2008 Tibet, 2009 East Turkestan, 2011 Inner Mongolia?

On May 23, thousands of Southern Mongolians, led by students, took to the streets of Shiliinhot. Protests demanding the Chinese government respect the rights of Southern Mongolian herders quickly spread across Southern Mongolia.

Students as young as 12 along with herdsmen held banners reading, “defend the rights of Mongols” and “defend the homeland,” and shouted slogans as they marched to Government offices.

These protests erupted after a 100-ton coal-hauling truck owned by a Chinese company crushed a local herdsman, named Mergen. “These coal-hauling trucks have randomly run over local herders’ grazing lands…killing numerous heads of livestock… [and] further damaging the already-weakened fragile grassland,” wrote the Mongolian blogger Zorigt.

The mass protests by Southern Mongolian students and herdsmen in Shiliinhot and Hohhot have sparked a massive security clampdown. As a result, many universities across Southern Mongolia are under strict curfew and martial law has been imposed.

Like in Tibet, Chinese populations now dominate Southern Mongolia’s major cities. Resulting from China’s land divisions, Mongolians now make up only about 17% of the population of Southern Mongolia.

In 2008, the Tibetan uprising rocked the Chinese government’s hold on Tibet and gave birth to a new generation of Tibetan activists. Following the Tibetan uprising, thousands of brave Uyghurs protested in the streets of Ürümqi for rights and freedom. Will the brave herdsmen and students of Inner Mongolia triumph? Or will China be faced with another long-term freedom struggle?

 

 

 

 

Sign on to SFT’s Statement for Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize

We’re thrilled to learn that imprisoned Chinese writer and activist Liu Xiaobo has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Liu Xiaobo is one of China’s most outspoken advocates for human rights and democratic reform. He is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for coauthoring Charter 08, an historic appeal for democracy, human rights, and a multi-party state in China released in December 2008.

Liu Xiaobo is also a true friend of Tibet. In the past, he has called on the Chinese government to reform its policies in Tibet and in the aftermath of the 2008 Uprising in Tibet, he coauthored the “Twelve Suggestions on Dealing with the Tibetan Situation,” which called for freedom of expression and other rights to be respected in Tibet. In a statement this morning, Liu Xiaobo’s wife, Liu Xia, thanked the Dalai Lama for nominating him for this prestigious award.

At a time when world leaders, governments, and other international institutions are softening their approach to human rights and Tibet with the Chinese government, the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s decision is highly commendable. Please join Students for a Free Tibet in congratulating Liu Xiaobo and calling on governments around the world to follow the Norwegians’ lead by supporting human rights and freedom.

TAKE ACTION: Sign your name to SFT’s statement on Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize.
We will deliver the signed statement to your government leaders.

You can also print and send this statement to your political representatives.

Read more about global reactions to today’s announcement.

Students for a Free Tibet’s Statement on Liu Xiaobo’s Nobel Peace Prize

October 8, 2010

Students for a Free Tibet congratulates jailed Chinese writer and activist Liu Xiaobo on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today and joins the international community in calling for his immediate release from prison.

Fellow Nobel Laureates His Holiness the Dalai Lama and U.S. President Barack Obama have already issued statements urging the Chinese government to release Liu Xiaobo.

Students for a Free Tibet welcomes the Nobel Committee’s decision to grant this prestigious award to Liu Xiaobo, especially in light of the diplomatic threats issued by the Chinese government to Norway in the lead up to today’s announcement.

We commend the Nobel Committee for the moral leadership and political courage they demonstrated through this action. We call on governments around the world to follow their example by publicly pressing the Chinese government to release Liu Xiaobo and take meaningful steps to implement the political and human rights reforms that Liu and other Chinese and Tibetan advocates are risking their lives to promote.

Sign your name to this statement.

Thank you for taking action in support of human rights and freedom in China and Tibet.

What’s going on in the Tibetan Blogosphere? Ask Dechen Pemba

A Tibetan netizen in her own right, Dechen Pemba, publisher of High Peaks Pure Earth (the remarkable blog that translates the writings of Tibetans living in Tibet and China) provides insight into the importance and the vulnerabilities of the Tibetan blogosphere in her following post:

The Virtual Sweet Tea House: An Overview of the Tibetan Cyberspace

As a place to meet, share and exchange, the Tibetan blogosphere has created opportunities for Tibetan netizens that would be unimaginable in the offline world. Keeping in mind the state of internet censorship in the People’s Republic of China today, these new spaces can be seen as new outlets but also as new areas involving personal risk. Tibetan cyberspace has opened up a new opportunity for expression, which has also brought new risks to this community.

There are several blog-hosting sites, both Tibetan and Chinese, that are favoured by Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) today. One of the of the most popular Chinese language sites is called Tibetan Culture Net or simply TibetCul. TibetCul was started by two brothers, Wangchuk Tseten and Tsewang Norbu, and their head office is in Lanzhou, capital of Gansu Province. According to Alexa, the web Information Company, TibetCul receives over 400,000 hits every month. TibetCul is primarily a news and blog-hosting site but there are many different sections on the site related to Tibetan music, literature, films and travel. There is a BBS forum (bulletin board) and there is even a section dedicated to “overseas Tibetans”.

For all Tibet related news, blogs and cultural activities, TibetCul is an invaluable resource and source of information. Many posts translated into English by High Peaks Pure Earth come from TibetCul, such as the translation of the popular Tibetan hip-hop song “New Generation” by Green Dragon that was first featured on the group’s TibetCul blog in February 2010 in which a gang of Amdo rappers boldly proclaimed:

“The new generation has a resource called youth
The new generation has a pride called confidence
The new generation has an appearance called playfulness
The new generation has a temptation called freedom”

In a similar surge of pride in Tibetan identity that featured on Tibetan blogs post-2008, TibetCul blogs featured many poems and prose articles with the title “I Am Tibetan” and new posts are being written even today.

Heated discussions and debate take place on TibetCul every day about all matters of concern to Tibetans. One major example would be the online vilification of well-known Tibetan singer Lobsang Dondrup following photos posted on blogs of him and his wife both wearing fur at their wedding ceremony in early 2009. The photos were quickly re-posted across many blogs, incurring the wrath of angry Tibetan netizens and comments criticising the couple flooded the internet forums both in Tibetan and Chinese. This must all be seen in context, in 2006, after the Dalai Lama’s injunction against the wearing of animal fur, a wave of fur burning protests took place in Amdo and Kham. Hence the netizens anger and loathing for the couple. Shortly after, Lobsang Dondrup posted an apology online through his friend’s TibetCul blog.

The above observations on TibetCul demonstrate the nature of cyberspace in the ability to bring people together in discussion and debate and also the ability for the online content to transcend national borders, “New Generation” has gone on to become a popular song amongst Tibetans all over the world and the “I Am Tibetan” poetry and spirit has sparked Tibetan exile groups to hold events to amplify voices from Tibet.

In a paper from 2004, Tibetan scholar Tashi Rabgey referred to the Lhasa tradition of the Sweet Tea House: “Throughout the 1980s, sweet tea houses had served as important gathering places for Tibetans to exchange news, air opinions and discuss ideas.” However, “with the tightening of political controls in the early 1990s [...] this unusual space of lively, open debate was brought to an end through constant surveillance.” The new virtual Sweet Tea House contains Tibetans who are literate in many languages but mainly in Tibetan, Chinese and English and Tibetans from Central Tibet, Kham, Amdo, India, USA and beyond, all in contact and dialogue.

Whilst the potential for contact and dialogue in the Tibetan cyberspace is great, control of the internet and the politicisation of the blog content poses difficulties and risks. Monitoring Tibetan blogs reveals that throughout the year, at times deemed “sensitive” by the Chinese government, Tibetan blog-hosting sites will suddenly with no explanation or prior warning either be taken offline or be offline “for maintenance”. This happens typically for Tibetan blogs around the time of March 10, the anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. See this link for an example of TibetCul suddenly disappearing offline and this link for Tibetan-language blogs being taken offline.

Similarly, individual bloggers are in danger of being targeted by the state for blog content deemed to be dubious. The most famous example is the Tibetan poet, writer and blogger, Woeser, who was writing two blogs, one on TibetCul and another on a Chinese blog hosting site but both of which were suddenly shut down on 28 July 2006. Woeser then had no choice but to start a new blog on a server hosted outside the PRC but has since faced a new set of problems such as server cyber-attacks by Chinese nationalists, both to her blogs and her Skype accounts.

Tibetan language blog-hosting sites have been even more vulnerable than TibetCul and two previously very popular sites have been inaccessible since 2009, http://tibettl.com/ and http://www.tibetabc.cn/ The latter was particularly a great loss as prominent singer and blogger Jamyang Kyi’s blog had previously been hosted by Tibetabc but she seems to have stopped blogging altogether since the site was closed down.

Two recent examples of individuals using blogs and the internet for purposes of social justice have been Dolkar Tso and Shogdung. Dolkar Tso, the wife of environmentalist Karma Samdrup, was blogging almost daily in June and July 2010, documenting the events of her husband’s trial and expressing her personal feelings about the injustice of his sentencing to 15 years in prison. Amazingly, Dolkar Tso persistently kept blogging on Chinese blog-hosting site Sohu and, at the last count, is on her fifth blog as the others kept being shut down rapidly.

Tagyal, a writer and intellectual who used the pen name Shogdung meaning “Morning Conch”, openly spoke out in April 2010 following the devastating earthquake that hit Yushu. He, along with several other intellectuals, published an open letter on Tibetan language blog-hosting site http://www.sangdhor.com in which they expressed condolences and at the same time were critical of the Chinese government in their handling of the earthquake relief efforts. Following this open letter, Shogdung was arrested and is still facing trial. Following Shogdung’s arrest, the site Sangdhor was taken offline for several months and has only recently come back online.

The last two examples of Dolkar Tso and Shogdung illustrate the importance of Tibetan blogs as sources of information and as ways to highlight injustice but evidently this comes at a great price for the individuals involved. The virtual Sweet Tea House is ultimately as vulnerable as the Lhasa tea houses of the 1990s were and is likely to remain so as long as Tibetan blogs remain behind the Great Firewall.

______________________________

Dechen Pemba is a UK born Tibetan, based in London.  She is the editor of the website High Peaks Pure Earth, which provides insightful commentary on Tibet related news and issues and translations from writings in Tibetan and Chinese posted blogs.

SFT Press Release: Tibet Advocates Urge Secretary Clinton to Raise Tibet as a Core Issue at US-China Dialogue; Boycott Tibet Pavilion at Shanghai Expo

STUDENTS FOR A FREE TIBET

For Immediate Release
May 21st, 2010

Contact:
Tenzin Dorjee, +1 646-724-0748
Kate Woznow, +1 917-601-0069

TIBET ADVOCATES URGE SECRETARY CLINTON TO RAISE TIBET AS A CORE ISSUE AT US-CHINA DIALOGUE; BOYCOTT TIBET PAVILION AT SHANGHAI EXPO

New York – As US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton begins a week-long trip in Asia, Tibet advocates are calling on her to raise Tibet as a core issue at the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue taking place in Beijing from May 24-25. Advocates are also urging her to avoid the controversial Tibet Pavilion during her visit to the Shanghai Expo tomorrow. Clinton’s China visit comes amidst reports of intensifying repression against Tibetan writers, bloggers, and anyone who dares to openly criticize or share information about Chinese government policies in occupied Tibet.

“We call on Secretary Clinton to raise Tibet as a core issue in US-China relations and to press for tangible results towards a just and lasting resolution for Tibet,” said Tenzin Dorjee, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “The Obama administration must not shy away from publicly and vigorously raising Tibet and freedom of expression at these meetings. The U.S. will only achieve its foreign policy objectives with China when it stands firm on core American interests.

“Tibet has become the barometer for this administration’s commitment to engaging China on human rights issues and we urge Secretary Clinton to go beyond the rhetoric by pressing for a results-driven discussion on Tibet at this dialogue,” added Dorjee.

In the lead up to the meetings in Beijing, Clinton will make a stop in Shanghai where she will visit the Shanghai Expo. Tibet advocacy groups worldwide are calling on government leaders to refuse to visit China’s controversial “Heavenly Tibet” pavilion, which attempts to mislead the world about the true situation inside Tibet.

“The ‘Heavenly Tibet’ pavilion is designed to hide the grim reality of China’s military rule in Tibet and is an insult to Tibetans and their supporters everywhere. In fact, the Dalai Lama – the legitimate representative of the Tibetan people – has called Tibet under Chinese rule a ‘hell on earth’,” said Kate Woznow, Deputy Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “For secretary Clinton to visit the Tibet pavilion, especially at a time when Chinese officials are imprisoning Tibetans for doing nothing more than critiquing Chinese policies in Tibet, would send the wrong message about the Obama Administration’s commitment to human rights.”

Since protests swept across Tibet in March 2008, dozens of Tibetan writers, bloggers, and educators have been arrested, along with those who have shared information about China’s repression with the outside word. The arrest of leading Tibetan intellectual Tagyal (who goes by pen name Shogdung) and the transfer of imprisoned filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen to a Chinese labor camp are recent examples of the lengths to which China goes to silence Tibetan voices.

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Heavenly Tibet? or Hell on Earth?

The Shanghai World Expo, which runs from May 1st to October 31st, is yet another multi-billion dollar propaganda spectacle. Through its “Heavenly Tibet” Pavilion, the Chinese government is trying to whitewash its human rights abuses in Tibet.

Heavenly Tibet? or Hell on Earth?

Just last year the Dalai Lama stated that 60 years of Chinese occupation have turned Tibet into “hell on earth.” Tibetans inside Tibet are risking everything to tell this truth to the world.

Spread the word and help shut down China’s propaganda pavilion:

1. Post & Share this image on your Facebook, blog, website, and other social networking sites.

2. Write to your government leaders urging them to speak out against the Tibet Pavilion and to refuse to visit it if they attend the Shanghai Expo. Click here for a sample letter.

Losar: Because we are Tibetan

Tibetans will mark Losar - the Tibetan New Year - on February 14th, 2010. In the Tibetan lunar calendar, this day marks the beginning of the Iron Tiger Year 2137, a time for change, hope, and renewal. On this day, we celebrate our history, our culture, our religion, and our future - because our history is great, our culture beautiful, our religion profound, and – in spite of our present suffering – our future is bright.

Since 2008, following the Tibetan uprising in all three historical provinces of Tibet, we witnessed an escalation in the imprisonment, torture and death of our fellow countrymen and women under Chinese rule. Because of this, last year, Tibetans united around the world and did not celebrate Losar.

This year, many Tibetans are planning to observe Losar for one reason only: because we are Tibetan. We will speak Tibetan language, wear Tibetan dress, and observe Tibetan customs, thus strengthening our identity and our spirit. Through this observance we will find new courage and opportunities to advance our struggle. In observing Losar with family and friends, Tibetans will reach for happiness, which, as much as suffering, is an integral part of a freedom movement.

Through all these years of occupation one thing is clear: the oppressor envies the spirit of the Tibetan people, which cannot be crushed by violence. This year Tibetans worldwide will nourish this spirit with the observance of Losar.

While observing this important cultural tradition, we ask Tibetans and supporters to light butter lamps and candles on their altars and in their windows on February 14th to honor the courage of the Tibetan people in Tibet who continue to resist the Chinese government's illegal occupation of their homeland.

Please take a moment to watch this inspiring video from Amdo, Eastern Tibet, where Tibetans, young and old, declare the myriad ways they are Tibetan:

Also you can watch a similar solidarity campaign video from Tibetans in India:

Included in the video are these statements:
I am Tibetan because I love Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I learn Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I love my culture.
I am Tibetan because I wear only Tibetan dress.
I am Tibetan because Tibetan blood flows in me.
I am Tibetan because my mother is Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I sing Tibetan.
I am Tibetan because I am a Tibetan nomad.
I am Tibetan because I love my land.
I am Tibetan because I am a herder on the plateau.
I am Tibetan because I never forget Tibet.
I am Tibetan because I love my Tibetan brothers and sisters.

Comments

NYT: Dalai Lama’s Envoys to Resume Talks With China

SFT’s Tendor was quoted in yesterday’s New York Times article by Ed Wong about the 9th round of meetings taking place between Beijing and Dharamsala.

“Until we see visible change on the ground in Tibet and some real give-and-take on the part of the Chinese government, we can be confident that the resumption of the dialogue is nothing more than a delaying tactic designed to mute international criticism, especially in the lead up to the expected meeting between Obama and the Dalai Lama,” said Tenzin Dorjee, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet, a group based in New York that advocates for Tibetan independence.

Read the full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/world/asia/27tibet.html

As one person aptly commented, Tendor’s quote “captures an essential reality check.”

The Economist was also quick to point out that China’s decision to re-start the dialogue is more a politically calculated maneuver to preempt the expected meeting between Preisdent Obama and the Dalai Lama than a genuine gesture.

Read the full article: http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15384117

The story of Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker jailed in China

A very moving article by Dechen Pemba, one of the last people to see Dhondup Wangchen (Tibetan filmmaker and citizen journalist) before he was detained on March 26, 2008 for making the film Leaving Fear Behind. Her article was profiled by the Committee to Protect journalists for International Human Rights Day.

Also, check out Dechen’s blog www.HighPeaksPureEarth.com where she translates writings by Tibetans living in Tibet and China.

The story of Dhondup Wangchen, filmmaker jailed in China

By Dechen Pemba In Dharmsala, India, exiled Tibetans hold a vigil for the jailed filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen. (AP/Ashwini Bhatia)On the same day that historic protests started by monks in Lhasa began and were to sweep all over Tibet in the subsequent months, Dhondup Wangchen was nearly 3,000 kilometers away in Xian, in China’s Shaanxi province. It was the last day of filming for his documentary film project that sought to give voice to Tibetans in the run-up to the Olympic Games. As was the case throughout China, Xian was caught up in an Olympic fervor. Big red banners were hung all over the city, the Olympic mascots peered from shop windows in unspeakably bright colors. None of this however, seemed to have the slightest connection to Tibet or the discontent of the Tibetan people.

For many around the world, the protests that began March 10, 2008, were a surprise. International media were suddenly giving unprecedented coverage to a struggle that had been going on for more than 50 years. Journalists, NGOs, governments and even exiled Tibetans were given a stark reminder that a conflict was unresolved and that, in the run-up to the Olympics, Tibetans were still risking everything to be heard. It hadn’t take months of protests and a military crackdown in Tibet, however, for Dhondup Wangchen to be aware of the suffering of his people. It was something he had lived, and it was this that he was seeking to convey through film and simple testimony.

I had travelled 1,200 kilometers from Beijing to Xian to meet Dhondup Wangchen and learn about his film project. It was to be the first and only time that I would meet him. On arrival at the train station, I bought a local Chinese paper; I wanted to remember this day. Later on in the day, we even filmed Dhondup Wangchen with this newspaper as a record. Within minutes of our meeting, I was struck by his determination and drive to accomplish something that he felt was important—to depict the injustice of life as a Tibetan under Chinese rule. As one of his interviewees so eloquently said, “We Tibetans living in the PRC are like stars on a sunny day, we can’t be seen.” Just hearing the sheer scale of Dhondup Wangchen’s project was impressive, traveling through remote areas of eastern Tibet in the Tibetan winter of 2007-08 and recording under the harshest imaginable conditions the views of more than 100 ordinary Tibetan men and women, amassing more than 40 hours of video footage. All this with just a cheap video camera, no professional training in journalism or film-making, and constantly in fear of being detained for his citizen journalism activities.

Despite painful toothache that day in Xian, Dhondup Wangchen told me that he, together with his friend Jigme Gyatso, a monk, had come up with the idea to make a documentary as early as 2006. The year and a half before beginning filming, Dhondup Wangchen planned how he would make the film, even taking his parents, wife, and four children to India to safety so they would not be at risk when he returned to Tibet to make the film. Having a cousin in Switzerland meant that once the footage was safely out of the country, the documentary could be edited and prepared for an international release in time for the Olympic Games.

On August 6 2008, his documentary film, now edited into 25 minutes and titled “Leaving Fear Behind”, was screened to a select group of foreign journalists in Beijing. But Dhondup Wangchen, along with Jigme Gyatso, had already been in secret detention since the end of March. On completion of filming, they had gone back to their respective hometowns only to find the places in turmoil with almost daily Tibetan protests occurring and a huge military deployment under way. On Jigme Gyatso’s release in October 2008, it was learned that they had both undergone severe interrogations and torture in detention that included electrocution. It wasn’t until a well-known Beijing human rights lawyer took up his case early this year that Dhondup Wangchen’s sister in Xining even learned of her brother’s incarceration, another outright violation of China’s own detention laws.

Dhondup Wangchen’s trial reportedly started behind closed doors in September this year. According to Amnesty International he is being charged for “subversion and incitement to separatism” and has contracted Hepatitis B in prison for which he has received no treatment. After his Beijing lawyer was forced by the Chinese government to stop representing Dhondup Wangchen, local lawyers were appointed, leaving little hope of a fair trial.

I spent less than a day meeting Dhondup Wangchen. When we parted back at the train station, he told me to take care of myself and gave me a little bag containing some drinks and snacks for my journey. A few months ago on YouTube, I saw a video clip of pictures of Dhondup Wangchen in his teens, a casual-looking young man eager to leave behind the constrictions of his village on a quest for adventure greater than he could have known. The Dhondup Wangchen that I had met was older and thoughtful. The many months of constant traveling had clearly been physically exhausting. I had always thought of him as a kind of Tibetan hero, a citizen journalist and human rights activist but last month I was walking down the street in Dharamsala, northern India, with a friend who stopped to talk to the woman who sells bread there early every morning. The bread-seller was Dhondup Wangchen’s wife, Lhamo Tso. After spending time talking with her I suddenly thought about their separated family and of Dhondup Wangchen as a husband, a father, and also a son—and their own personal sacrifices.

Since August 2008, “Leaving Fear Behind” has been screened in more than 30 countries worldwide and translated into five languages, including Chinese. The worldwide campaign for his release continues. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that Dhondup Wangchen, with just a small camera, a motorbike, his blue backpack and the help of trusted friends, found a way of expressing himself truthfully.

The simple truth is that just spending 25 minutes watching “Leaving Fear Behind” gives all the background necessary to see that some kind of uprising was surely inevitable in Tibet. But truthfulness in a state like China is always an act of defiance and can‘t survive without a struggle.

Dechen Pemba has been the spokesperson for “Leaving Fear Behind” since she left Beijing in July 2008. She is based in London.