The recurrent theme, which appears in the official Chinese discourse on Tibet, is that of development and growth. Very often the Chinese government has attempted to negate criticism of its human rights history in Tibet by asserting that the Tibetan people have benefited as a result of the development policies implemented by the Chinese authorities. As an illustration of their…
Some 29 Tibetan tour guides from Shigatse Prefecture Tourist Travel Agency in Lhasa were reportedly dismissed from their jobs on 1 July 2000 following a major investigation to identify and expel guides who are exile-educated Tibet returnees.
TAR Tour Guide Discipline Management Department, established June this year, conducted an extensive investigation into 18 branch Tourist Agencies in Lhasa that comes under China International Tourist Service (CITS).
According to Sonam Wangdu, one of the 29 expelled Tibetan guides who reached Nepal on 27 July 2000, “An Inspection Committee dispatched by the newly set up Guide Discipline Management Department, conducted strict investigation in various tours and travel agencies in Lhasa City functioning under TAR International Tourist Service. Inquiries are made regarding the guides’ personal background, particularly names of educational institutions where we have studied and any history of political activism. We were further interrogated concerning our knowledge of guide regulation and made to produce documents to prove our credentials. These led to the dismissal of 29 tourist guides educated in India just five days before the Dalai Lama’s birthday celebration this year. However, three Tibetan graduates from Chinese universities were not stripped off their tour guide jobs.”
Fifteen monks, including 12 juveniles and three elderly monks above the age of 65, were expelled from Yungtrung Peri Monastery following a visit of ‘Work Team’ officials, according to Tsultrim Tenzin, a 26 year-old monk from the Monastery who fled to India in April 2000.
In June 1998, a six-member ‘work team’ officials came to Yungtrung Peri Monastery and summoned all the residents of the monastery for ‘re-education’. Documents were distributed to monks for study and each monk was individually interrogated. Later the officials expelled 15 monks and they were prohibited from participating in any religious practices.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) today released its annual report entitled “Tibet: Tightening of Control” on the human rights situation in Tibet for the year 1999. The 140-page report documents the continuing systematic denial and violations of the freedom of religion and expression; the exercise of arbitrary detention and torture; the violation of the right to be free from racial discrimination; the abuse of women and children’s rights in Tibet throughout the year 1999. The report highlights the repeated failure of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to promote and protect the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the Tibetan people.
The past year was marked by the official celebration of several politically significant anniversaries, including fifty years of the founding of the PRC and forty years of the annexation of Tibet. The symbolic importance of these events was characterised by various attempts by the Chinese government to display its authority and legitimacy, resulting in further violation of the human rights of the Tibetan people. Within China and in Tibet there was a tightening of the state’s control over every sphere to consolidate its power. Throughout the year, Chinese authorities tightened its security and surveillance in all major cities and towns to prevent incidents of nationalist dissent. Any attempt at questioning the legitimacy of the state was ruthlessly crushed. And yet as the state tightened its iron grip, there were various reports of Tibetans resisting against the repressive policies of the Chinese government.
Torture against Tibetan political prisoners has been used as a method of repression since the Chinese occupied Tibet in the 1950s. Despite China’s claim that it adheres to international law which effectively bars the use of torture, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has gathered numerous testimonies from former political prisoners which demonstrate that torture is still…
A Tibetan monk from Drepung monastery in Lhasa, Ngawang Samphel (33), was arrested in early April 1999 for suspicion of political acts. At present his whereabouts are unknown. This is the second time that Ngawang has been arrested. His first detention in Gutsa Detention Centre was for taking part in a peaceful demonstration on 27 September 1988, with five other monks from Drepung monastery.
On 27 September 1988, Ngawang Samphel and five other Drepung monks, Ngawang Zegen (22), Ngawang Chemey (30), Ngawang Thosam (28), Jamphel Wangchuk (28) and Jamphel Sherab (31) staged a peaceful demonstration in the Barkhor in Lhasa, shouting slogans calling for Tibetan independence. The officials of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) immediately arrested them. They were taken to Gutsa Detention Centre, located to the east of Lhasa. While in detention, the six monks were subjected to severe torture. As a result of the torture Ngawang’s friend Ngawang Zegen from Toelung County, died in 1989 approximately one month after his release.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) welcomes China’s signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on October 5 but expresses reservation at both China’s sincerity and the efficacy of this action in improving the human rights situation in Tibet and in China.
China’s decision to sign the ICCPR appears to be a response to persistent international pressure on the Chinese government to uphold international human rights standards, culminating in the recent visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson, to China. “We are concerned that the signing of the ICCPR is another political manoeuvre by the Chinese government to deflect attention from its deteriorating human rights record,” said Lobsang Nyandak, Executive Director of TCHRD. The signing of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) in October 1997 was similarly timed to coincide with the visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin to the USA.
In its recently released report entitled “Closing the Doors: Religious Repression in Tibet”, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported the expulsion of over 3,993 monks and nuns from their monasteries and nunneries under China’s “Strike Hard” Campaign. The report documents widespread repression of freedom of religion in Tibet ever since the launching of the “Strike Hard” campaign in Tibet in April 1996.
The principal part of the report is based on testimonials gathered in interviews with Tibetan refugees who have arrived in exile since 1997. The core of China’s “Strike Hard” and “re-education” campaigns is to force the monks and nuns to oppose notions of Tibetan nationalism and to denounce the Dalai Lama. Those who refuse risk severe repercussions. As of February 1998, 3,993 monks and nuns were expelled from their monasteries or nunneries, 294 were arrested and 14 deaths have been reported. Six monasteries and nunneries were completely closed down.
Two prisoners in Tibet’s Drapchi Prison died instantly on May 4, 1998, when prison officials opened fire on unarmed prisoners staging a protest in the prison. Sources from Tibet report that 200 other prisoners were seriously injured in the shooting and beatings used to suppress the revolt. The identities of the dead prisoners are unknown.
Earlier reports stated that the May 4 protest was begun by a group of 80 Drapchi prisoners from units 5 and 6. The group reportedly disrupted a prison function commemorating “Youth Day” by shouting slogans and pasting posters around the prison. Recent information indicates that the protesters distributed pamphlets and demanded the release of prisoners who had been placed in solitary confinement following an earlier protest in Drapchi on May 1.
A report released by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) today describes wide-spread and systematic violations by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) of Tibetan children’s rights to education. “The Next Generation: The State of Education in Tibet Today”, a 100 page report based on interviews conducted in Spring 1997 with 50 Tibetan children who have fled from Tibet in the previous two or three years, reveals the imposition of prohibitively high school fees, the phasing out of Tibetan language and culture, discrimination, indoctrination lessons and excessively cruel punishments.
The children interviewed by TCHRD ranged in age from 9 to 21 years and represented all three provinces of Tibet. Ninety-six percent of them had fled Tibet for reasons of education, generally under the most hazardous conditions and at great financial and personal cost to their family.
In 1993, Topgyal, together with Sholpa Dawa, decided to do something concrete to make the world aware of the situation in Tibet. They began the task of putting together a list of current and former political prisoners in the Lhasa area. It was the hope of both Tibetans, both elderly men, that they would be able to somehow get the…