Dalai Lama Urges Outside Inquiry Into Spate of Self-Immolations Among Tibetans
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/world/asia/dalai-lama-urges-outside-inquiry-into-spate-of-self-immolations-among-tibetans.html
By RICK GLADSTONE and HENRIK PRYSER LIBELL
May 9, 2014
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader in exile, on Friday called for an outside inquiry into the self-immolations of more than 130 Tibetans in anti-China demonstrations over the past five years, and he suggested that in some cases, such acts of protest were understandable and not entirely wrong.
If compassion is the reason driving those who immolate themselves, the Dalai Lama said, they should be viewed differently from those motivated by anger. The religious issues surrounding the self-immolations, he said, “are very, very complicated.”
The remarks by the Dalai Lama, 78, a soft-spoken Buddhist theologian, were ambiguous compared with his previous criticisms of self-immolations, carried out mainly by ordinary Tibetans frustrated with what they view as China’s repressive policies toward Tibet’s culture and religion.
The Dalai Lama made the remarks on the final day of a three-day visit to Norway, where he received the Nobel Peace Prize 25 years ago for his nonviolent philosophy in opposing China’s domination of his Himalayan homeland, which he fled in 1959.
China, which considers the Dalai Lama a subversive separatist, has accused him and his loyalists in exile of fomenting the self-immolations, which have embarrassed the Chinese authorities despite government attempts to thwart them. The International Campaign for Tibet, an advocacy group, has chronicled at least 131 self-immolations since February 2009, mostly in Tibetan-populated areas of western China adjoining Tibet.
Norwegian lawmakers in Oslo, who were among the Dalai Lama’s hosts, met with him in Parliament, where he appeared at a forum on Friday and answered questions that included whether he had urged a halt to the self-immolations.
“This is a very sensitive issue,” the Dalai Lama said, speaking in English. He said the self-immolations were “very sad” and that such “drastic action” probably had little effect on the underlying issue of Chinese policy on Tibet.
The Dalai Lama also said outsiders, like his hosts in Parliament, should conduct their own fact-finding visit to determine the causes. “I think sometimes Chinese leaders also need these things, too,” he said, because they are not given accurate information by their subordinates.
There was no immediate reaction from Chinese officials, who have described the self-immolations as a form of terrorism.
Whether self-immolations are religiously wrong, the Dalai Lama said, “entirely depends on motivation.”
“If such a drastic action takes place with full anger, then negative,” he said. “But more compassionate, more calm mind, then sometimes maybe less negative.”
The Dalai Lama’s visit to Norway has drawn particular attention because senior Norwegian government leaders decided against meeting with him in deference to China.
The Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, justified the decision on the grounds that Norway has been trying to improve relations with China, which has been angry at Norway ever since the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave the award to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010. Ms. Solberg elaborated on the decision on Friday, telling the national broadcaster NRK that it was a “necessary sacrifice” to improve relations with China.
Surveys suggested that many Norwegians were critical of the official snub, viewing it as a cowardly capitulation that sacrificed human rights in favor of economics. Thousands of well-wishers turned out to greet the Dalai Lama when he arrived in Oslo on Wednesday.
China’s state-run news media have not reported on the Dalai Lama’s trip, but the Chinese Foreign Ministry acknowledged the Norwegian government’s decision to snub him. “China pays attention to the announcement by the Norwegian side,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said on April 28.
Rick Gladstone reported from New York, and Henrik Pryser Libell from Oslo.
Correction: May 15, 2014
An earlier version of this article referred inaccurately to the Tibetans who have carried out self-immolations.They are mainly ordinary Tibetans, not mainly Buddhist monks.

Opinion Europe
Oslo Snubs the Dalai Lama
Under pressure from China, Norway’s prime minister does not plan to meet the Tibetan religious leader this week.
ByMatteo Mecacci and Ellen Bork
May 6, 2014 3:13 p.m. ET
Under pressure from China, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and other key officials have declined to meet the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan spiritual leader visits Norway this week.
Oslo’s decision signals the success of Beijing’s escalating campaign to deny the Dalai Lama and Tibet’s democratic government-in-exile the standing they need to find a just solution to the Tibetan issue. The setback in Norway marks a worrying trend that should spur consultations among European countries and the United States on steps to resist Beijing’s pressure.
“We haven’t been able to work with China on international issues for four years,” Ms. Solberg told a press conference Monday, referring to the “difficult situation” that Norway has faced since 2010, when Beijing broke off high-level ties with Oslo after the Norwegian-based Nobel Committee awarded its Peace Prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Norway has heretofore been a staunch supporter of Tibet and has constantly promoted efforts to bring about a negotiated solution. But when the Nobel Committee awarded Mr. Liu the prize in 2010—for his prominent work on Charter 08, a manifesto for democracy, constitutionalism and human-rights reforms in communist China—Beijing reacted ferociously. The Chinese government called on foreign countries to boycott the award ceremony, where Mr. Liu’s own absence (due to his imprisonment on “subversion” charges) was poignantly represented by an empty chair. Although the Nobel Committee acts independently of the Norwegian government, Norway was immediately made the target of diplomatic and commercial retaliation.
Norway’s experience is not unique. Lithuania and Estonia, whose leaders have defied Beijing by receiving the Dalai Lama, have also experienced political retaliation. Britain appears to have come under marked pressure as well; citing unnamed sources, the British press reported that Prime Minister David Cameron’s trip to China late last year had been preceded by a commitment that he would not raise the issue of Tibet.
To reverse this decline in international support for Tibet, Europe, the U.S., India, Japan and other democracies would have to develop a united stand that protects against China’s divide-and-conquer strategy, and band together to show respect for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan exile government. But why should they? After all, one might argue, Tibet’s fate is sealed and 60 years of occupation will not be undone by giving a respectful welcome to the Tibetan religious leader.
Beijing’s policies in Tibet are closely linked to its behavior in the rest of the region and the world. Beijing takes an expansive view of the “core interests” it claims in Tibet, for example by meddling in Nepal to thwart Tibetan refugees’ escape to safety. Further afield, Beijing sees its position in Tibet—which China invaded in the 1950s—as a reason to obstruct international action on other matters, lest intervention elsewhere create a precedent to intervene to stop China’s repression inside Tibet.
Coordination among the world’s democracies is also vitally important in light of Beijing’s plans to exert control over the selection of the next Dalai Lama. It is equally and similarly crucial with regard to the current Dalai Lama’s own plans for the future of his spiritual office, and to the work of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in northern India. Without a unified position on these matters, the void left behind by the Dalai Lama will be swiftly exploited by Beijing.
Aside from acting to stop Beijing’s repression in Tibet, the survival of Tibetan Buddhism and democracy-in-exile has profound implications for the future political development of China. Prominent Chinese dissidents, such as human-rights lawyer Teng Biao, argue that high-level meetings between world leaders and the Dalai Lama have a direct effect on China’s human-rights performance. Declining to meet with the Dalai Lama and failing to pursue Tibetan human rights thus undermines these dissidents, who speak out at great personal risk.
While defying Beijing is not easy, world leaders would likely find their citizens in strong support of a new, principled position that recognizes the moral and strategic importance of Tibet. Despite China’s sustained pressure on governments, support for Tibet remains surprisingly strong among European publics. In a recent Ifop poll conducted in France and Germany, more than 80% of respondents said they want their leaders to meet with the Dalai Lama, and equal or higher numbers said they want their leaders to raise the issue of Tibet when they meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, a whopping 90% of French respondents and 92% of German respondents said they favor a meeting between Mr. Xi and the Dalai Lama to pursue a negotiated solution.
Prime Minister Solberg’s decision has drawn protest within Norway. But she still has time to find a way to welcome the Dalai Lama. Better still, she could take steps to pave the way out of the predicament that so many democracies find themselves in, by entering into consultations with European countries and the United States over new, coordinated policies on Tibet. Only that will arrest the current dynamic of constant concessions, which not only mean terrible consequences for Tibetans, but also lost honor and legitimacy for our democracies.
Mr. Mecacci is president of the International Campaign for Tibet and a former member of the Italian parliament. Ms. Bork is director of democracy and human rights at the Foreign Policy Initiative and board member of the International Campaign for Tibet.

Tibetan Language Promotion Event Blocked by China
2014-04-22
Chinese authorities have at the last minute blocked a move to hold a traditional Tibetan language competition in a Tibetan-populated county in Sichuan province, citing concerns over the “political implications” of the event, sources said.
The competition calling for participants to speak “pure” Tibetan unmixed with Chinese was scheduled for Feb. 21 in conjunction with International Mother Language Day, and was to have been held in Muge Norwa town in Zungchu (in Chinese, Songpan) county, an area resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“The event was announced, and preparations had been made,” the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“However, the relevant Chinese department in the area called [event organizers] Drime and Lodroe Gyaltsen and ordered them to cancel the competition, saying the event had ‘political implications.’”
“They also said that the Tibetan language contains words that can be used to express opposition to Chinese rule,” he said.
“So they were ordered to cancel the event and were warned they would face serious consequences if they didn’t comply.”
National, cultural identity
International Mother Language Day, established by UNESCO in 1999, has been observed worldwide each year since February 2000 to celebrate linguistic and cultural diversity.
“Though others around the world have the right to mark this day, we in Tibet have no right to do so,” another Tibetan resident of Zungchu told RFA, calling the cultural restrictions faced by Tibetans “extremely sad.”
In an apparent attempt to tighten controls in Muge Norwa town, a work team of Chinese government officials assigned in 2008 to monitor the local Muge Tashi Khorlo monastery has now been established as “a permanent station,” a third area resident said.
“They are closely watching Tibetan activities in the area,” he said.
Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to reassert national identity in recent years, with Chinese authorities frequently closing language classes taught outside the state-controlled education system and Tibetan students protesting against the use of textbooks written in Chinese.
Last year, flyers posted in advance of International Mother Language Day in the Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of China’s Gansu province urged readers to “defend their mother tongue and give up impure mixed speech forever.”
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008, with 131 Tibetans setting themselves ablaze in self-immolation protests calling for Tibetan freedom since February 2009.
Reported by Lumbum Tashi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Richard Finney.

China approves of Norwegian leaders not meeting Dalai Lama

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/28/us-china-norway-idUSBREA3R0L320140428

(Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that it approved of a decision by Norway’s prime minister and foreign minister not to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama when he visits next month.
The Dalai Lama is scheduled to visit Norway from May 7 to May 9 at the invitation of civil groups in Oslo, in part to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize.
While the prime minister and foreign minister have not accepted invitations to meet him, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to be in parliament and meet some members, including those on a “Tibet Committee”.
“If you say that the Norwegian government previously viewed the Dalai Lama as a good friend, then I can tell you that this policy was wrong. We have noted the Norwegian government’s recent new position,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a daily news briefing.
Norway, he said, “ought to conscientiously deal with China’s core concerns and take real steps to correct their mistakes to create beneficial conditions to improving and developing relations.
“If you say that they made a mistake in the past, and can now change it, that is worth encouragement and approval.”
China has at least twice condemned the visit, saying it was opposed to any country giving a platform to the Dalai Lama’s views.
China calls the Dalai Lama a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who seeks to use violent methods to establish an independent Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, maintains he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet and denies advocating violence.
Norway’s diplomatic relations with China have been frozen since 2010, when the Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a veteran of 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing which the government crushed.
China canceled meetings with Norwegian officials and denied visas to visiting dignitaries, even though Norway’s government says it has no influence over the Nobel Committee.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/28/us-china-norway-idUSBREA3R0L320140428
(Reuters) – China’s foreign ministry said on Monday that it approved of a decision by Norway’s prime minister and foreign minister not to meet exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama when he visits next month.
The Dalai Lama is scheduled to visit Norway from May 7 to May 9 at the invitation of civil groups in Oslo, in part to celebrate the 25th anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize.
While the prime minister and foreign minister have not accepted invitations to meet him, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to be in parliament and meet some members, including those on a “Tibet Committee”.
“If you say that the Norwegian government previously viewed the Dalai Lama as a good friend, then I can tell you that this policy was wrong. We have noted the Norwegian government’s recent new position,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a daily news briefing.
Norway, he said, “ought to conscientiously deal with China’s core concerns and take real steps to correct their mistakes to create beneficial conditions to improving and developing relations.
“If you say that they made a mistake in the past, and can now change it, that is worth encouragement and approval.”
China has at least twice condemned the visit, saying it was opposed to any country giving a platform to the Dalai Lama’s views.
China calls the Dalai Lama a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” who seeks to use violent methods to establish an independent Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959, maintains he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet and denies advocating violence.
Norway’s diplomatic relations with China have been frozen since 2010, when the Nobel Committee awarded the peace prize to Liu Xiaobo, a veteran of 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing which the government crushed.
China canceled meetings with Norwegian officials and denied visas to visiting dignitaries, even though Norway’s government says it has no influence over the Nobel Committee.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Ron Popeski)

 Tibetan Man Dies in Self-Immolation Protest in Kardze
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/burning-04152014113941.html
A Tibetan man burned himself to death Tuesday in Sichuan province’s restive Kardze prefecture to protest Chinese rule, triggering a security alert and a clampdown on information flow, according to sources.
Thinley Namgyal, 32, self-immolated at noon in Khangsar township in Tawu (in Chinese, Daofu) county in Kardze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the sources said.
“Since the fire was so intense, it didn’t take very long for his death,” a local resident told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“He self-immolated in protest against Chinese policy and rule [in Tibetan populated areas],” another Tibetan resident said, also speaking anonymously.
Tibetans who witnessed the burning protest immediately took Namgyal’s body to a nearby monastery for prayers before Chinese police could arrive at the scene, the resident said.
The Gonthal monastery later handed over the body to the family of Namgyal, who left behind a mother and two older brothers.
Communication links cut off
Chinese authorities immediately stepped up security in the area and cut off mobile phone and other communication links, local residents said.
“Now it is very difficult to reach anyone in the Tawu area,” another resident said.
In Tawu county in July last year, Chinese forces opened fire on Tibetans and used tear gas to disperse about 1,000 monks and nuns who had gathered to celebrate the Dalai Lama’s birthday, injuring at least eight.
Namgyal’s burning was the 131st Tibetan self-immolation in China since the fiery protests began in 2009 challenging Chinese rule in Tibetan areas and calling for the return from exile of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
On March 29, a 31-year-old Tibetan nun set herself on fire near the Ba Choede monastery in Bathang (Batang) county, also in Kardze prefecture.
Following her protest, Chinese police rushed to Ba Choede and imposed “various restrictions” in the area, disrupting communication links and detaining several nuns who were close to her, sources had said.
“Tibetans continue to set themselves alight in Tibet because China continues to use force to deny them their basic human rights and their fundamental right to determine their own future as a nation,” London-based advocacy group Free Tibet’s director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren said in a statement.
‘Unaccountable’
Noting that China has this week postponed a much-trumpeted human rights dialogue with Britain, she said “China may try to hold itself unaccountable for human rights abuses but those abuses lie behind every self-immolation.”
“The protests and deaths of Thinley Namgyal and the other Tibetans who have taken this step are a reminder to the global community that China must be held accountable.”
Sporadic demonstrations challenging Beijing’s rule have continued in Tibetan-populated areas of China since widespread protests swept the region in 2008.
Chinese authorities have tightened controls in a bid to check self-immolation protests, arresting and jailing Tibetans whom they accuse of being linked to the burnings. Some have been jailed for up to 15 years.

How Europe Sacrificed the Right to Peaceful Protest for Good Relations With China
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aaron-rhodes/how-europe-sacrificed-the_b_5132809.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
Posted: 04/11/2014 9:41 pm EDT Updated: 04/11/2014 9:59 pm EDT
By Jacob Mchangama and Aaron Rhodes
Is the right to peaceful protest a fundamental human right? In Europe the answer seems to depend on whom you protest against. Several European democracies have accepted the idea that the price for doing business with China is censoring peaceful protest, when they should insist that the price for doing business in Europe is accepting the manifestation of public opinion.
On March 25, 2014, French police banned members of Falun Gong, a spiritual movement persecuted by the Chinese communist party, from demonstrating outside the Chinese embassy during the visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping. Without any plausible explanation, French police also stopped vehicles carrying photoshopped posters of Xi Jinping giving the “finger” that were commissioned by Reporters Without Borders as part of a campaign to highlight the dire state of press freedom in China. A French court quickly decided that the ban against a peaceful protest violated the rights to freedom of expression and association.
In doing so, the court ensured that French authorities follow rules at home consistent with positions taken on human rights abroad. On March 28 France and some 20 other EU states co-sponsored a resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council affirming the right to peaceful protest. The text urged states to “promote a safe and enabling environment for individuals and groups to exercise their rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, of expression and of association,” and to “facilitate peaceful protests by providing protestors with access to public space and protecting them, without discrimination.” China voted against the resolution.
France is not the only European country that stands up for the right to peaceful protest in non-binding resolutions in the Human Rights Council while compromising those very rights at home. The French incident is part of a larger and deeply disturbing pattern surrounding Chinese state visits to European democracies. In at least four other states — Belgium, Denmark, Ireland and Hungary — police have cracked down on lawful protests, including messages perceived as offensive or humiliating by the Chinese guests.
When Xi Jinping continued his European tour from France to Belgium, the regime of censorship followed suit. As revealed by the EU Observer, Belgian police asked a Chinese dance company to remove or cover posters advertising their performances because they included a reference to Falun Gong, which could pose “problems for diplomacy.” Ultimately the dance company chose not to comply, and the police took no further action. However, according to the International Federation or Human Rights (FIDH), pro-Tibetan protestors in Bruges were not let off as easily, with several being detained by the Belgian police and having their Tibetan flags confiscated.
The detention and removal of pro-Tibetan protestors and the confiscation of Tibetan flags was also part of the modus operandi of the Danish police when former president Hu Jintao visited Copenhagen in June 2012. While peacefully waving Tibetan flags, protestors were ordered to leave Parliament Square, and videos show Danish police officers confiscating Tibetan flags. Another incident saw an individual detained by three police officers in a public park close to a castle that was to be visited by Hu Jintao. Danish courts found that the sole reason for the detention was that the protester had been in possession of a Tibetan flag. During the trial, Danish police denied this claim but admitted that intelligence services had stressed the importance of the Chinese “not losing face,” and that Chinese security staff had repeatedly asked Danish police officers to confiscate “illegal flags.” During the same visit, Danish police drove vans in front of Falun Gong protesters, shielding them from view of Hu Jintao’s motorcade.
The rights of pro-Tibetan protestors were targeted again when Xi Jinping (then vice-president) visited Ireland in February 2012. According to three protestors, their banners and Tibetan flags were confiscated, and they were denied access to a park visited by Xi Jinping. Another protestor claims that Irish police used excessive force when removing her from another site Jinping was to visit.
Even more alarming was the conduct of Hungarian authorities during the visit of China’s then- Prime Minister Wen Jiabao’s in February 2011. As mentioned in the U.S. State Department’s 2011 human rights report on Hungary, local police targeted protestors against China’s policies on Tibet, and Tibetans in Hungary were ordered to report to the immigration authorities on the very day of the state visit. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights, Dr. Máté Szabó, concluded, “Measures taken against flag-waving pro-Tibetan demonstrators during the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao in Budapest, violated the rights of free expression and human dignity.” In addition, the “prohibition of discrimination” had also been violated when immigration authorities summoned Tibetan residents.
The Chinese insistence on censoring protest has even led members of Xi Jinping’s security detail to police these red lines themselves despite being on foreign soil. During a state visit in New Zealand, they forcibly confiscated a Tibetan flag brandished by MP Russell Norman.
These incidents are obviously not isolated, disconnected or random examples of police misconduct. They form a pattern of capitulation to demands that Chinese authorities be as free from confrontation about their human rights abuses when they travel abroad as they are at home — capitulation that is apparently driven by fears of losing opportunities to close lucrative financial deals.
European police forces, bound by constitutional principles and both national and international law, have, at the direction of higher authorities, acquiesced to enforcing Chinese red lines. Deference to Chinese demands can have disastrous consequences for civil society, as witnessed by Nepal’s treatment of Tibetan refugees. A recent reportby Human Rights Watch details how China has pressured Nepalese authorities to suppress the right of Tibetans to engage in peaceful protests and display national or cultural symbols, which is perceived to amount to “anti-Chinese activities.” European democracies should be condemning such practices in weak states, which are much more vulnerable to Chinese pressure due to geopolitical circumstances, rather than mimicking them at home.
The willingness of liberal democracies to deprive their own citizens of the exercise of fundamental freedoms, such as the right to peaceful protest, does not bode well for the ability of democracies to push for freedom for the downtrodden abroad. Indeed, it signals that democracies will insist on upholding fundamental freedoms only until emerging powers with economic clout push back. Led by China, repressive regimes have now called their bluff and are determined to take the upper hand while European democracies contribute to their own humiliation in this high-stakes game of international-relations strip poker.
Jacob Mchangama is a lawyer and a co-founder of the Freedom Rights Project. He has commented and published on human-rights issues in international media, including BBC World News, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Economist, The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, The Times of London, The Wall Street Journal Europe, and France 24.
Aaron Rhodes is also a co-founder of the Freedom Rights Project and President of the Forum for Religious Freedom Europe. He was Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights from 1993 to 2007.

By the NYT Editorial Board
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/opinion/sunday/doing-chinas-bidding-in-nep
al.html
The New York Times
April 12, 2014
Doing China’s Bidding in Nepal
A Human Rights Watch report released this month shows how far Nepal has gone in capitulating to Chinese pressure in cracking down on Tibetan residents
and refugees. It details a long list of shameful actions against Tibetans in Nepal, including restrictions on their activities and movements, surveillance and intimidation, arbitrary detention and forcible return to China.
In effect, Nepal has turned itself into a partner of China’s anti-Tibetan policies.
Nepal has long been a way station for Tibetans fleeing China. Many continue on to India, where the Dalai Lama lives and where they can obtain refugee
status. Still, some 20,000 Tibetans live in Nepal. Most were born there, yet the government of Nepal refuses, according to Human Rights Watch, to issue
at least half of them official identification.
Even those Tibetans who arrived before a 1989 rapprochement with China have no right to own property, or to gain official employment or access to higher
education.
Tibetans in Nepal know that wherever they gather to socialize or worship,they are likely to be spied on by Nepalese security forces who make no secret of their close links with Chinese authorities. Nongovernmental organizations that seek to monitor the situation or are engaged in humanitarian work with Tibetans in Nepal are also under surveillance and have been accused of disloyalty.
In February, Nepal’s Parliament elected the longtime democracy activist Sushil Koirala prime minister. Nepal’s Constituent Assembly is tasked with drafting a new constitution before February 2015. Nepal now has a fresh opportunity to reform its unjust policies toward Tibetan residents and refugees. But this will not be easy.
Aware of Nepal’s urgent economic needs, China has invited Mr. Koirala to attend the China-South Asia Exposition in Kunming, China, in June and pledged to increase tourism to Nepal, a poor country heavily dependent on Chinese help and investment. The Nepalese press reports that China has also offered lawmakers financial assistance in drafting the new constitution.
The government of Nepal has every right to seek positive trade and diplomatic relations with China. But it must stop allowing China to dictate policy regarding Tibetans in Nepal.
Mr. Koirala and Nepal’s Constituent Assembly should move quickly to guarantee resident Tibetans legal status that respects their basic rights,
and to treat Tibetan refugees in accordance with Nepalese and international law. Without these steps, Nepal’s struggle to achieve lasting democratic
governance will remain woefully incomplete.

 UN Banned Chinese NGO Representative’s Tibet Connection
http://www.voatibetanenglish..com/content/un-banned-chinese-ngo-representatives-tibet-connection/1884914.html
02.04.2014
When UN officials in Geneva stripped a Chinese man of his NGO pass for secretly taking photographs during a United Nations Human Rights Council session on March 19, they probably didn’t realize that they were dealing with an important communist party official usually associated more with political repression than human rights.
While neither Beijing nor the United Nations has confirmed his identity, several Chinese language media have identified the man as Zhu Xiaoming, one of the most important figures shaping China’s Tibet policies in past few decades.  Many Tibetans blame those policies for causing mass protests across Tibet in 2008 and more than 130 self-immolations in the last three years.
Zhu’s personal involvement with Tibet goes back to the 1980s when he was the deputy party propaganda chief in Tibet.  His wife Lu Xiaofei’s Tibet connection goes back even further.   Her father, Xia Chuan, was in the PLA’s 18th army that invaded Tibet in 1951. During the next 10 years, the Chinese army fought countless battles, eventually overwhelming the Tibetan army and militia resistance forces, and causing hundreds of thousands of civilian casualties and irreparable damage to Tibet’s historical and cultural institutions.
Ji Yuchuan, a PLA officer engaged in the siege of Lhasa in 1959 wrote in his memoirs that the number of Tibetans killed, captured or wounded reached 93,000 in the Lhasa area alone. The numbers were far higher in the Tibetan areas of today’s Qinghai, Gansu, Yunnan and Sichuan where fighting had been going on for three years before the fall of Lhasa.
Zhu Xiaoming witnessed the easing of controls and restrictions in Tibet in the 1980s following Party Secretary Hu Yaobang’s inspection tour of Tibet, after which Hu concluded that policies since 1959 had been an abject failure and that Tibetans should have a higher degree of freedom.  Hu Yaobang later fell out of favor in Beijing and his reforms in Tibet were reversed.   Zhu Xiaoming rose with the new hardline tide to become the United Front Work Department’s Tibet Bureau Chief in Beijing. The UFW is the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee’s department in charge of developing and implementing policies on Tibet and the stalled talks with the Dalai Lama.
So why was Zhu Xiaoming whose ties to the inner circle of Chinese leaders go back to Jiang Zemin’s presidency, attending a UNHRC hearing?  Why was a senior Chinese official using the cover of an NGO representative and taking photos with a hidden camera inside his coat? A closer look at Zhu’s past reveals a man who relishes taking unnecessary risks by going out to conduct quasi covert actions.
In 1999, after almost a decade of pushing for hardline rule in Tibet and a policy of attacking and denigrating Tibet’s spiritual leader, Zhu sensed a change in policy when President Jiang Zemin tilted towards reengaging the Dalai Lama. Jiang possibly wanted a gesture to ease China’s entry to the World Trade Organization.   After an inexplicable trip to the US, ostensibly to attend a conference in Boston, Zhu is believed to have personally renewed contact with exile Tibetan officials, as a prelude to reviving the dialog process with the Dalai Lama’s representatives.  Contact with the exile Tibet side could have been made by any number of officials at Chinese embassies and consulates in India or the US, but Zhu felt compelled to do it himself. This incidence perhaps provides a clue to his cloak and dagger behavior last week in Geneva which United Nations’ officials have deemed “intimidation and harassment.”
Following the protests in Tibet’s capital in 1987 and the rollback of more moderate policies in Tibet, Zhu was one of the key officials responsible for pushing hardline thinking on Tibet. This trend culminated in the 3rd Tibet Work Forum in 1993 which he oversaw. Throughout the 1990s, Zhu was not only instrumental in halting any productive dialog with the Dalai Lama for a way forward on Tibet, he was also behind the strategy for Tibet termed “Post Dalai Lama” which calculated that the Tibet issue will go away with the death of the 14th Dalai Lama, and the subsequent Chinese Communist Party recognition of the Dalai Lama’s successor reincarnate. This thinking has remained the primary rationale behind Beijing’s policy on Tibet despite the fact that the current Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second highest lama in the Geluk school of Tibetan Buddhism, has received little  acceptance from monasteries and the Tibetan people since 1996 when he was anointed by Beijing.   The Dalai Lama chose another Panchen Lama, a six-year old boy who along with his family disappeared in China, unseen to date.
When talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama’s representatives were finally to start in 2002, Zhu was replaced at the United Front by Zhu Weiqun, an official with far less baggage on Tibet.  Some Tibetan’s saw Zhu’s replacement as the removal of an obstacle to progress and as a hopeful sign. These hopes were short lived as meeting after meeting between the Chinese and Tibetans, from 2002 to 2010, ended without a single instance of real dialog.
Once again Zhu Xiaoming’s ideas on Tibet and suspicions towards the Dalai Lama provided the intellectual ground for why the Chinese side would not, and perhaps more accurately, could not move forward in the negotiations with the Dalai Lama’s envoys.
After being transferred from the United Front, Zhu went to work at the Socialist University.   Before long he was back to work on Tibet and he became Party Secretary at the Tibetology Center in Beijing, a think tank on Tibet policy and lead organization for shaping academic as well as propaganda on Tibet in the international arena. The Tibetology Center has been a strong proponent of the “Post Dalai Lama” scenario as a final solution to Tibet, and has accused the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way Proposal” of being a threat to China’s territorial integrity.
The Dalai Lama has proposed greater religious, cultural and environmental autonomy for all Tibetan cultural regions while remaining a part of China.   Zhu Xiaoming has continuously claimed the Dalai Lama’s proposal should be viewed as disingenuous, labeling it a call for “independence in disguise.” These accusations against the Dalai Lama’s call for genuine autonomy for a Tibet that is within the PRC are still made to this by officials in the Tibet Autonomous region, almost verbatim.
The breakdown of talks between Beijing and the Dalai Lama appeared to have dashed the hopes of many Tibetans for change in Tibet.  This combined with constant attacks on the Tibetan spiritual leader in forced reeducation sessions in monasteries across Tibet  sparked the uprisings, and protests that swept almost all Tibetan areas in 2008, according to many Tibetan observers. The ensuing crackdowns and militarization of Tibetan towns and monasteries led to more than 110 self-immolation deaths in Tibet since 2009.
Many self-immolators had called out, often while engulfed in flames, for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet and for freedom in Tibet.  Some written and on-camera testaments left behind by self-immolators also protested the suppression of Tibetan religion and language in monasteries and schools.
The NGO that Zhu Xiaoming went to represent at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva last week is ironically called China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture. The NGO’s website claims a long list of advisors and board members who include Du Qinglin, a member of the CCP’s Central Committee and the former head of the United Front Work Department.  Also listed are Zhang Yijiong, a Central Committee member and former deputy party secretary of Tibet Autonomous Region, and Zhu Weiqun, former deputy head of the UFW who has vice-ministerial rank.   There is also a long list of Tibetan members, most of whom are party members and leaders who rose to power during the Cultural Revolution which saw the unprecedented wholesale destruction of  Tibetan lives, institutions and culture.
Following Zhu’s banning from the United Nations, U.N. Watch appealed to the president of the Human Rights Council for the removal of the Chinese association’s credentials as a nongovernmental organization. Hillel Neuer, the Executive Director of U.N. Watch wrote that, “The Chinese N.G.O. in question is known for making statements at the U.N. identical to those of the Chinese government,” and concluding that, “We consider this incident to be an act of deliberate intimidation in reprisal against our delegate for her cooperation with the United Nations’ human rights mechanisms.”
While a senior Chinese official engaging in deception, ‘intimidation’ and ‘reprisals’ at the United Nations may seem hard to believe at first glance, it becomes more credible when that person is China’s leading Tibet hand for almost a quarter century.

Eighteen-year sentence for Tibetan monk accused of “separatism”
Thardhod Gyaltsen is senior monk from county targeted by China after protests
Thardhod Gyaltsen was detained in December 2013 during a crackdown in Driru County, central Tibet. In January 2014 he was sentenced to eighteen years’ imprisonment. According to local sources, he was convicted of separatism on the basis of being in possession of banned pictures and recordings of the Dalai Lama (1).
Thardhod Gyaltsen was the chant leader and part of the monastic management of Drongna monastery in Driru county, Nagchu prefecture of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (2).
The monastery was forcibly closed by authorities in December 2013. Tharghod Gyaltsen’s father, Jungney, was killed by Chinese polices during the mass protest in Driru in 1969.
Driru County has been a recent focus of Chinese attention following an anti-mining protest in the area last May (3).
In October, security forces fired upon a peaceful demonstration in the county (see below), following demonstrations and clashes after thousands of officials had flooded the area to impose a “political re-education” campaign in September. On 28 September, after being instructed to fly Chinese flags over their houses, Tibetans in Mowa township threw the flags into the river.
Authorities responded by sending paramilitary and police forces into the area in large numbers. In subsequent clashes around 40 Tibetans were arrested and many were severely beaten and injured. A protest to secure the release of a local man on 6 October was fired upon by security forces who also broke up the demonstration with beatings. An estimated 60 Tibetans were injured (4).
In the period since the shooting, Driru has seen further protests and a continued crackdown. Large numbers of arbitrary detentions have taken place and individuals have been given sentences of up to 13 years for their involvement in the original mining protests (5). In December 2014, the authorities forcibly closed Drongna monastery and two others – Tarmoe and Rabten – in the county.
Driru residents have also been monitored when travelling to other parts of Tibet (6) and hotels in Lhasa have been required to report any guests from the area (amongst other selected Tibetan areas) to the police and seek permission to register them (7). Neighbouring Sog county has also seen an increased security presence and arrests in an attempt to contain protests (8).
Driru is situated in the Tibet Autonomous Region and Nagchu prefecture borders the prefecture of Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. The situation in the county remains extremely tense. Monks are forbidden from carrying out prayer sessions and daily monastic activities are severely restricted due to the conditions imposed by authorities. All communication lines are restricted.
Free Tibet director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren said:
“The punitive sentence imposed on this respected religious figure is just the most recent example of China’s knee-jerk response to Tibetan protest. The sequence of events in Driru is emblematic of China’s failed strategy in Tibet: a legitimate environmental protest was followed up with an attempt to impose political re-education, leading to forceful but peaceful Tibetan resistance and a violent and sustained crackdown.
“Driru has been the focal point of Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule for months and has paid a heavy price. China is especially sensitive to protests in the Tibet Autonomous Region because resistance spread from the area to the rest of the country in 2008. In other parts of Tibet they say ‘fire in Lhasa, smoke here’ but China’s determination to stamp down on Driru instead of addressing the grievances of those who live there is as counter-productive as it is vindictive.”
Information provided by Tibet Watch.

Condolence Message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the Passing Away of Baba Phuntsog Wangyal
March 30th 2014
I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing away of Baba Phuntsog Wangyal in Beijing. He was a true Communist, genuinely motivated to fulfill the interests of the Tibetan people. In his death we have lost a trusted friend.
I first met Phunwang, as he was popularly known, in 1951, when he accompanied Chinese officials to Lhasa. Later, during my visit to Beijing and other cities in 1954-55 he assisted and interpreted for me in the course of which we became good friends. During the series of meetings I had with Chairman Mao in particular, he was of crucial help as my interpreter. He was well-versed in Marxist thought and much of what I know of that I learned from him. He was one of those Tibetans aware of the drawbacks of the prevailing social and political system in Tibet, who was inspired by Communism to bring about change.
Through his own example Phunwang showed that you could be a true Communist while at the same time proud of your Tibetan heritage. He caught me by surprise, when, at our first meeting, in the company of the Chinese delegation, he chose to make prostrations before me. At the same time, while the Chinese officials were all dressed uniformly in their regulation Mao suits, he wore a traditional Tibetan chuba. When I asked him about this he told me it would be a mistake to think that the Communist Revolution was primarily concerned with how to dress. He said it was more about a revolution of ideas, indicating to me that he did not think that being a Communist meant a Tibetan needed to dismiss Tibetan traditions.
Despite his firm upholding of Communist ideals, the Chinese authorities regarded Phuntsog Wangyal’s dedication to his Tibetan identity in a negative light, as a result of which he spent 18 years in prison. He remained undaunted and even after his retirement continued to be concerned about the rights and welfare of the Tibetan people, something he raised with the Chinese leadership whenever he had the opportunity.
A sincere, honest man, I enjoyed his company whenever we met. I had hoped we might yet meet again, but that was not to be.
I pray that Phuntsog Wangyal may have a good rebirth and offer my condolences to his wife and children.
Dharamsala, India
March 30, 2014
dalailama.com