World Tibet Network News
Compiled by Thubten (Sam)
Samdup
Wednesday, April 22, 1998
Norway offer support to Tibetan
hunger strikers: protesters (AFP)
NEW DELHI, April 22 (AFP)
The Norwegian government has
extended its support to six Tibetans on a 43-day fast
to death to demand an end to
Chinese rule in their Himalayan homeland, the
protesters said here on
Wednesday.
The Tibean Youth Congress (TYC),
which claims thousands of Tibetans as its
members, said Oslo has assured
the six hunger strikers that "it would continue to
raise the situation of Tibetans
in multilateral fora."
The Tibetans in a statement,
said a Norwegian representative on April 15 voiced
Oslo's concern in the United
Nations Human Rights Commission over the continued
Chinese rule in the Himalayan
state.
TYC President Tsten Norbu said:
"We are very grateful to the government and
people of Norway for their
abiding help and sympathy for the people of Tibet."
No Norwegian official was
available for comment Wednesday in New Delhi.
The six Tibetan activists, aged
between 25 and 70 who began a hunger strike here
on March 10, have drawn wide
support from groups and personalities across the
world.
They have been visited by the
Dalai Lama, Hollywood actor Richard Gere, human
rights activist and former model
Bianca Jagger as well as Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, a
niece of former US president
John F. Kennedy.
The activists want the UN to
take decisive steps in a bid to resolve the Tibetan issue.
On Monday, a group of nuns
demonstrated outside the UN office in Delhi, to seek
compassion for the "pitiable
Chinese, whose actions are harming themselves and
the others."
The hunger strikers also want
the UN secretary general to appoint a special envoy on
Tibet in order to settle the
question of Tibet peacefully under a UN-supervised
plebiscite.
The Dalai Lama, spiritual leader
of many Tibetans, has lived in the northern Indian
town of Dharamsala since fleeing
his homeland in 1959 following a failed
anti-China uprising.
India is home to more than
100,000 Tibetan refugees.
Balance Sheet on China
New York Times
ON MY MIND / By A.M.
ROSENTHAL
Four years ago this spring,
President Clinton reversed his policy on trade with China.
That is enough time to draw up a
balance sheet on the new policy.
Before his election in 1992, Mr.
Clinton said economic pressure through raised
tariffs was the best way to push
China into relaxing terrorism against human rights --
and against political and
religious dissidents.
Since June 1994 he has dropped
economic penalties for Chinese human rights
abuse. The new policy is to
encourage trade with China, despite the huge loss to
the U.S. balance of payments. He
says encouraging business with China will soften
Beijing's treatment of Chinese
and Tibetans who talk of political and religious
liberty. The Administration also
says trade would bring Beijing to security
cooperation with America.
This past weekend, China gave
early release to Wang Dan, a leader of the Chinese
democracy movement before
Tiananmen Square. After the massacre there in 1989,
he served seven years in prison,
sleeping on concrete floors. But to keep him away
from other brave Chinese, he was
deported to exile in the U.S. and will be arrested if
he returns.
The release of Mr. Wang is
certainly a fruit of the Clintonian reversal of China policy
-- Beijing's political gift to
Mr. Clinton's reputation. So was the release of Wei
Jingsheng -- also sent to forced
exile in the U.S.
But Chinese still courageous
enough to complain about religious or political
regimentation go on being
arrested, sentenced to long terms, handed suddenly
extended sentences, put under
house arrest when released, or sent far from their
homes -- just as before Mr.
Clinton made trade his overriding China policy.
The human rights trickle-down he
promised has not been felt in the political cells, or
on the torture blocks.
In December 1996, Chinese
officials said that 2,026 Chinese were in Ministry of
Justice prisons for
"counterrevolutionary" affairs, now called "endangering state
security."
But the figure did not include
"non-ministry" prisons: the forced-labor camps,
detention centers where
prisoners can be held for years before trial, lockups for
Communist Party members, "old
age" homes where elderly religious dissidents are
sometimes imprisoned, or house
arrest after completion of prison sentences.
About one kind of prison where
religious and political dissidents are often
sentenced, certain
"re-education" camps, Chinese officials did say there was a
change. They said the inmates
increased from 125,000 to twice that number.
Dissidents sometimes say: In
China there are lots of shelves to put prisoners.
About Tibet -- the whole nation
was imprisoned when Mr. Clinton made his switch.
The Tibetan cell remains as deep
and dark.
Before Mr. Clinton arrives in
Beijing, the Communists may release more prisoners.
But other Chinese will be
arrested to "keep safety."
The Communists are not at all
embarrassed by arrests. Earlier this year Mr. Clinton
sent a three-clergy "inquiry" to
China, to try to take some heat out of U.S. public
anger at the persecution of
Chinese Christians.
The mission reported nothing
that was unknown and ignored most of what is known
about religious persecution in
China. Just before the mission arrived, Chinese
Protestant clergymen were seized
by police. After the mission left, two more
Catholic priests were
arrested.
Security: Mr. Clinton did his
personal part for cooperation. He allowed a U.S.
company to give China more of
the important space and missile technology that it
had already provided to Chinese
specialists.
The company was one of two that
were already under U.S. investigation for the first
transfer, which did nothing to
diminish the Presidential spirit of cooperation.
After the Clinton turnaround on
China, Beijing went on with its version of security
cooperation. Chinese batteries
dropped missiles into the Taiwan Strait to punish
Taiwan for holding a fair
election. And China continued selling missiles to Iran, plus
chemicals that can enrich
uranium in nuclear warheads.
Supporters of human rights
welcome Mr. Wang, with embraces.
We are glad he will not have to
suffer in prison longer -- glad, but not grateful,
neither to the Politburo nor the
American President who made himself the prisoner
of Beijing.
Tibetan Hunger Striker Slams
U.N. in "Last Words"
NEW DELHI, April 21, 1998
(Reuters)
Tibetan hunger striker Dawa
Gyalpo, in what he said would be his last words before
death, denounced the United
Nations Tuesday for inaction on his homeland's plight
under Chinese rule.
U.N. Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson ``seems only concerned for
Chinese human rights,'' said
Gyalpo, 50, who is one of six pro-independence
Tibetans fasting for 42 days
outside the United Nations office in New Delhi.
``With regard to Tibet there is
no sign of our demands. So it is very sad that the
United Nations is only watching
when there is violence and killing,'' he said in a
statement distributed by his
group, the Tibetan Youth Congress.
``These are my last words.'' The
fasters have been living since March 10 on water,
lime juice and a little salt.
They want the U.N. to investigate human rights and
organize a plebiscite on their
country's future.
``As the Tibetan hunger strikers
approach Day 43, the six are now in critical
condition,'' the Tibetan Youth
Congress said in a note accompanying Gyalpo's
statement.
U.N. Leader Concerned over
Middle East Impasse
LOS ANGELES, April 22, 1998 (Fox
News)
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan says there's concern the current impasse in the
peace talks between Israel and
the Palestinians could lead to further violence in the
region.
He said Tuesday that there was
"considerable frustration'' among Arab leaders at the
lack of progress in the peace
process, adding, "There are those who are concerned
that if we do not make progress
... desperate people will resort to violence again.''
Annan made his remarks in Los
Angeles, where he wooed Hollywood, courting
celebrities, producers and
directors to boost the U.N's image and stressed the
important role the world body
has to play in the lives of everyone.
Addressing 2,200 members of the
Los Angeles World Affairs Council and the Town
Hall of Los Angeles, two public
forums that include entertainment industry leaders
among their members, Annan said
he had appealed to Palestinian leaders, "not to
embrace violence.''
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat
agreed Monday to meet Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright separately in London
on May 4 in an effort to restart
the talks, which have stalled over the extent of a
proposed Israeli troop pullback
in the West Bank in return for Palestinian moves to
combat Muslim militants.
Annan said Israel also had to
demonstrate its willingness to implement a U.N.
resolution calling for it to
remove its troops from Lebanon.
Fresh from a diplomatic triumph
in Baghdad that averted threatened U.S. bombing
of Iraq, Annan said the United
Nations was now getting better cooperation from the
Iraqis.
He cautioned, however, "We are
only two months into the agreement and what we
are looking for is long-term
cooperation cooperation that will allow the (U.N.
weapons) inspectors to do their
work in an unrestricted manner.''
As he addressed the audience
in the Westin Bonaventure hotel in downtown Los
Angeles six Tibetans who have
been on a hunger fast for a week sat outside while
their supporters carried
placards and chanted "Free Tibet now.''
Annan said as far as the
United Nations was concerned Tibet was a part of China,
but stressed that human rights
applied to all people, including Tibetans.
He also repeated his demand that
the United States pay its $1.5 billion debt to the
United Nations, saying that
because of the unpaid bill, "Technically speaking, the
United Nations is bankrupt ...
The United States is our biggest debtor ... We are
being held hostage by the United
States over domestic issues within the United
States.''
Following his speech Annan
resumed his celebrity quest, meeting with former Los
Angeles Lakers basketball star
Magic Johnson, presenting him with a plaque and
anointing him an official "U.N.
peace messenger.''
Annan also attended a
star-studded reception at the Beverly Hilton hotel hosted by
Jack Valenti, President of the
Motion Picture Association, and was scheduled to
have dinner at ''Greenacres,'' a
swank Beverly Hills restaurant.
Among those on the guest lists
for the functions were such Hollywood luminaries as
actors Karl Malden, Tony Curtis,
Robert Stack and Michael York, media mogul and
Fox Studios owner Rupert
Murdoch, game show producer and hotelier Merv Griffin,
comedian Steve Allen and movie
producer Jerry Weintraub.
Tibetans close to death in
hunger strike
THE TIMES
FROM CHRISTOPHER THOMAS IN
DELHI
SIX Tibetan hunger strikers,
lying on makeshift beds inside tents in Delhi, are close
to death after 42 days without
food. Doctors say that the weakest among them could
die at any time.
They appear determined to kill
themselves unless the United Nations agrees to three
main demands: debating Tibet in
the General Assembly; appointing a special
rapporteur to investigate human
rights violations; and naming a special envoy to
monitor Tibetan affairs.
The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan
spiritual leader, appeared close to tears when he
visited the four men and two
women, whose only relief from temperatures of well
over 100F (38C) comes from a few
feeble fans. They appealed to him not to order
them to eat and, for the first
time, he effectively gave permission to carry on. "I
consider hunger strikes unto
death a kind of violence," he said. "However, I cannot
offer any suggestions for any
alternative method."
The protest, being conducted on
a pavement outside a central Delhi park, is
organised by the Tibetan Youth
Congress, which is frustrated by the failure of the
Dalai Lama's "middle path" of
negotiations and dialogue with China. While it would
be almost unthinkable to defy
the Dalai Lama, any attempt to halt the hunger strike
could increase tensions within
the movement.
The hunger strikers, aged 25 to
70, were barely strong enough to sit upright and lay
either sleeping or staring
through a fly net towards the many priests and supporters
outside. One of them, Dawa
Gyalpo, 50, who has a part share of a hotel in West
Bengal, said in a whisper
yesterday: "I am ready to die."
Like the others, he has taken
nothing but water with lemon juice since March 10.
They have goaded the UN into
making two statements, including an appeal from
Kofi Annan, the
Secretary-General, to end the protest on humanitarian grounds. He
noted that any decision on
debating Tibet in the General Assembly rested with the
member nations, not the UN.
Tsetan Norbu, president of the
youth congress, said the action would increase the
patriotism of Tibetans. "We
wanted to do something that would become part of
Tibetan history. It will be an
example to future generations."
The affair is embarrassing to
India, which is seeking to improve relations with China.
The organisers fear that the
authorities may force-feed the hunger strikers.
Will India, China talk on
Tibet?
The Tribune, April 14, 1998
By: Tavleen Singh
India has a new Prime Minister
and so does China. It should be a good time to start
talking anew about Tibet. But,
it will probably not happen unless Richard Gere can
make the Tibetan cause as
fashionable in India as he made AIDS last week.
Suddenly, out of the glitzy
firmament of Mumbai cinema, out of that city's business
world and out of the drawing
rooms of Delhi appeared an extraordinary number of
people who appeared to be
desperately concerned about the spread of AIDS. They
were ready to model, dance on
tables, pay good money, do almost anything for the
pleasure of saying they had
dinner with Richard Gere. It was his presence again at
the bedside of Tibetans fasting
for days in Delhi to draw attention to human rights
violations in Tibet, that
brought them a few moments of focus in the national press.
So, if we want rich and powerful
Indians to start pressurising our new government to
talk a little tougher to China
then we are going to need Richard Gere. The Tibetans
themselves seem fully aware of
the power of Hollywood so on my first night in
Dharamsala, where I went
recently to interview the Dalai Lama, I met a Tibetan
Journalist and a member of
Tibet's Parliament in exile who informed me
immediately that Richard Gere
was also in town but that I may not find it so easy to
meet him because he was avoiding
media people. "He is here only for the
teachings that His Holiness is
giving so he is reluctant to talk to journalists". I saw
him the next day, seated amid a
large group of Western Buddhists, eyes closed,
totally absorbed in the words of
the Dalai Lama which were being translated for
non-Tibetans over FM Radio into
English, Spanish, French and Russian.
As things turned out I did not
get to speak to him but when I met the Dalai Lama we
began the interview, inevitably,
with my asking him whether he had seen "Seven
Years in Tibet" or "Kundun" yet.
He had not but admitted readily that Hollywood had
concentrated attention on the
Tibet cause at a time when it was almost being
forgotten.
The attention comes, as I
pointed out earlier, at a fortuitous time since both India
and China have new Prime
Ministers who may, perhaps, be braver about facing
Tibet's terrible tragedy than
their predecessors have been. In our own case we also
have George Fernandes as Defence
Minister and no other political figure has been
more forthright and more
consistent in his support for Tibet than him. Even this,
though, may not be enough for
the new BJP government to change our traditional
policy of not saying anything
that could be remotely construed as criticism of China.
When I asked the Dalai Lama
about how much support he felt the Indian
Government had given him and his
cause he said, with his usual gentleness, that he
was deeply grateful for how much
the Indian Government had done to allow
Tibetans in India to preserve
their culture. Tibet's government-in-exile has been
assisted in a variety of ways
but in the political field he feels that the Indian
Government has been
"over-cautious". It reminded me of the first time that I
interviewed the Dalai Lama in
Leh in 1976.
Ragu Rai and I had gone up on
behalf of the The Statesman to do what we in the
trade call "a colour piece" on
the Kalachakra sermon. It was the first that the Dalai
Lama was preaching it in Ladakh
and it had a special significance for him because
of Ladakh's proximity to Tibet.
By a strange coincidence Mao Tse Tung died on the
very day that had been set for
the interview.
This should have meant that my
questions to Tibet's spiritual and temporal leader
concentrated more on politics
than spirituality. But, we were in the midst of Indira
Gandhi's Emergency so as an Army
General stood over my head to ensure that I
asked no political questions. I
felt obliged to explain my constraints to him and he
smiled and said "It is the day
that Mao Tse Tung has died and you want to ask me
about religion and not
politics".
This time in Dharamsala it was
easier to talk about politics. Did he believe, I asked,
that it would be possible for
him to go back to Tibet in his life time? "I have full
confidence" he said "in the past
ten or fifteen years so much has changed, people
are fed up with the old
totalitarian system... and after the return of Hong Kong we
can see that China is wiser,
more experienced, the economic situation is better,
there is more confidence... I
think change now could be quicker".
The Dalai Lama has for several
years now been asking not for the complete
Independence of Tibet but for
some kind of autonomy that would allow Tibetans in
Tibet to practice their own
culture which has so far been crushed under the feet of
Communist China. "I am looking
forwards" he said "and not towards the past. There
can be a solution that could be
for our mutual benefit. I want to invite Chinese
journalists to come and see what
we are really doing . We are not anti-Chinese, not
even anti-Communist. Our
struggle is to preserve our ancient culture and traditions
which we feel are relevant not
just to us but to the world. We feel we can make a
contribution".
Tibetans in Tibet still face
repression and torture. Many manages to still to come
across the border, suffering all
manner of hardship, to tell tales of sadness and
anguish. No Indian Government
has so far dared speak out against this which is
puzzling when you consider that
China has never defended us on Kashmir and, in
fact, is often under suspicion
for helping Pakistan build its missile programme.
Will a BJP Government be any
different? Only if public opinion in India begins to
demand a change in our policy
and where public opinion is concerned it would be
fair to say that despite the
Dalai Lama's presence in India for 39 years we have quite
forgotten Tibet. So, come back
Richard Gere and let's see what you can do.
Greening, cleaning of McLeodganj
an uphill task
Archana Phull
CHANDIGARH, (Indian Express)
April 20
The Green workers with the Clean
Upper Dharamsala project, being run by the
Tibetan Welfare Office, are all
set to make the spiritual environs in the Dalai Lama's
settlement, McLeodganj, clean
and green at any cost.
``Every place on the earth
should be protected from ecological degradation and
more so the Dalai Lama's seat in
exile'', express these green workers.They can be
seen out in the field day and
night, armed with brooms, buckets and a friendly smile
as they cope with the pressures
of a burgeoning population, heavy tourist influx and
refugees trickling in from Tibet
in increasing numbers.
The Tibetan Welfare Office had
started the Clean Upper Dharamsala project about
three years ago with an
objective to save the environment and surrounding hills from
decadence, through people's
participation. With a staff of 12 regular employees,
including the six green workers,
the project involves collection of waste from
door-to-door and recycling it
after proper sorting out at an indigenous recycling unit
in the middle of McLeodganj
Bazaar, so as to stop dumping of scrap everywhere.
The green workers move around
the township with bins to collect refuse from every
house in the area and spread the
massage on protecting the environment. With a
meager salary of Rs 1,600 per
month, they work from dawn to dusk and handle over
two tons of waste in four weeks,
which is then recycled.
However, the green workers are
by no means discouraged with the cool response of
the ordinary folks, especially
hoteliers who are the least cooperative.
`` We have not been able to
convince the Tibetans and Indians in the area fully.
Our efforts have also proved
futile at times. For example, people who have been
given a jute bag for putting in
the household waste, are instead using it for carrying
vegetables from the market.
Also, many residents just bang the door on our face,''
says Shairu, a green worker with
the project.
He says that though the
hoteliers of McLeodganj had resolved to ban the use of
plastic bags and other
non-degradable material about a year ago, at the initiative of
the Beopar Mandal, the move fell
through with the passage of time. Choked
channels and garbage-strewn
passages in front of good hotels in the town speak
volumes about the apathetic
approach of this particular community.
Incidentally, the tourists,
mostly foreigners, who are normally blamed for spoiling the
beauty of the verdant hills
around the Tibetan township by excessive dumping of
plastic mineral water bottles,
are becoming keen volunteers for saving the
environment now.``The foreigners
work with us off and on and are slowly parting with
the habit of using the plastic
water bottles in great numbers as we have opened a
green shop to refill their
bottles with filtered and distilled water all throughout the
day,'' comments Dawa Tsering,
who is in charge of the welfare office. The project
has the involvement of youth
volunteers from Tibetan schools and almost all the
Tibetan government offices
donate some money for the environment programme,
which is also foreign-funded to
a great extent.``But what is really hampering the
progress is that neither the
Dharamsala Municipal Council nor the district
administration have come forward
to help, despite the fact that the MC is
responsible for overall
cleanliness of the area. The Corporation had promised to
give us Rs 25,000 every year for
the purpose and four labourers along with a truck for
carrying away the garbage, but
nothing has come of it so far,'' laments Dawa
Tsering.
``The district authorities also
don't seem to be bothered. We only wanted them to
dump the waste paper from the
DC's office at one point so that we could easily
collect it and recycle it to
earn some money, but all in vain,''he added. Yet for the
entire group of green workers,
the sole consolation is that McLeodganj would have
become worse had they not taken
the initiative to clean it.