A very strong article by Michael Danby, the Chair of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Tibet:
“The ongoing protests will only end when Tibetans are offered the reasonable hope that their most precious religious, educational, economic and human rights freedoms will one day be restored. If nothing else, the resistance of the Tibetans, unabated over 50 years, reveals an astonishing resilience.” Read the full article
2 February 2012 | International Campaign for Tibet
Vivid images have emerged from Tibet of a violent police response to a protest by Tibetans in Serthar (Chinese: Seda), Sichuan (the Tibetan area of Kham), on January 24. The images, which show a Tibetan man being beaten and dragged along the ground by armed police, were taken on the day that police opened fire on Tibetan demonstrators, killing one Tibetan man. The man who died has been named by Tibetan sources as Dawa Dragpa, and a vigil was held for him in Serthar yesterday. Read more and view images
The US has expressed “grave concern” over violence in Tibet that has seen Chinese security forces shoot up to a dozen people in the past week. There were reports of up to five people killed in the latest shootings in Seda in Sichuan province.
And there were reports of six people being killed in a confrontation in Luhuo on Monday. At least one person died in a clash 10 days ago and dozens were injured in a number of protests.
China’s leader-in-waiting, Xi Jinping, will visit Washington from February 14 in what is effectively a presentation of his credentials before taking charge from Hu Jintao in October. Tibet has been a particularly sensitive issue in talks between the US and China.
“The Chinese government is calling the Tibetan protesters a violent mob in order to justify their violent actions,” a spokeswoman for the Australia Tibet Council told The Australian. “This is the tactic China used during the widespread uprising in Tibet in 2008 and they are doing it in 2012. The Tibetans are protesting for three reasons: to demand freedom and basic human rights, to call for the return of the Dalai Lama and to call for the end of Chinese rule in Tibet. This message is made loud and clear in every Tibetan protest.” Read more
[This is the latest, and most direct, statement by the US Government on the self-immolations, and the first statement on the new protests and shootings.]
As United States Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, I am gravely concerned by reports of violence and continuing heightened tensions in Tibetan areas of China, including reports of security forces in Sichuan province opening fire on protesters, killing some and injuring others.
These reports follow the self-immolation of four Tibetans earlier this month, bringing the number of reported self-immolations by Tibetans to 16 - mostly monks and former monks, and two nuns - since March 2011.
The U.S. Government consistently and directly has raised the issue of Tibetan self-immolations with the Chinese government. The U.S. Government repeatedly has urged the Chinese government to address the counterproductive policies in Tibetan areas that have created tensions and that threaten the distinct religious, cultural and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people.
As I have noted previously, these policies include dramatically expanded Chinese government controls on religious life and practice; ongoing “patriotic education” campaigns within monasteries that require monks to denounce the Dalai Lama; the permanent placement of Chinese officials in monasteries; increasingly intensive surveillance, arbitrary detentions and disappearances of Tibetans; and restrictions on and imprisonment of some families and friends of self-immolators. Over the last year, Chinese government security and judicial officials also have detained and imprisoned Tibetan writers, artists, intellectuals, and cultural advocates who criticized Chinese government policies.
We call on the Chinese government to safeguard the universal human rights of all of China’s citizens. We urge Chinese security forces to exercise restraint, and we renew our call to allow access to Tibetan areas of China for journalists, diplomats and other observers. We call on the Chinese government to resume substantive, results-oriented dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives to address the underlying grievances of China’s Tibetan population.
