TIBET
Berlin protest sheds light on Tibetan plight
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16198814,00.html
28.08.2012
Tibet Initiative Deutschland talks with DW about the growing number of Tibetan self-immolations and its demonstration in Berlin ahead of German Chancellor Merkel’s trip to Beijing for inter-governmental consultations.
DW: What can you tell us about the Tibet Initiative Deutschland’s demonstration in Berlin?
Nadine Baumann: We staged a protest in front of the chancellor’s office on Tuesday (August 28) ahead of Merkel’s visit to Beijing for Sino-German consultations. Those talks with Chinese leaders are mostly about economic issues, but our protest is aimed at informing the public and shedding light on what is currently happening in Tibet. Before the protest we sent a letter to Ms. Merkel asking her to bring up the issue in her talks. She has done this repeatedly in the past and we are very thankful for that. Germany is very outspoken on this issue compared to many other countries, but of course it is still not enough to ensure sustainable improvements in the situation in Tibet. A lot more needs to happen.
In numerous circumstances Germany has addressed the situation of human rights in China, but some of Merkel’s critics maintain that the chancellor of late has gone soft on the issue. Does your initiative share that view?
No, we do not see it that way. We have regular conversations with officials from the German foreign ministry and government representatives and we have been repeatedly assured that Merkel will address this issue in her meetings … and we trust that she will. It must be said that she has done a lot.
Despite the human rights situation in China, Germany and China have very close relations. Are there any negative voices about that in your initiative? Or do you think Germany should continue close economic ties and use them to try and exercise some influence over the situation?
Nadine Baumann (right) says the self-immolations can no longer be seen as isolated incidents
You hit the nail on the head. Of course, we are not so naïve that we think that China, as a global player, should be boycotted or that trade relations should be stopped. That is not our intention or purpose. Quite the contrary: These relations can be used to influence the human rights situation and to seek agreement on certain legal standards and to demand their observance. And I think Germany’s voice as a strong partner in the EU should not be underestimated. This is an opportunity to make a difference.
Turning to the self-immolations in Tibet: This is a very difficult issue because the figures cannot be confirmed as no journalists are allowed into the region. How do you see the situation, and the situation of the media in Tibet? And how do you find out about the self-immolations?
The situation in Tibet is anything but good. As you said, Tibet is off limits and even tourists, for the second time this year, are not allowed in. Journalists, of course, have had no access for a while now. We have been demanding for a long time that an independent, international commission be given access to investigate the incidents. But that has been blocked. We learn about the burnings from Tibetan sources in exile, who maintain contacts with people in Tibet. All of this is very difficult, but due to modern technology, it is a bit easier than it used to be. We carefully investigate the cases we hear about and verify their authenticity. This is not always easy, but it is possible.
It is quite apparent that the number of self-immolations has risen sharply, especially recently. Your website says that since March 2011 some 50 Tibetans have lit themselves on fire. Why this dramatic increase now?
Back in March, we were hoping that these cases were just random, isolated events. But now we see that this is not the case. The Chinese authorities argue that these are just isolated cases, but that is something that can no longer be claimed, especially when you look at the timeframe and the numbers. The number of people who have self-immolated has now reached 51, and of these, 38 people died as a result. What is the reason for this increase? At first we assumed that these were acts of desperation, but now we have come to the conclusion that this is a new form of political protest because the people of Tibet see no other way out. Most Tibetans are Buddhists and Buddhism does not condone suicide. That means these people are acting contrary to their religious traditions.
Chinese control of the region is nothing new, so again, the question has to be asked: why now?
Tibetans continue to protest Chinese rule
I think we need to realize that the oppression has been growing stronger. In daily life, everybody is being watched and is under surveillance. There is no freedom of expression. Their identity is being systematically destroyed, including their language. These offences are like small pin pricks, which have been going on for a long time, but now, they are increasing in number and intensity. And in reaction to the burnings, the Chinese authorities have again redoubled their clampdown. Tibet is essentially closed off to the outside world by the Chinese military. The last people to go there reported columns of troops and surveillance cameras everywhere. The atmosphere is one of fear and has become unbearable. I can’t say 100 percent why it is happening now, but to me it can only be in connection with the growing pressure.
The Dalai Lama withdrew from politics as the representative of the Tibetans not that long ago. He had always argued for the peaceful path of political change. Since he ended his active role, the number of self-immolations has shot up. Is there any connection?
No, absolutely not. Quite the contrary: The Dalai Lama has also called on Tibetans not to set themselves on fire. He actively supported the Tibetan’s exile democracy, which gave political power to a democratically elected leader, Lobsang Sangay, a Westernized Tibetan who taught at Harvard, who represents the interests of the Tibetan people abroad. He is a young, politically active person, who represents Tibetans politically, while the Dalai Lama remains the spiritual leader. Sangay supports the Middle Way Approach that the Dalai Lama began.
Of course, it must be said that among Tibetans, there are also different currents and that the longer the oppression in Tibet lasts, the more radical the resistance may become … But I do not think it has anything to do with the political retirement of the Dalai Lama.
The number of self-immolations could be interpreted as a certain type of protest movement. Would you say a concrete protest movement is forming in Tibet, and if so, what is it seeking from China and the international community?
We would need to pose this question to the people in Tibet themselves, but unfortunately, we have no access to them. We view the situation as a form of protest because of the sharp increase in people setting fire to themselves. Many people, while doing this, shouted for the return of the Dalai Lama, but under the current circumstances, this is not feasible. He is in exile and China has absolutely no interest in him returning to Tibet … All these acts are essentially a cry for attention from international governments – that they really look at Tibet. What is going on now is happening largely unnoticed by the international community. Tibetans apparently see no other chance but to sacrifice their lives – that is how desperate they are. It is incomprehensible that we are learning about this, but that nothing is being done about it.
Nadine Baumann is executive director of Tibet Initiative Deutschland.

 Tibetan Singer Arrested for Politically Charged Songs
20.08.2012
A 29-year-old Tibetan singer from eastern Tibet was arrested by Chinese authorities for singing politically sensitive songs that expressed longing for the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
Chogsel, who has released four albums and was known to be working in collaboration with other Tibetan singers, was reportedly arrested on July 29 in Siling city.
Chogsel’s songs such as “Dream of a ruddy faced Tibetan” praises the Tibetan exiled spiritual leader Dalai Lama, whom Beijing vilifies. His albums have been banned from sale and confiscated from shops for its lyrical odes to the exiled Buddhist leader.
Over the years, China has sporadically arrested many Tibetan singers who have sung songs with explicit and subdued political messages, and metaphorical songs for the Tibetan spiritual leader.
In April, Lo Lo was arrested for releasing his new album titled “Raise the Flag of Tibet, Sons of the Snow”, which carried overt themes of reunification with Tibetans in exile and political messages calling for Tibet’s independence from China.
In February, another Tibetan singer named Urgyen Tenzin was arrested for singing a song in praise of the Dalai Lama and leader of the Tibetan exile community Lobsang Sangay.

Joining India’s Independence Day celebration – Thank you India!
Youdon Aukatsang | Aug 14, 2012, 04.52PM IST
On this auspicious occasion of 66th anniversary of India’s Independence, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people and government of this great country. We remain eternally grateful for the most generous support this country has offered us since we came in as refugees in 1959 fleeing persecution, with our beloved leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
To most Tibetans of my generation and younger, India is the only home that we have seen since birth. It is here that most of us blossomed with values, education, and the zeal to sustain our democratic movement. The biggest democracy in the world has totally embraced us with its warm hospitality.
While we celebrate the Independence Day, we are reminded of the fact that it has been 60 years since China invaded Tibet. Chinese troops entered Tibet through Chamdo in 1949.
History is witness to the fact that a unified Tibetan empire flourished from 7th-11th century. With internal fragmentation, there came periods of Mongol and Chinese invasions. The Chinese empires used divide and rule tactics to exert their influence in Tibet. This tactics was also extended to territorial division. All of Amdo and large parts of Eastern Kham were incorporated into neighboring Chinese provinces by early 18th Century. But by the beginning of the 19th century, the Qing dynasty weakened to the point of becoming symbolic.
With the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the 13th Dalai Lama returned to Tibet in July 1912 and banished the symbolic presence of the Amban and Chinese troops. In 1913, the 13th Dalai Lama issued a proclamation of independence of Tibet and for the next over 36 years, Tibet enjoyed de facto independent status.
This historical fact cannot be changed. China has tried hard to rewrite history and even placed a condition on Tibetan leadership to pronounce that Tibet has been historically a part of China. Our leadership has not succumbed to Chinese pressure on this historical fact.
The vision of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama has been to seek genuine autonomy for Tibetans within China. This arrangement calls for a single Tibetan administrative unit with Tibetans having the power to legislate, execute and administer all matters within the competencies of the region. The 13th House of the Tibetan Parliament in exile stood with the vision of His Holiness and passed a legislation supporting the middle way approach of genuine autonomy.
The magnanimous decision of His Holiness to handover political power to directly elected leadership has brought the exiled Tibetan administration closer to true democracy. The new leadership under Dr. Lobsang Sangay has reaffirmed its commitment to seeking genuine autonomy for Tibet. Advocates of independence for Tibet such as Tibetan Youth Congress and Students for Free Tibet, however believe that independence is the only solution to keep the hopes and aspirations of the Tibetans alive.
While we enjoy full freedom under a vibrant democratic set up, our brothers and sisters are second-class citizens in their own homeland. They do not even have the basic right to express their thoughts and demonstrate their true feelings. People’s lives have been so tightly controlled by the Chinese government that there is no space for any conventional protests or even peaceful gatherings in Tibet. Tibetans are therefore undertaking extreme acts of self-immolation since 2009 to express their dissent to the Chinese oppressive regime. As recent as August 13, we have had two monks self-immolating in Ngaba province in Amdo. The onus lies solely with the Chinese government and the blame cannot be passed on to His Holiness the Dalai Lama or the exiled leadership.
Starting with monk Tapey who self immolated on 27 February 2009, to the most recent incident of two monks self immolating on August 13 from Ngaba, Amdo, Tibetans have demonstrated ultimate rejection of the Chinese rule in Tibet. Of the 49 who have self-immolated, at least 37 have been known to have died. 36 of these have been reported since January 2012. Many Tibetans have been and are being detained for purposes of investigation and their whereabouts remain unknown even as they continue to be subjected to all kinds of unbearable torture.
As spokesperson for those who have no voices but yet are relentlessly fighting the brutal Chinese system, we should not get side tracked with debates on the correctness of the act of self-immolation. We are losing precious Tibetan lives and we must not let their sacrifices go in vain.
Tibetan issue has all the elements that a truly democratic country like India stands for. It is an issue pertaining to freedom, justice, equality and democracy. Tibetan movement may be the only movement truly upholding the principles of non-violence that this country advocates so strongly.
In this real politick world where economic concerns override all other issues, let us work together and take up the challenge to keep the Tibetan cause alive and relevant.
Youdon Aukatsang is based in New Delhi and is a Member of Tibetan Parliament in exile.

View this story online at :    http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/immolate-08132012134204.html
Two Tibetans Self-Immolate in Ngaba
AUGUST 13, 2012 — Two Tibetans set themselves on fire Monday in protest against Chinese rule in Ngaba county in Sichuan province, triggering clashes between local Tibetans and police that resulted in a Tibetan beaten to death, sources said.
Amid the rising tensions, some sources said there was a third self-immolation in the county, located in the Ngaba (Aba, in Chinese) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, but the incident could not be immediately confirmed.
The two confirmed self-immolations on Monday evening set the stage for bigger protests by Tibetans and a heavy police presence.
Lungtok, a monk from the restive Kirti monastery in Ngaba, and another Tibetan, believed to be a layperson and identified as Tashi, torched themselves at around 6:00 p.m. local time to highlight their opposition to Chinese rule in Tibetan-populated areas, a Tibetan source in the area told RFA.
“A large contingent of police and armed PSB [Public Security Bureau] personnel arrived at the site of the self-immolation and imposed stern restrictions in the area,” the source said.
“The local Tibetans gathered in the area clashed with police and the situation became very tense. One Tibetan died from being beaten by the police.”
Details unknown
There were no immediate details of the condition of the two self-immolators who, according to witnesses, were whisked away by Chinese security forces to a nearby hospital, sources inside Tibet said.
“I heard about the two Tibetans who self-immolated today around 6:00 p.m. and one was a monk,” a second source said, speaking to RFA from the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The source added, “Another monk also self-immolated around 8:00 p.m. today but details on him are not known.”
Information about the possible third self-immolation could not be confirmed with residents in the area amid the heightened security.
“A large number of Tibetans are protesting against the Chinese authorities and the situation is grim and serious,” the second source said.
Exiled monk Lobsang Yeshi of the sister Kirti monastery in India’s hill town of Dharamsala, while confirming the two self-immolations, said he had also heard unconfirmed reports of a third burning protest.
“It is true that two [Tibetans] did self-immolate in Ngaba and we are seeking more details. We also heard that a third Tibetan self-immolated and protested but the details are not available,” he told RFA.
Including the two confirmed incidents on Monday, 49 Tibetans in total have self-immolated since the current wave of fiery protests began in February 2009, with nearly all of the protests taking place in Tibetan-populated provinces in western China.
Nearly all of them protested against Chinese rule and called for the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader who is living in exile in Dharamsala.
Last week, three Tibetans died in self-immolation protests — two in Ngaba and one in the southern part of Kanlho (Gannan, in Chinese) prefecture in Gansu province.
Tibetan groups say the wave of self-immolation protests will continue until the underlying human rights and other problems in the Tibetan-populated areas are addressed by the Chinese authorities.
Chinese authorities however have labeled the self-immolators as terrorists, outcasts, criminals, and mentally ill people and have blamed the Dalai Lama for encouraging the burnings.
View this story online at :    http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/immolate-08132012134204.html

PRESS RELEASE by Tibet Bureau, Geneva
Date: 3 August 2012
Tibetan intellectuals especially targeted by Chinese authorities
At least 24 Tibetans intellectuals – monks, men and women have been given sentences ranging from few months to life imprisonment for excising their freedom of expression.  The Chinese authorities especially targeted Tibetan writers, bloggers, singers, teachers, documentary makers and environmentalist under a crackdown policy since 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
64 Tibetan intellectuals’ details were today submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to Freedom of opinion and Expression for their urgent intervention.
These new generation of young Tibetans born and educated under Chinese Communist rule have edited banned magazines and are tech-savvy bloggers imprisoned for gathering, expressing and sharing information about conditions in Tibet especially after the March 2008 demonstrations across Tibet.
Their writing challenged the official account of the events of 2008 and situation in Tibet in general. The crackdown on Tibetan artists and intellectuals are the harshest since the Cultural Revolution. Strict restrictions have been placed on photocopying and printing documents.
A public health worker, 41-year-old Wangdu was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2008 for sending e-mail to the outside world. He worked on an HIV/AIDS prevention project for the Australian Burnet medical research institute in Lhasa.
81-years-old Paljor Norbu, a Tibetan traditional printer master was arrested on 31 October 2008 and sentenced in a secret trial to seven years in prison. His family ran printing business for generations publishing Buddhist texts for monasteries in the Barkhor area in Lhasa.
12 intellectuals were released on fear of custodial death after excessive torture during detention by the Chinese authorities. Due to the severity of the torture some have become physically and mentally dependent on their family members.
The whereabouts of about 37 intellectuals are unknown. There are great concerns for their health. Family members have been intimidated and denied visits to prisons. Four school teachers were expelled and one demoted. A writer and comedian were escaped into exile.
On 12 June, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton, in her address to the European Parliament on the situation in Tibet said, “Over the last three years, an increasing number of Tibetan intellectuals and cultural figures have faced criminal charges or been imprisoned. The EU is worried by restrictions on expressions of Tibetan identity and freedom of expression in Tibet.”
She said that EU was concerned by the deterioration of the situation in Tibet, as illustrated by the wave of self-immolations and by clashes between the police and the local population since the beginning of the year.
Detailed profile of Tibetan intellectuals are available  website http://tibetoffice.ch/

State Department reports on continued erosion of religious freedom in Tibet
31st July  2012 –  International Campaign for Tibet
The U.S. State Department has identified Chinese policies as a cause of the self-immolations in Tibet. In its just-released annual report on religious freedom, the Department wrote that, “official interference in the practice of Tibetan Buddhist religious traditions generated profound grievances and contributed to a series of self-immolations by Tibetans.”
“We welcome the Department’s advocacy on Tibet and its focus on the severe restrictions on religious freedom that are exacerbating the self-immolation crisis,” said Todd Stein, Director of Government Relations at the International Campaign for Tibet. “We know that Tibet was raised in last week’s human rights dialogue with the Chinese, and look forward to hearing whether the Chinese had any positive response to the U.S.’s concerns on Tibet, and what the State Department’s consequential next step will be if they did not.”
The findings are located in the special Tibet section of the State Department’s 2011 International Religious Freedom Report, an annual assessment of countries’ respect for religious liberty, mandated by Congress in 1998. The Tibet section can be found at www.state.gov.
The report’s assessments come amidst a roll-out across Tibetan areas of rules and regulations which “provide the ostensible legal basis for [Chinese] government control over and authoritative reinterpretation of Tibetan Buddhism.” Such measures, first implemented in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), are being extended to other Tibetan autonomous jurisdictions in eastern Tibet, which have witnessed the greatest number of self-immolations.
Examples include codified “government control over the selection of religious leaders, including reincarnate lamas,” requiring government permission for large-scale religious gatherings and building construction, the permanent stationing of government officials inside monasteries, and ‘patriotic education’ activities that force monks and nuns to denounce the Dalai Lama and praise Chinese Communist leaders. The report found these measures to be the “primary sources of discontent among Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns, and the impetus behind such acts of protest as self-immolation.”
The report cites a number of individual cases, but noted that “limited access … made it difficult to ascertain the number of cases of Tibetan prisoners of religious conscience. It states that, “U.S. government officials repeatedly requested diplomatic access to the TAR but only one TAR visit was approved [in April 2011], and that visit was closely controlled and monitored.” If further reported that U.S. diplomats and other foreigners seeking to travel in other Tibetan areas were turned back at roadblocks or refused transportation on public buses … that were ostensibly open to foreign tourists.”
The report’s observations on religious freedom are consistent with those in a major report issued by the International Campaign for Tibet in April, entitled “60 Years of Misrule; Arguing Cultural Genocide in Tibet.” It found that religious repression formed part of a consistent and systemic Chinese effort to replace organic Tibetan culture with a state-approved version to suit the Party’s ideological, political and economic objectives. It argues that these policies are so systematic and persistent in their destruction of Tibetan culture, that they contain elements of cultural genocide.