message to Tibetans and Tibet supporters everywhere – watch it here. SFT has issued a press release about her activities – read it here.