Tibetan Escapees Bear Witness to China’s Atrocities in Tibet
Dharamshala: Five Tibetan youths, who participated in the peaceful protests in north eastern Tibet last year against the five decades of wrong policies initiated by the Chinese government in Tibet, gave a detailed account of China’s policies of marginalising the Tibetans, their identity and the brutal crackdown unleashed by the Chinese authorities since 10 March last year.
The five Tibetans are Gedun Gyatso, Kelsang Jinpa, Jamyang Jinpa, Losang Gyatso and Jigme Gyatso.
Gedun Gyatso and Kelsang Gyatso took part in the protests in Sangchu County in Labrang (Ch: Kanlho Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, incorporated into China’s Gansu Province) on 14 March 2008.
On 9 April 2008, Jamyang Jinpa, Losang Gyatso and Jigme Gyatso spoke openly in front of a visiting international media exposing the repressive policies initiated by the Chinese authorities in Tibet and the state of Tibetans living under constant fear and intimidation.
They spent the past one year in forest fearing arrest and torture by the Chinese authorities and finally managed to flee Tibet.
The five Tibetan escapees spoke to the media on Monday after their safe arrival in Dharamshala in India, the seat of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration. The press conference was organised by the Central Executive Committee of Domey based in Dharamshala.
They testified about the Chinese government’s repressive policies targeted at the Tibetan people and recounted the unimaginable sufferings undergone by Tibetans following the Chinese government’s violent suppression of Tibetans’ unprecedented call for more freedom, independence and return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
In their testimonials, the five Tibetan youths said unequivocally that the Tibetan people had voluntarily initiated the protests in Tibet as the existence of Tibet’s identity is on the verge of extinction.
They vehemently denied the Chinese government’s claim that His Holiness the Dalai Lama had orchestrated the peaceful demonstrations.
They said the Chinese authorities particularly target Tibetans in the monastic community and students who are the backbone of Tibetan identity by enforcing ideological indoctrination and patriotic education sessions.
The Chinese government’s violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters since 10 March 2008, left 220 Tibetans dead, 1,294 injured and 290 sentenced. More than 5,600 were arrested or detained and over 1,000 disappeared.
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These are criminals who set live people on fire. They are not “peaceful” protestors. They would be wanted by any government.
“since 10 March 2008, left 220 Tibetans dead, 1,294 injured and 290 sentenced.”
Oh really? Why don’t you mention those innocent Chinese were killed by the Tibetans protesters? Did they deserve to die? Only Tibetan’s life is life? How conveniently.
To David and ourlives – Let’s get this clear. Chinese invade and occupy our country now for nearly 60 years and we Tibetans finally have grown weary of the constant oppression so we protest and some protest become violent. Some of the unwelcome invaders are harmed or possibly even killed and that’s our fault? Easy solution, leave! Leave our sacred homeland, leave and take your cheap amusement parks, tacky shops and bars and brothels with you. No massive transfer of Han-Chinese to Tibet then no protest no problem. No stealing of Tibetan territory and incorporated into Chinese provinces, then no problem, no protest, no one harmed. The so-called “criminals” are those who are stealing our land, our home, destroying our culture, our religion, bringing a plague to our beautiful country.
I agree with Eddy, Who invited them to occupy Tibet. Leave Tibet, Live life peacefully and let Tibetan Live. I want to ask why you people want to spoil rich culture started from Tibet to Nepal.
What you want. We all are here for a limited time to live, all we need little space and food. Why to fight.
Let’s be brothers.
@ david-wait, these youths set people on fire?!
@ eddy- “Some of the unwelcome invaders are harmed or possibly even killed and that’s our fault?” no its not the entire whole of the Tibetan’s fault but whoever caused the “invaders’ to be hurt, the fault falls on them. the “easy solution” could be far more complicated than what you think it is?
if we were ALL to live in peace. we’d have to get rid of religion,wouldn’t we?
Eddy,
There is no such a thing as “massive transfer of Han-Chinese to Tibet”. The Tibetans in exile and their supporters have consistently exaggerated the situation.
As Barry Sautman, who is Associate Professor of Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology points out in his study on Tibet and the (Mis-)Representation of Cultural Genocide, “the state sponsored transfer [of Han Chinese] to Tibet is on a small scale. From 1994 to 2001 the PRC organized only a few thousand people to go to Tibet as cadres. Most serve only 3 years and then return to China. Those who move on their own to the Tibet Autonomous Region usually return to China in a few years. They come for a while, find the cities of Tibet too expensive, and then return to China. Some of the 72,000 Chinese who maintain theirhukou [household registration] in Tibet don’t really live there. Pensions are higher if your household is registered in Tibet.”
These facts are supported by articles in the Columbia Journal of Asian Law and by an Australian Chinese demographer in Asian Ethnicity in 2000, and show that the claims of ethnic swamping in Tibet are misleading. “What I think these articles show,” says Barry Sautman, “is that there is no evidence of significant population losses over the whole period from the 1950s to the present. There are some losses during he Great Leap Forward but these were less in Tibetan areas than in other parts of China. Where these were serious were in Sichuan and Qinghai, but even there not as serious in the Han areas of China. There are no bases at all for the figures used regularly by the exile groups. They use the figure of 1.2 million Tibetans dying from the 1950s to the 1970s, but no source for this is given. As a lawyer I give no credence to statistics for which there is no data, no visible basis.”
Vikas, you believe the life in Tibet was “peacefully” before 1951?
Let us not romanticise the life of Tibetans prior to the invasion. Tibet “was a retrograde theocracy of serfdom and poverty, where a favoured few lived high and mighty off the blood, sweat, and tears of the many. It was a long way from Shangri-La.”
If you were a serf then you wouldn’t say so. Those who are whining and crying today are those lost their privileges over the old Tibet.
Isidore – if I entered your house without permission is it your fault if I am harmed in the process? In the absence of religion you wouldn’t necessarily have peace. The Chinese have already destroyed thousands of our monasteries and that was a peaceful experience. Note: even a devout obsession with materialism is a form of religion. We are trying to protect a peaceful culture that has evolved over many, many, centuries. Why do you think we are not protected by the great wall of China? Why did China need a 17 point agreement that they then went ahead and falsified? Why? If Tibet always a part of China then China invaded itself. Very silly! It’s all about the money, all about the resources. That’s the bottom line. What you’re saying is that I can bulldoze your home torture your family and friends, loot your national treasures, lie about it to the world and that in the end you would thank me for supporting the government that not only allowed this but actually orchestrated it. Sorry but I don’t believe you.
China should be out of Tibet and keep their Han or whatever they are by their yellow river.