OUR NATION: EPISODE 13 - News of Daring Vigil by Monks in Tibet

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Two Great Articles

A great source for Tibet & China commentary is Rebecca Novick, who blogs regularly on The Huffington Post. Novick has two posts up this week on China’s crackdown inside Tibet following the nation-wide uprising this spring and as the Olympics approach. Go give these two articles — Leaking State Secrets: Beijing Finds Nothing Noble in Speaking Out on Human Rights and Guilty of Being Tibetan: Scenes from a Lhasa Prison — a read today.

Transcript of Press Conference by Tibet Activists on Eve of IOC Meeting in Athens

TIBET ACTIVISTS SPEAK OUT ON EVE OF INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE MEETING IN ATHENS
TRANSCRIPT OF STATEMENTS MADE AT PRESS CONFERENCE
JUNE 3RD, FOREIGN PRESS ASSOCIATION OF GREECE, ATHENS

1) INTRODUCTION BY LHADON TETHONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET (SFT) INTERNATIONAL
2) TENDON DAHORTSANG, PRESIDENT, TIBETAN YOUTH ASSOCIATION IN EUROPE, ON THE CURRENT SITUATION IN TIBET
3) BORIS EICHLER, PRESS OFFICER, TIBET INITIATIVE DEUTSCHLAND, ON THE TORCH RELAY THROUGH TIBET
4) LHADON TETHONG, SFT, ON INTERNATIONAL MEDIA ACCESS TO TIBET

Below is the transcript of remarks by Tibet campaigners at a press conference at the Foreign Press Association of Greece in Athens, June 3rd. The press conference was broadcast live on the Internet and can be viewed at: www.sfttv.org. The remarks were followed by questions by reporters present in the room as well as by viewers who watched the press conference live online and asked their questions in an accompanying web-forum. Transcript may vary slightly from the remarks as delivered by the presenters but the following should be regarded as the official remarks of the identified activists.

INTRODUCTION BY LHADON TETHONG
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET INTERNATIONAL

Good Morning and thank you everyone for joining us.

My name is Lhadon Tethong and I am the Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet International based in New York.

As you know, we are here in Athens because the International Olympic Committee is meeting from tomorrow, June 4th to June 6th. This is their last meeting before August, followed shortly thereafter by the Beijing Games. Meanwhile, the meeting also comes just days before the Olympic torch is scheduled to make its first stop in Tibet.
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Tibetan Monks Sealed in Sichuan Monastery Request Permission to Pray for Chinese Quake Victims

Currently based out of Dharamsala, India, friend-of-SFT and Producer of Pacifica/KPFK’s The Tibet Connection radio show Rebecca Novick posted an amazing story to The Huffington Post. Relatively inexperienced at this blogging thing, I hope I’m not breaking any rules by simply re-posting it in full here:

Tibetan Monks Sealed in Sichuan Monastery Request Permission to Pray for Chinese Quake Victims

Tsering, a monk living in exile in Dharamsala, India, received a static-filled call from Tibet at 10:30 at night on May 15th. On the other end was a monk from Kirti Monastery in Sichuan, the province where China’s devastating earthquake took tens of thousands of lives.

The monk told Tsering that the monastic community of Kirti had requested that the Chinese authorities to allow them to perform prayers for the Chinese people who had suffered in the disaster.

Since March 6th, Kirti monastery has been surrounded by large numbers of Chinese security forces. The local Tibetan community has not been allowed access after large public demonstrations — in which thousands of the monks participated — resulting in mass arrests. For a few days, Kirti became a temporary morgue for fifteen Tibetans who eye witnesses claim were shot and killed by Chinese police while protesting non-violently. Scores of other protesters were reported to have been killed in the ensuing crackdown.

Two weeks later, after photographs of those killed in the protests were leaked to the outside world, the People’s Armed Police and Public Security Bureau officials stormed the monastery and searched the rooms. During the raid, they defaced pictures of the Dalai Lama — an unimaginable offense to Tibetan monks. (Photo courtesy of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights & Democracy.)

It was in this atmosphere that the monks of Kirti made their quiet request to do prayers for the Chinese quake victims. Since March, the monks of Kirti have not been allowed to conduct their usual Buddhist rituals, but on May 15th, they received special permission to make an exception. The monks began the day with a prayer offering ceremony and collected cash donations from among their members. They also wrote letters of condolences to the bereaved families.

The monks of Kirti monastery, located in Ngapa county in Amdo, also conveyed the following message to the Chinese people:

As monks of a Buddhist Monastery, we unwaveringly follow the nonviolent path shown by Buddha and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We practice the Buddhist teachings of loving compassion to all sentient beings. We are all one human family. Therefore the monks of Kirti monastery offer their prayers to the Chinese victims of this disaster.

We want our Chinese brothers and sisters to know that we Tibetans are not against them as the Government has tried to claim through the state run television after the March 14 unrest in Lhasa. This has been creating a rift and hostility between Tibetans and Chinese. The monks from Kirti monastery confidently represent the Tibetans by clarifying that the Tibetans are against the unjust policies of the People’s Republic of China and not against the Chinese people themselves.

We wish to express to the Chinese people that we have never harbored any anger towards them. Our only wish is to find a solution to the Tibet issue. Tibetans and Chinese have a deep history of cultural relationships, and it’s a fact that Tibetans and Chinese have to live side by side. Therefore, we urge the Chinese people to join us to try to find a solution that will allow us to remain friends rather than enemies.

That solution may presently seem out of reach, but its sentiments like these that could bring it closer.

BREAKING NEWS: Tibetan monks disrupt another scripted media tour

. Breaking news: a group of Tibetan monks in Labrang Monastery bravely demonstrated during a tightly-scripted media tour conducted by the Chinese government. Like the monks of the Jokhang Cathedral last month in Lhasa, the Labrang monks took great personal risk to show the world that Tibetans are not happy under Chinese rule.

As the world’s eyes are on San Francisco today for the Olympic torch relay, we must remember that in Tibet, the Tibetan people continue to suffer under China’s brutal military occupation. Despite this, the spirit of the Tibetan people is unbroken, and Tibetans continue to speak out for freedom.

The brave Labrang monks, like the Jokhang monks, knew that they would likely be arrested and tortured. But their act of courage spoiled yet another effort by the Chinese government to pretend that all is well in Tibet. We should all be urging our governments to demand that these monks not be punished, and demand full media access across Tibet; no more of these sham media tours conducted by Chinese officials.

ABC news has amazing video (click here), where the monks can be heard shouting (in Tibetan) that they want human rights and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Here is a report from the New York Times:

Buddhist monks interrupted a government-managed media tour in western China on Wednesday, waving a Tibetan flag and protesting that the authorities were depriving them of their human rights.

The disruption, in the city of Xiahe in Gansu Province, was another unexpected public relations setback for China, and marked the second time that monks have upstaged government efforts to control foreign media tours of Tibetan areas.

Last month, several monks in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, risked official punishment when they made an emotional appeal to foreign journalists inside the Jokhang Monastery, one of the city’s holiest shrines.

The outburst on Wednesday came as authorities guided reporters through the Labrang Monastery. The tour marked the first officially approved visit to Xiahe by foreign reporters since monks and other Tibetans in the city clashed with police last month. During the tour, about 15 monks rushed out, waving a Tibetan flag, and approached a group of about 20 Chinese and foreign reporters.

Tibet remains under lockdown

Even as we watch the Olympic torch relay blow up in the Chinese government’s face, our thoughts should remain with the Tibetans inside of Tibet, who are suffering under a crackdown away from the world’s eyes. In just one example, the AP reports:

Police manning a checkpoint on Thursday stopped reporters trying to enter Aba prefecture, a primarily Tibetan area in Sichuan province, and escorted them back to the provincial capital, Chengdu.

At a news conference in Beijing, Aba’s deputy chief Xiao Youcai, said life was “completely normal” in the area, but insisted also that it remained “too dangerous” for foreign journalists.

This is a complete contradiction, showing how crazy the Chinese government’s claims about Tibet are. Is the situation “completely normal” or “too dangerous”? Pick one! What is the Chinese government hiding in Tibet?

From the information trickling out of Tibet, we hear of protesters massacred in the streets, and massive political indoctrination sessions (as if more propaganda will solve Tibetan demands for freedom and independence). From this information, we can piece together a grim picture of life in Tibet right now:

Xiao refused to confirm an earlier state media report that Aba police had shot and wounded four rioters in self-defense, conceding only that shots had been fired in self-defense. Tibetan groups said up to 20 people may have been killed.

Alongside the stepped-up security, the region’s top officials have ordered more stringent ideological education for young people _ an apparent acknowledgment that years of political indoctrination have failed to curb support for the Dalai Lama.

China has no solutions in Tibet, only repression

The Washington Post had an interesting article today about the “patriotic education” campaigns that China is carrying out in Tibetan monasteries with renewed vigor.  It shows just how bankrupt China’s rule is in Tibet:

[These campaigns are] now a standard feature of life in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries. They are one of many tools Chinese leaders use to tighten party control of a religion whose charismatic leader, the 72-year-old Dalai Lama, is revered in Tibet, respected around the world and viewed in Beijing as a threat to the party’s supremacy.[...]

Monasteries around the Tibetan capital of Lhasa remained closed for a fourth week, and a woman who answered the phone, but would not give her name, at Tibet’s religious affairs bureau said that was because the monks were “taking some lessons.”

For Tibetan Buddhists, the education campaigns undermine their core beliefs and are a hated humiliation.

The thing is, “patriotic education” campaigns are nothing new in Tibet.  Looking at China trying — yet again — to “re-educate” Tibetans, it’s clear just how how bankrupt China’s legitimacy is in Tibet.

China is turning to more of the same failed policies (”maybe we just weren’t trying hard enough before…”) because, fundamentally, what else can a hated occupier do? It can only repress.

As China clamps down, however, Tibetan resistance only strengthens. The Post noted that a recent massacre, where Chinese forces killed at least 8 Tibetans, was the result of Tibetans protesting a particularly severe “patriotic education” session:

After widespread protests swept the Tibetan plateau last month, Chinese leaders responded with a combination of arrests, interrogations and vigorous education campaigns. At least eight people were reportedly killed in a remote town in Sichuan province Thursday in a protest sparked by an attempt to force monks to participate in an education campaign.

Unfortunately for Tibetans, China’s policies in Tibet may be a failure, but they have very serious consequences on the Tibetans subject to them.

The Chinese government is so scared in Tibet…

The Chinese government must be so scared right now… is it losing Tibet?  Consider the following three developments:

One: The Chinese government is desperately organizing political “study sessions” all over Tibet to re-indoctrinate Tibetans working for the Chinese government (whose loyalty Beijing has always questioned).  Reading between the lines, this means that China is all the more terrified that Tibetans working for the system secretly support “separatism” — not a bad bet, actually:

China’s ruling Communist Party is ordering officials in Tibetan areas into political study sessions, a report said Friday, the firmest sign yet that China is using loyalty tests in areas where recent anti-government protests erupted.

The recently issued order emphasizes the need for officials to oppose Tibetan separatism, highlighting that Beijing was caught off-guard by last month’s protests, the most widespread demonstrations against Chinese rule in nearly 50 years.

“The numerous party members and grass-roots officials must further launch education in opposing separatism and preserving the unity of the motherland,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency said, citing a notice from the party’s powerful Organization Department, which oversees personnel issues.

Two:  The Chinese government is resorting to offering blood money.  According to The Times, Lhasa authorities today sent out a message by mobile phone to residents, offering a reward of 20,000 yuan (£1,300, or US$2,850) to anyone who could offer information leading to the arrest of wanted Tibetan protesters.  The per capita income in Tibet is about $1,000 per year, so Chinese authorities are offering close to three times the average annual income for Tibetans to turn each other in.

Three: The Chinese government is planning quick show-trials for over 1,200 Tibetan protesters just in Lhasa alone.  (Why do they bother, when we know the verdict will be “guilty?”)  There are 26 days left until May 1st so this means over 46 trials a day, every day, in just one city.  Forget about defense attorneys, international observers, transparency, or any semblance of fairness and impartiality… this is wholly the government’s desperate attempt to pretend that this messy business of Tibetan freedom protests is swept under the carpet. 

More than 1,000 people have been arrested or turned themselves in to the police in connection with deadly rioting last month in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, one of the city’s top officials said.

Trials will be held before May 1, the deputy Communist Party secretary of Lhasa, Wang Xiangming, was quoted Thursday as saying in the official Tibet Commerce newspaper. The quick scheduling of the trials is an apparent sign of the government’s determination to close the book on the events well before the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing on Aug. 8.

BREAKING NEWS: Chinese police kill 8 more Tibetans

An exclusive report from The Times (UK), Chinese police massacred at least 8 Tibetans following protests caused by forced “patriotic education” sessions.  Think about the bravery of the Tibetans, marching down to the police encampment to demand the release of the monks.  The Chinese police response is sickening but not surprising:

Chinese paramilitary police have killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers in bloody violence that will fuel human rights protests as London prepares to host its leg of the Olympic torch relay this weekend.

Witnesses said the clash – in which dozens were wounded – erupted late last night after a government inspection team entered a monastery in the Chinese province of Sichuan trying to confiscate pictures of the Dalai Lama.

Officials searched the room of every monk in the Donggu monastery, a sprawling 15th century edifice in Ganzi, southwestern Sichuan, confiscating all mobile phones as well as the pictures.

When the inspectors tore up the photographs and threw them on the floor, a 74-year-old monk, identified as Cicheng Danzeng, tried to stop an act seen as a desecration by Tibetans who revere the Dalai Lama as their god king.

A young man working in the monastery, identified as Cicheng Pingcuo, 25, also made a stand and both were arrested.

The team then demanded that all the monks denounce the Dalai Lama, who fled China after a failed uprising in 1959. One monk, Yixi Lima, stood up and voiced his opposition, prompting the other monks to add their voices.

At about 6.30 p.m., the entire monastic body marched down to a nearby river where paramilitary police were encamped and demanded the release of the two men.

They were joined by several hundred local villagers, many of them enraged at the detention of the 74-year-old monk Cicheng Danzeng, who locals say is well respected in the area for his learning and piety. 

Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama,” “Let the Dalai Lama come back” and “We want freedom”, the crowd demonstrated until about nine in the evening.

Witnesses said that at around that time, as many as 1,000 paramilitary police used force to try to end the protest and opened fire on the crowd. It was not known if the demonstrators had been throwing stones at the police.

In the gunfire, eight people died, according to a local resident in direct contact with the monastery. (more…)

Shameless leaked memo from the IOC

Reporters Without Borders has obtained a leaked internal memo  that International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge sent to all IOC members setting out a communication strategy for the Tibet crisis and the debate about a boycott of the Olympic Games. 

Rogge’s memo displays a level of arrogance and shamelessness that would be stunning, if it didn’t comport with how the IOC has always conducted itself on the issue of Tibet:

The purpose of Rogge’s 17 March memo was to tell all IOC members what position they should take in response to the Tibet crisis and the media “speculation” about a boycott. In his introduction, the IOC president says the events in Tibet are disturbing but will not jeopardize the “success” of the Olympic Games. [...]

The memo, written by the IOC’s public relations department, rules out any direct IOC involvement in resolving the Tibet crisis, even if it recommends that members express their concern. “China’s involvement in Tibet strictly concerns its social and political policy,” the memo says. “It is not related to the country’s hosting of the Games, nor to its relationship with the IOC.”

The memo repeats several times that the Olympic Games are serving as a “catalyst” for a dialogue on Tibet and its independence but rules out IOC involvement in the resolution of the “complex” crisis. The message that Rogge wants to get across is that “The IOC shares the world’s desire for the Chinese government to bring about a peaceful resolution as quickly as possible.” But the memo adds on the next page that the IOC does not raise such matters with countries that host the games.

What Rogge is saying is that the IOC has partnered with the Chinese government, which is implementing a “disturbing” military crackdown in Tibet, but the situation is “complex.”  What is so “complex” about the host government shooting civilians in the streets four months before the opening ceremonies?  In this case, silence is the same as approval, given how the IOC is allowing the Chinese government to relentlessly exploit the Games for Beijing’s own political ends. 

Furthermore, Rogge tries to have it both ways, saying that China’s “involvement” (military occupation?) in Tibet is not the IOC’s concern, while simultaneously bragging that the Games are serving as a “catalyst” for dialogue on Tibet.  Give us a break.  The Games are serving as a lightning rod for Tibetans’ and others’ grievances, supported by NGOs across the world, but this is no thanks to the IOC, which has tried everything it can think of to avoid addressing these issues.

The IOC continues to provide the Chinese government with valuable political cover on the Tibet issue, as well as many others.  No amount of PR work or media “spin” will change that.

(Here is a link to the Hold Fast blog’s interesting take on the same memo.)