Friday, May 2, 2014

Week Ending May 2, 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 2 May 2014
Self-Immolations, Protests, and Restrictions in Tibet
Tibetan Monk Released Following Six-Year Jail Sentence - RFA
1 May | Lobsang Donyoe, 52, a monk from the Gonsar monastery in the Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’s Dege county, was released earlier this week to warm greetings from the local community.
Bold Lone Protests in Tibet by Monk and Layperson - ICT
29 April | A teenage Tibetan monk from Kirti monastery carried out a lone protest with an image of the Dalai Lama on April 26 in the Ngaba street where many Tibetans have self-immolated since 2009. The solitary demonstration, which ended in the monk being beaten and taken into custody, followed a similar protest by a young Tibetan man in Manikengo town in Derge county, Kardze in Sichuan on April 8.
News
United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Annual Report - ICT
30 April | According to the 2014 report, “The Chinese government continues to perpetrate particularly severe violations of religious freedom. For Tibetan Buddhists and Uighur Muslims, conditions are worse now than at any time in the past decade.”
Subcommittee Hearing: Assessing U.S. Foreign Assistance Priorities in South Asia - US Foreign Affairs
30 April | Assistant Secretary for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told Congress: "We continue to advocate for the long-staying Tibetan community and urge respect for their fundamental rights, including the freedom of religious expression. We regularly engage with the Nepali government on the “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” which allows recently arrived Tibetan refugees to transit through Nepal to India under the protection and assistance of UNHCR."
Opinion and Analysis
Hang Together: Why the EU Needs to Confront China on Rights - Human Rights Watch
29 April | Sophie Richardson asks “Why does it matter that from its senior-most levels the EU is unwilling to confront serious human rights abuses in China? ...The lack of political courage to address in a serious and ambitious way systemic human rights abuses profoundly undermines human rights defenders and vitiates the EU's claim to being a global champion of human rights.”
Tibet's long road to peace with China has an end if suspicions are put aside - SCMP
28 April | Tenzin Norgay writes, “Beijing should revisit its history to learn that the 1914 Simla accord was concluded at a time when China steadily lost its traditional dependencies in international politics.”

A Q&A with Matthew Akester, translator of Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule - Columbia University Press
28 April | Akester describes his history with Tibetan Tubten Khétsun’s autobiographical account of his time spent in Tibet after the Tibetan people’s uprising of March 10, 1959.
“I am a terrorist”: An Interview with Tenzin Tsundue - The Isis
27 April | Miranda Hall interviews Tibetan activist and writer Tenzin Tsundue about his past, his convictions, and his hopes for the future of the Tibetan movement.


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Friday, April 25, 2014

Week Ending April 25, 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 25 April 2014
Self-Immolations, Protests, and Restrictions in Tibet
Tibetan Mine Protestors Detained in Palyul - Phayul
24 April | Thupga, Gade, Kyamo, and Jamyang were taken into custody on April 21 by Palyul county police in Barchung village in the Tromthar township of Kardze prefecture, allegedly regarding their refusal to sell land to Chinese gold miners.
China pressuring family to change Tibet self-immolator's story - Tibetan Review
24 April | The mother and elder brother of Thinley Namgyal, 32, who had torched himself in Khangsar Township, were summoned to the county offices and ordered to attribute a non-political reason for the self-immolation. Both refused, despite being offered money to go along with a story fabricated by the local authorities.
Tibetan Language Promotion Event Blocked by China - RFA
22 April | Chinese authorities have at the last minute blocked a move to hold a traditional Tibetan language competition in a Tibetan-populated county in Sichuan province, citing concerns over the “political implications” of the event.
News
TCHRD commemorates 25th birthday of Tibet’s disappeared Panchen Lama - TCHRD
25 April | The disappearance of the Panchen Lama demonstrates the extreme hostility and suspicion with which Chinese government views Tibetan religion and its clergy. The act also represents the manipulation of Tibetan Buddhism for political purposes as is evident in the Order No. 5 issued by the Chinese government to control and institutionalize the Tibetan reincarnation system.
Chinese officials "bribed" to destroy Tibetan brick factories, beat up workers - Phayul
25 April | Chinese authorities in Tibet’s Kyegudo area in the traditional Tibetan province of Kham have destroyed several brick factories owned by Tibetans and beaten up workers on the behest of Chinese brick factory owners on April 20, the Voice of Tibet radio reported.
Norway’s Politicians Shun Dalai Lama, Seeking Detente with China - Business Week
23 April | Olemic Thommessen, the speaker of the parliament, said he will avoid meeting with the 78-year-old religious leader, who is visiting at the invitation of the Nobel Institute to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his own Peace Prize.
Prisoner Cases: Dhondup Wangchen - Dui Hua
14 April | The Chinese government told Dui Hua and other concerned parties that Dhondup Wangchen’s sentence will actually end on June 5 after which he will begin serving a three-year sentence of deprivation of political rights.
Opinion and Analysis
Q&A with Lezlee and Stefan Halper: Tibet - An Unfinished Story - VOA
23 April | Lezlee Brown Halper and Stefan Halper have spent more than a decade researching Tibet’s struggle and putting it into perspective in their book, Tibet: An Unfinished Story.
Weibo, the Chinese censors enter the U.S. … stock market - ICT
23 April | ICT Executive Director Matteo Meccaci asks, “Would you find it ethical and legitimate to invest your money (to make money) in a service that is subject to official censorship according to the desires of the Chinese Communist Party? Would you support with your money a service that goes against the right to free speech?”

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Friday, April 18, 2014

Week Ending 18 April, 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 18 April 2014
Self-Immolations, Protests, and Restrictions in Tibet
Abbot among five Tibetans arrested - Phayul
17 April | The abbot of Boeyak monastery in Menda town in Chamdo, Khenpo Khedup, was arrested on April 13 as he was about to leave for Lhasa to attend a meeting of the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Buddhist learning centre.
Tibetan Man Dies in Self-Immolation Protest in Kardze - RFA
15 April | Thinley Namgyal, 32, self-immolated in Khangsar township in Tawu county in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Tibetans who witnessed the burning protest immediately took Namgyal's body to a nearby monastery for prayers before Chinese police could arrive at the scene. The Gonthal monastery later handed over the body to the family of Namgyal, who left behind a mother and two older brothers.
Chinese Officials Order School for Tibetan Monks Shuttered - RFA
15 April | Chinese authorities in Qinghai province have closed a private school for young monks and implemented other “restrictive policies,” while moving to sack officials from a local monastery they have accused of “separatist activities”.
News
Nepal turns itself into a partner of China's anti-Tibetan policies - Economic Times
14 April | Tibetans in Nepal know that wherever they gather to socialize or worship, they are likely to be spied on by Nepalese security forces who make no secret of their close links with Chinese authorities. Nongovernmental organizations that seek to monitor the situation or are engaged in humanitarian work with Tibetans in Nepal are also under surveillance and have been accused of disloyalty.
China cancels human rights dialogue with Britain - The Guardian
14 April | Beijing accuses UK of using rights issues to interfere in its internal affairs and axes dialogue that resumed after diplomatic freeze over Dalai Lama.
Opinion and Analysis
Capitalism and the Dalai Lama - New York Times
17 April | Arthur Brooks writes, “For the Dalai Lama, the key question is whether “we utilize our favorable circumstances, such as our good health or wealth, in positive ways, in helping others.” Advocates of free enterprise must remember that the system’s moral core is neither profits nor efficiency. It is creating opportunity for individuals who need it the most.”
China’s Tibet conundrum - Gulf News
17 April | Stefan Halper and Lezlee Brown Halper write, “Western infatuation with the Tibetan myth has enabled Tibetans to exercise a unique ‘soft power’ that Beijing can neither control nor ameliorate.”
China on the Edge - Gatestone Institute
16 April | Gordon Chang writes about 3 mistakes and assumptions Americans have made diplomatically about China, that have misled our policy and predictions: “The country has entered an especially troubling phase, and we have to be concerned that Beijing—out of fundamental weakness and not out of strength—will lash out and shake the world.”


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Week Ending 11 April, 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 11 April 2014
Self-Immolations, Protests, and Restrictions in Tibet
Tibetan Youth Detained Following Solitary Protest - RFA
9 April | The April 8 protest in Manikengo town in Sichuan’s Dege county prompted cries of support from Tibetan onlookers, who echoed the young man’s calls for the long life of exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Chinese officials order Tibetan ‘prayer wheels’ destoryed - RFA
8 April | Chinese authorities in a Tibetan county in Qinghai province have ordered a local clinic to destroy “prayer wheels” dedicated to the healing of disease, at the same time threatening to seize a sacred mountain and open it to exploration by mining firms.
12 Years Too Many: Release Tenzin Delek Rinpoche on medical parole - TCHRD
7 April | TCHRD observes with deep concern the 12th anniversary of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche’s arbitrary arrest on 7 April 2002 which eventually led to life imprisonment. Tibet Groups are campaigning for his release on medical parole.
News
Lawyers Walk Out of Trial of Chinese Anti-Graft Activists in Protest - RFA
9 April | Lawyers representing two anti-corruption activists walked out of a Beijing district court on Wednesday in protest on the second day of their resumed trials, citing flagrant breaches of legal procedure and the rules of evidence. The trial of New Citizens' Movement activists Ding Jiaxi and Li Wei on charges of "gathering a crowd to disrupt public order" had resumed for a second day.
Illegal detentions of protestors in Belgium during the visit of Chinese president - ICT
7 April | Tibetans and Belgian supporters seeking to peacefully protest during President Xi Jinping’s visit to Bruges, Belgium on April 1 were detained for hours, in one case partially strip-searched, and had Tibetan flags confiscated. Permission to organise a peaceful protest had been granted earlier by the Mayor of Bruges.
Opinion and Analysis
PLA Joint Operations Developments and Military Reform - Jamestown Foundation
9 April | Kevin McCauley writes, “Now the log-jam impeding some of the more far reaching reforms appears to be breaking, as indicated in the recent push in the Third Plenary Session for significant military reform and the creation of a leading group to push forward some of the more bureaucratically painful command, force structure and organizational changes required to create a modern military force.”
“Remembering Exiled Tibetan Activist Chungdak Koren” by Woeser - High Peaks Pure Earth
7 April | Woeser outlines her and Chungdak Koren’s collaborations, such as working on the Tibetan translation of “Forbidden Memory” and ruminates on the larger exile condition. At the same time, the piece portrays a touching friendship between two Tibetan women.
China’s intimidation measure will not stop the human rights movement - ICT
1 April | Elena Gaita writes about her first-hand experience of harassment and intimidation by a member of a Chinese “NGO” in Geneva at the UPR session.
http://weblog.savetibet.org/2014/04/01/chinas-intimidation-measure-will-not-stop-the-human-rights-movement/
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Thursday, April 3, 2014

Week Ending 4 April 2014

International Tibet Network News Digest & Analysis: 4 April 2014
Self-Immolations, Protests, and Restrictions in Tibet
Tibetans demand fair compensation - RFA
3 April | On Wednesday April 2, over a hundred Tibetans living in Gansu province staged a protest demanding proper compensation for land seized and calling for "equal rights."
China sentences two Tibetan village leaders to 10 years’ imprisonment in Diru County - TCHRD
3 April | Ngangtak, 54, and Rigsal, 31 were sentenced on 14 January 2014 for allegedly failing to fulfill their duties as villager leaders and in the case of Ngangtak, for instigating fellow villagers against the Chinese authorities.
China sentences Tibetan monk to 18 years in prison - CTA
1 April | Thardoe Gyaltsen, the administrator of Drongna monastery in Driru county in Nagchu Prefecture in eastern Tibet was sentenced to 18 years in prison for allegedly storing photos and speeches of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Tibetan nun sets fire to herself outside monastery in first self-immolation in Bathang - ICT
31 March | The Tibetan nun, Dolma, is from a large family; three of her relatives have been identified as reincarnate lamas, and her sister is also a nun. She is believed to have made religious offerings before setting fire to herself near the circumambulation route outside Ba Choede monastery in the county town of Bathang.
Goshul Lobsang tortured with pain-inducing injections, leaves a defiant note after untimely death - TCHRD
31 March | New details received by TCHRD shed light on Goshul Lobsang’s lifelong resistance activities, his motivations, and the brutal treatment he endured in prison.

News
Tibetan Prisoner Released, Receives Hero's Welcome - RFA
3 April | Tsedak Gonpo, who was imprisoned for leading protests in his hometown of Meruma in Ngaba county in Sichuan province amid unrest that swept the region in 2008, was released from Mianyang prison on Tuesday.
Report: Tibetans in Nepal Are Suffering Under Growing Chinese Pressure - Time
1 April | Human Rights Watch says growing Chinese pressure on the Nepali government has led to restrictions and harassment of Tibetans seeking refuge in the country, traditionally a safe haven for those fleeing China's crackdown on religious freedom.
Roar of the Snow Lion: Tibetan writer Tashi Rabten released after 4 years in prison - TCHRD
1 April | Tashi Rabten was released Saturday, 29 March 2014 – to a warm and rousing welcome from his family members, relatives, friends and admirers. Tashi Rabten’s ‘crime’ for which he was sentenced to four years in prison was serving as one of the editors of the literary journal Shar Dung Ri (Eastern Snow Mountain) and penning a book titled Trag Yig (Written in Blood).
Opinion and Analysis
I unequivocally support the middle-way approach advocated by Dalai Lama: Karmapa - Economic Times
3 April | Ogyen Trinley Dorjee, the 17th Karmapa or head of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism, has for the first time slammed Beijing's totalitarian rule in Tibet and come out in open support of Dalai Lama's middle-path approach, or 'meaningful autonomy' to resolve the Tibetan crisis.
An alternative tribute to Bapa Phuntsog Wangyal - A slave mindset - Phayul
2 April | Vijay Kranti critiques Tibetan praise for Bapa Phuntsog Wangyal: “They are finding great solace in some meaningless, ineffective and result less advises which he wrote on paper to his communist masters, but are fully blind to the damage he inflicted consciously on his vulnerable motherland on moments when it hurt her most.”

A Merkel, a map, a message to China? - Foreign Policy
1 April | Angela Merkel presented to Xi a 1735 map of China which showed, according to its original Latin caption, the so-called "China Proper" -- that is, the Chinese heartland mostly populated by ethnic Han people, without Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, or Manchuria.

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