People’s Republic of China/Tibetans/Tibet: breaking through the wall of silence

Tibet: breaking through the wall of silence

"Texte en Anglais pour faire plaisir à nos amis Chinois..."
 
In Tibet violent confrontations have occurred in Lhasa, the capital and several towns in the country between Buddhist monks and locals on the one hand and the Chinese military police on the other hand. Demonstrators demanded, among other things, that the Dalai Lama, their undisputed spiritual and temporal leader be allowed to return to Tibet and that Tibetans have their human rights respected. There are several fatalities according to reports although no reliable figures are available. At a time when the People’s Republic of China is getting ready to welcome delegations from all over the world on the occasion of next summer’s Olympic Games, it might be useful to look into the way the Chinese State treats one of its ethnic minorities.
To begin with, we should remember that the Tibetans who enjoyed de facto independence between 1913 and 1950 were placed under Chinese sovereignty through military force in May 1951. In theory, Tibet was to enjoy a large measure of home rule, a promise that was never fulfilled.
In 1959 in the wake of uprisings against Chinese presence, the Dalai Lama took refuge in India. Afterwards, Chinese repression was fierce particularly during the Cultural Revolution: imprisonment in labour camps, destruction of the temples and monasteries. When Mao Dze Dong died in 1976, a relative religious tolerance held sway. It was interrupted by a renaissance of Tibetan nationalism and riots from 1987 to 1989, when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. The latter takes up the case for the survival of his people to the great powers while advocating a dialogue with Chinese authorities. This is what he calls the “middle-way” policy. He calls unambiguously, however on China to put an end to population transfers that made Tibetans a minority in their own country and contribute to destroying their language and their culture. The Dalai Lama has also just asked for an international investigation on the latest lethal outbreaks of violence in Tibet and has condemned a “cultural genocide” after the rioting in Lhasa with a tool of 80 dead according to the government in exile.
As far as Chinese officials are concerned, this unrest is an act of sabotage organized by the Dalai Lama. These events come at the wrong moment for China and are likely to reinforce calls to boycott the Olympics, a stance that is countenanced neither by the Tibetan government in exile nor the Dalai Lama.
The Occitan Nation Party has denounced Chinese occupation of Tibet and the “cultural genocide” for a long time. In the short term, it recommends that an end be put to the ruthless repression of demonstrations and that the Chinese authorities respect home rule for Tibet. Since the goodwill shown by the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile are not rewarded, great powers, so it thinks, should exert intense diplomatic pressure on Beijing so that the Chinese change their behaviour towards Tibetans as well as their other ethnic minorities. It is also necessary to break through the wall of silence erected by Chinese authorities on the situation in Tibet. This wall is incompatible with the image of opening onto the world and modernity China seeks to give of itself by staging on its territory the Olympic Games, a symbol of peace and peaceful competition through sports between the nations of the world. In the longer range, Tibet, if it is the democratically expressed view of Tibetans, should recover by peaceful means its independence and the territory corresponding to its ethnic-linguistic limits, a territory bigger than the current “autonomous” region within the People’s Republic of China.
 
March 18, 2008
 
Occitan Nation Party
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