The Tibet Post International Online Newspaper

Dalai Lama ‘May name successor’ Page1 Tibet and Paper Tigers Page 2 Dalai Lama Page 3 Tibet Page 4 Cyclone claims 3,000 lives Page 5 In India, a Tibetan Can Only Wait Page 6

Adak Lupoe,

a senior monk at Lithang monastry, were sentenced to ten years.

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Vol. 01, Issue 03, 25 November, 2007 T P I S h o r t s Ta k e s

Tibetans given harsh prison sentences for sending photos abroad RSF, Paris: November 21, 2007 Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage at harsh prison sentences for “espionage” of three to ten years handed down yesterday to three Tibetans by the intermediate court in Kardze, Sichuan province on the Tibetan border.

The three, who had sent abroad photos of demonstrations held at the beginning of August by nomadic Tibetans, were charged with “espionage on behalf of foreign organisations, putting state security in danger”.

Adak Lupoe, a senior monk at Lithang monastry and Kunkhyen, a musician and teacher, were sentenced to ten and nine years respectively for taking photos and recordings of the demonstrations following the horse festival on 1st August.

Under the Chinese justice system the fact of sending pictures to “foreign organisations” constitutes a “threat to national security”. Jarib Lothog was sentenced to three years in prison for helping send the photos.

Some shots of the demonstrations were used by media run by the Tibetan community in exile and by human rights organisations. Tibetans in the region have reported that since the ‘incident’, described by the state-run Xinhua news agency as a “laying siege to government buildings”, tension has increased in the Lithang area and Chinese military reinforcements have been sent to the region.

“These very harsh sentences demonstrate the risks run by ordinary Tibetan citizens when they try to send information aboard, a step which is similar to citizen journalism,” the worldwide press freedom organisation said.

Runggye Adak was given an eight-year jail sentence on the same day before the same court for being the “instigator of the 1st August rally”. He was found guilty of “separatist activism” after giving a speech supporting the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet.

“It is striking that an organiser of the demonstrations was given a lesser sentence than those who took the photographs,” Reporters Without Borders said. “This shows the regime’s paranoia towards those who produce evidence of disputes within China, Tibet and Xinjiang. We call for the verdict to be quashed and the Tibetans released,” said the organisation.

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H. H. Dalai Lama ‘may name successor’

H I S H O L I N E S S T H E 1 4 T H D A L A I L A M A O F T I B E T, P H O TO : T P I

AFP [Tuesday, November 20, 2007] TOKYO, Japan - Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he is open to naming his successor before he dies, going against centuries of tradition

but ensuring that China does not interfere.”If the Tibetan people want to keep the Dalai Lama system, one of the possibilities I have been considering with my aides is to select the next Dalai Lama while

SARKOZY URGED TO SPEAK OUT ON HUMAN RIGHTS DURING CHINA VISIT

Chinese goods are openly sold by Tibetans in Dharamsala. Photo: TPI

Tibetan in Exile

Plight of Tibetan orphans AP. 20 November, Tokyo.

“Open Your Heart,” a charity exhibition that includes photos from Tibet, France and Japan, will take place in Kamakura from Dec. 1 to 9 to aid the plight of Tibetan orphans. The exhibition opens with a musical event featuring Tibetan dancers, a biwa (Japanese lute) performer and a chanson singer. Profits from the sale of photos and postcards will go toward buying clothing, shoes and school supplies for the children.

The organizer of the event, Evelyne Sentenac, a photographer and longtime resident of Japan, held her first charity photo exhibition five years ago, after she visited Tibet in 2002 and was deeply saddened to hear about the situation of many Tibetan children living in Dharamsala, India, the location of the Tibetan government in exile.

Many of the children’s parents perished during the arduous trek across the Himalayas from Tibet to India, or died in India of tropical diseases that they had never encountered in Tibet.

Entry to “Open Your Heart” (10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) is free on every day except for Dec. 1, when it will cost ¥2,000 to watch the musical event (and also see the exhibition). The event takes place at Chabo Gallery Kaeda, Kamakura-shi, which is a 13-min. walk from Kamakura Station.

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French President , Nicolas Sarkozy

Paris, November, 20, 2007.

Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard has written to French President Nicolas Sarkozy urging him to intercede on behalf of China’s 83 imprisoned journalists and cyberdissidents during a three-day visit to the country that begins on 25 November.

“You have said several times in recent months that you intend to raise the human rights situation and the fate of China’s political prisoners when you meet with Chinese officials,” the letter said.

“This visit is an excellent opportunity to make France’s voice heard and to remind President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao of the undertakings China has given.”

The Chinese authorities promised to improve the press freedom and human rights situation when the 2008 Olympic Games were assigned to Beijing in 2001.

Reporters Without Borders has sent Sarkozy’s advisers a list of the 33 journalists and 50 cyberdissidents and Internet users currently held in China, making special mention of Shi Tao, who is serving a 10-year sentence, Ching Cheong, serving a five-year sentence, and Yang Zili, serving a eight-year sentence.

Reporters Without Borders would like Sarkozy to organise a meeting with independent journalists, pro-democracy intellectuals and the relatives of political prisoners during his stay in Beijing.

“We also think that a member of your delegation should visit the home of the husband-and-wife human rights team, Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan, recently nominated for the European parliament’s Sakharov prize,” Ménard wrote. “Under house arrest for the past few years, they embody a courageous and determined defence of free expression.”

Finally, Reporters Without Borders also urged Sarkozy to pay attention to the position of the French companies whose merits he will be promoting during his trip. The press freedom organisation is of the view that their technologies should not be used for repression.

The French company Thalès, for example, sold China its powerful ALLISS antennae, which are used by the Chinese authorities to jam the signals of some international radio stations. And the European aerospace company EADS has sold communications systems to the Beijing municipal government for the security systems.

More than 30,000 police officers and municipal security personnel are to be supplied with European equipment.

Reporters Without Borders has already voiced its concern that it could be used against dissidents.

I’m alive,” he told Japan’s Sankei Shimbun in an interview published Tuesday.The options would include electing the successor “democratically” from among high-ranking Tibetan Buddhist monks or naming the successor himself, the Dalai Lama said.”If China selected my successor after my death, the people of Tibet would not support him as there would be no Tibetan heart in him,” he said.The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate with a wide global following, keeps a rigorous schedule at age 72, but Tibetans have increasingly voiced worries about what happens when he dies.China, which sent troops into Tibet in 1950, recently issued rules that Tibetan living Buddhas needed permission from the officially atheist government to be reincarnated.In 1995, China detained a six-year-old boy the Dalai Lama had picked for the secondmost important figure of Panchen Lama. China picked its own Panchen Lama who has been paraded around to promote Beijing’s rule in Tibet.The current Dalai Lama, who is the 14th, was born as Tenzin Gyatso to a farming family. Legend holds that when he was two years old, a search party received signs he was the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation and confirmed his identity after he identified prayer beads and other relics of a previous Dalai Lama.The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Beijing has denounced his frequent travels overseas including his current trip to Japan, saying he should focus on religion rather than politics.”I am already half-retired politically and in the position of supreme advisor to the exiled government.

Decision making on political matters is already out of my hands,” the Dalai Lama said in the interview.He denies Beijing’s charges he is a separatist, saying he is seeking greater autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule.

Tibetan Issue

Mr. Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, expressed “strong support” for the Dalai Lama’s efforts to gain greater autonomy for Tibet from China’s government, Kyodo English News reported. continued on page 5

World

Bodies littered Bangladesh’s cyclone ravaged southern coastal districts, sparking fears of epidemic as authorities struggled to provide relief to lakhs of homeless survivors of the worst storm in nearly two decades that has so far claimed 3,000 lives. continued on page 5

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THE EDIT PAGE

25 November, 2007 Dharamsala

Tibet Post

What happened to the promise of chairman Dang?

“Tibet and Paper Tigers” Yes, Karma played an instrumental role in bringing together the two political monotheistic faiths for the first Tibet inter-faith group meeting in Dhartsedho (A place of Tibet, bounded with china) in 1985, a place, where never knew about a UN human rights declaration, it was drawn up condemning violence in the name of freedom. At the same time Chinese chairman Dang declared that everything was possible except Tibet freedom.

Many Tibetans said they hoped the United Nations 1980s theme of Dialogue among Cultures, occupation, human rights and Civilizations (which I expected) would yet pave the way for talks to resolve the China and Tibet crisis.

Bapa Phuntsok (First Tibetan communist) used to say that although he respected the roots of Han-Chinese civilization, he hoped its great capacity and energies could be utilized to establish peace and stability for mankind even in Tibet. But this capacity was being squandered by Chinese politicians who are ‘neither serving the interests of Chinese citizens nor the people of the whole 95 minorities of China. Chinese made Tibetans minority of China, but we are not minority, we have our own language, history, tradition, culture, custom, and particularly country’s money, national flag and anthem, symbolizing Tibet as a completed nation.

If Tibetans act in any direction for their independence, terrorist development had nothing to do with it. As signatory to the UN human rights Treaty, Tibet have the right to develop any action for freedom and struggle for peaceful purposes, but still Tibetans are like rat without teeth in front of Chinese. In exile Tibetan community, some Tibetans used hunger strikes, burned themselves, showing their sufferings, but never an active action has been taken for free Tibet. One of my friends, Mr. Luzi, Chinese origin from Malaysia, advised me that why not you Tibetans take any action for Tibet independence and why Chinese leaders and militaries are so happy in Tibet? These are so important questions to Tibetans; we never make it difficult for Chinese leaders and militaries in Tibet.

Speaking of the Chinese attack on Tibetans in recently, even many western people said, such a brutal attack has to be premeditated. Killing Tibetans is not an act of selfdefence. The country is fighting to protect its culture, customs and identity. Tibet’s potential in helping to solve the China and Tibet crisis should be recognized.

Why are Human Skeletons in the every corner of the mountains?

Many world leaders, particularly, an UN torture investigator, Mr. Nowak revealed that his investigations for human rights and human torture records in Tibet reported terrible wrong-doings. Every year, more than 3000 Tibetans escaped from Tibet. From 1960s to 1980s, Chinese border military murdered hundreds of Tibetans in mountains.

Many skeletons of those who tried to escape from the cross borders lie buried in the mountains, even now.

The current peace process or middle way approach of the Dalai Lama with Chinese consisted mainly to build a corridor for peace and prosperity which would enhance the living standards of the people in both Tibet and China through the creation of an agro-economy park and foreign policy museum in the Tibet. The red China never had a heart for others. From 1990s, Tibet and its people lost all their political prosperity, their dignity and their ancient history. Still there is no propaganda for Tibetan issues.

Why are Tibet and its people’s issues are so cheap?

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Advicer Advicer Editor Sub Editor Reporter Reporter Circular Publisher Press of Tibet, Room # 306 Nechung Hostel, Gamru Village P.O. Dharamsala - 176215 Distt. Kangra, H.P., INDIA

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Mr. Vincent Brossel Mr. Thomas Keimel Mr. Yeshe Choesang Mrs. Rigzin Wangmo Mr. Palden Gyatso Miss. Dolma Lhamo Mr. Tenzin Sangpo Mr. Tenzin Kunga Tele: 0091-1892-224641 E-mail: editor@thetibetpost.com www.thetibetpost.com

The Tibet Post

Restless spirits As the Dalai Lama nears political retirement, he faces one of his toughest challenges: his own people GEOFFREY YORK AND ANTHONY REINHART From Saturday’s Globe and Mail November 3, 2007 at 12:39 AM EST BEIJING AND TORONTO — Tibetans prefer to hang their prayer flags at the highest altitudes. When the flags flutter in the wind, it makes them feel that the gods are listening.

The Majnu Ka Tila refugee colony, a jumble of dusty stone buildings on the outskirts of New Delhi, doesn’t get quite the same breeze as Tibet’s mountain temples. But for the past 50 years those bits of cloth, with prayers painted on them, have hung in the exile community, waiting for an answer from the gods.

These days, the prayers are beginning to sound less harmonious, and the answers less certain. New discord is emerging over whether to continue the path of diplomacy with China. And even the moral authority of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan leader who visited Canada this week and made a plea to Ottawa to open its doors to thousands of exiles, is failing to quell the restless discontent there.

The refugee settlement, like other parts of the Tibetan diaspora of more than 110,000, is divided along generational lines. The older generation, responding pragmatically to China’s implacable opposition, is willing to follow the Dalai Lama’s “middle-way” strategy, which calls for diplomatic dialogue and a long-term goal of Tibetan autonomy within China. Younger exiles, who never experienced a free Tibet, are reluctant to give up that dream.

“We believe in him and we respect him,” says Tenzin Sherab, the 29-year-old general secretary of the Tibetan Youth Congress, a group that is defiant in its call for full Tibetan independence. “But we still say, ‘Free Tibet.’” Even as he tours the world’s capitals and wins plaudits from Western leaders, the Dalai Lama knows he must keep a close eye on the growing frustration in the exile community back home in India and Nepal.

While the world sees the Dalai Lama to be locked in combat with the Chinese Communists, one of his biggest struggles is with his own people, especially the restless young militants who are increasingly dissatisfied with his quest for rapprochement with Beijing. His biggest challenge is to preach patience to Tibetan exiles, many of whom are losing faith in his conciliatory approach.

The Dalai Lama has admitted that he is already moving into semi-retirement. At 72, he is likely to give up his political work in the next few years, although he will remain the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people.

In the winter of his years, a shift in emphasis is taking place as he seeks to ensure the longterm survival of the Tibetan diaspora, which faces an insecure future as a stateless people in overcrowded refugee camps.

This week, when the Dalai Lama pleaded with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to accept several thousand refugees from the Tibetan exile community in India and Nepal, it was a sign of his new strategy of emphasizing humanitarian and social issues, rather than political confrontation with Beijing.

His so-called middle-way strategy began in the late 1980s, when he gave up his campaign for Tibetan political independence and switched to a softer demand for autonomy within China. When that failed to satisfy Beijing, he offered more olive branches. He urged his followers to refrain from boycotts and public protests against Chinese leaders on their overseas visits. He even offered support to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, telling his followers not to boycott the games.

In 2002, he dispatched envoys to China for secret talks with Chinese officials.

These discussions have continued annually, even though many of his followers are deeply skeptical of the talks.

Yet none of these conciliatory steps have borne any fruit. China has remained as uncompromising as ever. Indeed, the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan dissidents has escalated in recent years, and Chinese

verbal attacks on the Dalai Lama have become more vociferous.

Hence the desperation of his search for help in Western capitals. He knows that his own people are losing patience. His nightmare scenario is a divided exile community that splits further apart after his death, which would only hasten the slow decline in Tibetan culture.

“That’s why the Dalai Lama is working so hard to persuade Western governments to appeal to China to give him something, some kind of olive branch, that he can take back to his people,” says Robert Barnett, a professor of contemporary Tibetan studies at Columbia University.

“This is a very critical point now. He’s trying very hard to get something from China to show his base, so that he can tell his people that China is not just playing a waiting game, waiting for him to die.”

A big part of the Dalai Lama’s strategy is to improve the social conditions of the Tibetan refugees, who face widespread poverty and statelessness. His fear is that an impoverished exile community would become angrier and more radicalized, which would cripple the chances of reaching a peaceful compromise with Beijing.

Mr. Barnett calls it a “developmentalist” approach. “He’s putting more and more emphasis on advanced education, for example. He’s trying to create a more professionalized and educated community.

This is very much in China’s interests, too.

The exiles would be less likely to look for extreme solutions.”

But many of the younger generation, led by groups such as the Tibetan Youth Congress, are intensifying their defiant cries for full Tibetan independence, despite the fact the Dalai Lama has officially renounced this goal.

“We have hot blood,” says Ms. Sherab, of the Tibetan Youth Congress. “We don’t know what a free Tibet was like. We want to feel it.”

Ms. Sherab, who has been imprisoned four times since 1998 for her pro-Tibet protests, says the youth congress has been increasingly active in recent years, holding as many as 10 protests a year, compared with two or three annually in the past. And this year has been the group’s most active.

None of this is sanctioned by the Dalai Lama.

But these days, the younger Tibetans are less willing to follow his wishes on political tactics.

In his visit to Canada this week, the Dalai Lama tried to promote the middle way by lending his presence to a dialogue between young Tibetan and Chinese people in Ottawa. The meeting went almost unnoticed in all the controversy over his meeting with Mr. Harper, but the youth dialogue is a perfect example of the conciliatory approaches that the Dalai Lama still favours.

The meeting was scheduled for 30 minutes, but ended up lasting more than an hour. It is believed to be the first such Tibetan-Chinese youth dialogue anywhere in the world, and it could become a model for future talks to bridge the gap between the two communities, according to Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council, who attended the meeting.

At his meeting with the young people, the Dalai Lama acknowledged the “frustration” of Tibetan young people, Mr. Wong says.

Yet he remained loyal to the middle-way strategy. “He’s very committed to dialogue,” Mr. Wong says.

The resettlement of Tibetan refugees in Canada and the United States is another example of the Dalai Lama’s efforts to ease the pressure points in the exile community.

Canada accepted 250 refugees from Tibet in the 1970s, and another 1,000 were accepted by the United States in the early 1990s.

(The Tibetan population in Canada is now estimated to be about 5,000). Now the Dalai Lama wants to resettle 5,000 refugees in the United States and several thousand in Canada, a huge increase from the earlier waves of refugees.

The resettlement is an indirect acknowledgment of the success of China’s unyielding stance on the Tibet issue. The exiles know that they are unlikely to be

returning to their homeland in the near future, and they need to find a long-term solution outside Tibet.

“We’ve outgrown the land given to us in India,” said one exiled Tibetan leader. “We’re bursting at the seams. We need to deal with this because it’s directly affecting the livelihood of the exiles.”

The Tibetan refugee camp near New Delhi has existed for nearly 50 years. Over the decades, the tents have yielded to concrete blocks, while the residents have graduated from fruit and vegetable stalls to computer shops and travel agencies.

But now India’s much-vaunted generosity toward the Tibetan refugees is being tested.

The Indian government is pressing the refugees to remove their homes from the banks of the Yamuna River, which is prone to flooding. Already scores of Hindu temples have been razed and citizens relocated. If the Tibetans are forced to abandon their homes, schools and monasteries here, it will be difficult for them to maintain their sacred sense of tradition.

“We are going to stay,” Ms. Sherab vows.

She is joining a Tibetan delegation in court to fight the government’s demands.

These kinds of frictions are what the Dalai Lama is trying to avoid with his middleway strategy. For a time, he thought he had a chance at reconciliation with Beijing. The first five rounds of talks between his envoys and Chinese officials seemed to be making some modest progress, with the two sides respectfully exchanging views. But the sixth round of talks, held in late June and early July this year, was a discouraging setback.

Tibetan sources say China revived its accusations that the Dalai Lama is seeking political independence for Tibet, after earlier seeming to accept his statement that he wants only autonomy within China.

“We feel that we’re back to square one,” says one Tibetan source. “It feeds the skeptics on both sides. They can say, ‘Look, we told you so, it was just a waste of time.’”

The setback at the envoy’s talks was soon accompanied by further signs of Chinese hostility to any notion of rapprochement.

In August, China introduced new rules to strengthen its grip on Tibet, including a ban on the reincarnation of any senior monks without the government’s permission.

(Reincarnated lamas are highly influential in Tibet because of their key role in the training of monks.) This was followed last month by a verbal assault on the Dalai Lama. In a lengthy commentary in China’s statecontrolled news agency, the Tibetan leader was accused of supporting “evil cults” such as the Aum Shinrikyo cult, which killed 12 people with deadly sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Within Tibet, Chinese repression has intensified in recent years. Dissidents have been severely punished, and Chinese soldiers have shot at Tibetan refugees attempting to flee to Nepal. At the same time, China seems confident in the effectiveness of its longterm tactics: installing its own Panchen Lama (the second-highest Tibetan spiritual leader, who plays a key role in choosing the next Dalai Lama) and flooding Tibet with thousands of Han Chinese migrants to strengthen its control of the territory.

Faced with this hard-line stand from China, the exile community is divided on whether to keep trying the middle way that the Dalai Lama has advocated for more than a decade.

Gelek Badheytsang is typical of many young exiles, agitating for a free, independent Tibet, while acknowledging the Dalai Lama’s moral and political authority over the community as he guides the exiles down the middle way.

“I’m sure there are some kids out there who might have militant tendencies or aspirations or whatnot, but the point of the fact is, it is His Holiness the Dalai Lama who is holding all of the Tibetan refugees; he is the one uniting factor,” says Mr. Badheytsang, 22, a board member of the Toronto chapter of Students for a Free Tibet. “And until His Holiness says otherwise, we are obliged to follow his policy, which is about nonviolence, about dialogue and about finding a middle-ground approach.”

The Tibet Post

TPI DALAI LAMA

25 November, 2007 Dharamsala

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My purpose is the promotion of religious harmony: His Holiness Dharamshala: November 22, 2007. His Holiness the Dalai Lama said that his purpose to visit Japan is to promote religious harmony and he is happy to be able to participate in two of the most important religious functions in Japan.

While addressing a press briefing at the New Grand Hotel in Hachioji, Tokyo yesterday, His Holiness said he is not disappointed over the Japanese government’s indifferent attitude since his visit to the country is not political.

On being asked if he is upset over the Japanese government’s attitude, compared to the honor and respect in which he has been received by the leaders of US and Germany recently, His Holiness said, “Main purpose my visit of is not political, so, nothing to ask the Japanese government.”

“And also I don’t want to create any inconvenience to any person.

So, no problem,” His Holiness added.

On his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, His Holiness said, “German Chancellor is one of my long time friends, who has kept the spirit of human friendship even today and that we have met as friends.”

On Tibet’s environment, His Holiness called for special care to preserve Tibet’s ecosystem, adding, once you damage the fragile environment of Tibetan plateau, it will take a long period to recover.

His Holiness said that since major rivers originating in Tibet feed into South Asia, “Special care of the Tibetan ecology is not only the concerns for six million Tibetans, but also the concerns for millions of people.”

But some people from China “have no knowledge of ecology. They

are only concerned about industries (with) no idea of ecological consequences,” His Holiness said.

The Chinese government has begun to impose “some restrictions on deforestation in some parts of Tibet. However, unfortunately now in China, sometimes restrictions can be easily ignored through pocket money, corruption,” His Holiness added. His Holiness said, “Some Chinese businessmen still can carry out deforestation and also they exploit natural resources with poor care for the ecology.”

Dalai Lama draws thousands of Japanese Buddhist crowd

Photo: TPI Yokohama, Phayul. November 20: Some 5000 Buddhists, mainly Japanese, congregated in the National Convention Hall of Yokohama city, Kanagawa prefecture, to hear His Holiness deliver message of peace and hope.

His Holiness was invited by the All Japanese Buddhist Federation (AJBF) and Kanagawa Buddhist Federation (KBF) to speak on the topic Shinzuru Kokoro to Heiwa (Faith and Peace) at the Buddhist Conference commemorating their 50th and 40th anniversaries respectively.

Mainly relying on his own experience and from the lessons of the Buddhist Tibetan tradition, The Tibetan spiritual leader spoke on how to create a more peaceful world by reducing gap between human perception and realities in today’s world.

His Holiness blamed many of the world’s man-made problems and crisis to lack of “realistic approach”.

Pointing out at the problem of “more mental and emotional crisis among younger generation” and increasing global “environmental damages”, His Holiness told the Buddhist conference that “these

problems which we are facing are creation of human beings themselves – in some cases (through) mistakes, some cases – negligence, and also some cases out of ignorance”.

“The gap between human perception and today’s reality should be reduced. There should be less and less gap between these two for a more sensible approach to reduce many problems,” His Holiness insisted.

The Tibetan spiritual leader also did not approve the wide gap between the rich and poor, which he says “exists even in developed nations like United States and Japan”. “That is not only morally wrong … practically also there are problems” he added.

His Holiness also called for incorporation of moral lessons in today’s educational system. “Modern education pays more and sufficient attention on brain development only and less or no attention on moral values. I think that is a mistake,” the Dalai Lama said.

On the question of “whether the world with six billion people (are) going towards doomsday,” the Dalai Lama said, “It depends entirely on our mental attitude, hope, vision, and our efforts.” Taking the example of Japan, the Dalai Lama said the people of the country “did not give up” after the World War II crisis. “With more hope and determination, Japan is now strong and very much advanced,” the Dalai Lama said.

“Because of negative events and negative developments, if we lose our hope and selfconfidence, and remain pessimist, then we will not develop,” the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize laureate told the crowd.

Describing himself as a “simple Buddhist monk”, the Dalai Lama said promotion of human values and religious harmony are two of his main commitments in life. He, however said, Buddhist concept of interdependency is worth an attention for

non-Buddhists and, both believer and non believer of religion. Since the concept is based on reasoning, the Dalai Lama said the concept “can be very much relevant in this 21st century”. Because of its scientific implications, the Dalai Lama also opined that it could be even more useful for nonbelievers and scientists.

To the Japanese Buddhists, the Dalai Lama demanded more serious practice of the Buddha Dharma. For followers of other faiths, he said there was no need of religious conversion to understand the concept of another religion.

The President of the All Japanese Buddhist Federation and Yokohama City Mayor were among those dignitaries at the Buddhist Conference in the shell-shaped hall, which is one the largest in the world.

After the conference, the Dalai Lama interacted briefly with Mongolian community in Japan at the latter’s request.

The Tibetan leader is currently on a 9-day Japan tour beginning November 15.

Although he was well received by the religious groups, the Japanese government officials have avoided contact with the exiled Tibetan leader in an obvious effort not to irk China. But the popularity that the Dalai Lama enjoys in Japan, with its considerable Buddhist population, enabled the organisers of the Tuesday’s conference to sell out 5000 tickets within hours.

The Dalai Lama earlier described his current visit as part of his effort to promote human values and religious harmony. On Sunday he paid visit of the nation’s most sacred Shinto shrine and participated in an Interfaith Forum at Kogakkan University in Western Japan’s Ise City, Mie Prefecture.

While in Yokohama, His Holiness is expected to give lectures in two private schools and visit a Shingon Buddhist temple in Tokyo’s Bunkyo-ku before leaving for India on November 23.

The comments came as China’s state Xinhua news agency said climate change was causing more weather-related disasters than ever in Tibet.

Also during the press conference His Holiness said “all Tibetans wish to return to Tibet” and reiterated that he was open to resolve the issue of Tibet over a “genuine autonomy”.

“We are seeking genuine autonomy within the constitution of China provided the Chinese government is ready to create a meaningful autonomy,” the exiled leader of Tibet said. “Whole world knows the Dalai Lama side is not seeking independence,” His Holiness added. Later, His Holiness gave a public talk on “Modern World and Spiritual Development” at Hachioji New Grand Hotel to the crowd of 400 people from different walks of life.

His Holiness told the gathering that the mission of his life is promotion of human values.

His Holiness said that mutual trust is the foundation of human relation and no matter how powerful, how rich an individual may be, he cannot be happy without human companion.

Holiness said that his first teacher of compassion is his mother and that the seed of compassion has been first planted by her.

His Holiness further said that a balance attitude towards the development of both mental and physical is important for overall well being of humanity.

His Holiness will today visit Setagaya Gakuen, Gokokuji temple and Nichidai High School.

He will also speak to the children and the staff of the two schools.

— Based on Report send by the office of Tibet, Tokyo, Japan

Cyber scribes dodge China censors 13 Nov 2007, IST,REUTERS

I could get famous, then business would be

BEIJING: China’s muzzled press and

better,” said Zhou, who was lauded, if

burgeoning Internet have given citizen

inaccurately, as China’s “first citizen

reporters an audience and an opportunity

reporter” in local media reports.

—however fleeting — to spread news

The moniker was enough for the slight,

quicker than government censors can

bespectacled former IT student to be

control it.

solicited by others battling eviction orders

But the ability of bloggers to dodge censors

across China’s vast heartland, where cash-

and provide a voice for China’s poor and

strapped local governments often collude

disadvantaged by covering news events

with developers and hired thugs to seize

Beijing would rather be left unreported has

land.

also given some bloggers the chance to profit

Zhou, who took some $940 in donations

from disseminating a rare commodity in

to finance his Chongqing trip, has also taken

China — uncensored news.

money from residents, he insists, to cover

Zhou Muguang, who blogs under the name

the cost of travel and reporting on their

of “Zola”, is a citizen reporter who found

property disputes.

that the initial admiration he received from

For desperate residents facing eviction, and

internet surfers for championing the

unable to draw attention to their plights in

downtrodden soon turned to scorn for

China’s controlled press, it’s a price worth

taking their money.

paying. “In not one single case has the

Zhou, a 26-year-old vegetable-seller from

government been in communication with

a small town in China’s heartland province

the residents. The home-owners have no

of Hunan, became famous after blogging

way of raising their voice,” Zhou said.

Local propaganda offices in China regularly bar newspaper editors and TV station directors from reporting on sensitive issues.

But authorities have little sway over websavvy citizens filming embarrassing incidents and posting them on the internet.

about his experiences “covering” a Davidand-Goliath battle between developers and residents in the booming city of Chongqing.

“Originally I went to Chongqing with selling vegetables in mind. I thought that if

China expresses regret over Japan’s permission of Dalai Lama’s visit www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-15 BEIJING, Nov. 15 (Xinhua) — China has expressed regret over Japan’s permission of a visit by Dalai Lama, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao on Thursday. “We have reiterated many times our opposition to any country providing convenience or platform for Dalai Lama’s activities

aimed at separating China. We expressed our regret over Japan’s permission of Dalai’s entry into Japan and his visit to the country,” said Liu at a regular press conference. He said Dalai Lama has long been engaged in activities aimed at separating China, and no country or people in the world that upholds justice would support such activities. Editor: Yangtze Yan

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25 November, 2007 Dharamsala

TPI TIBET

The Tibet Post

Long sentences for spying and splittism follow Tibetan nomad’s call for Dalai Lama to return to Tibet continued from front page

International Campaign for Tibet November 20th, 2007 Runggye Adak, the Tibetan nomad who took to the stage during the Lithang Horse Festival on August 1 and called for the Dalai Lama’s return to Tibet, has been jailed for eight years on charges of ‘inciting to split the country’, according

Runggye Adak

to a statement released by Xinhua today (November 20). Runggye Adak’s nephew, Adak Lupoe, a senior monk from Lithang monastery, received a longer sentence of ten years, and Tibetan art teacher and musician Kunkhyen was jailed for nine years, both for attempting to provide pictures and information to ‘overseas organizations’ which were judged to ‘endanger national security’. A fourth Tibetan, Jarib Lothog, was sentenced to three years in prison linked to the same case.

It is significant that the two Tibetans allegedly reporting on the event were sentenced to longer terms than the perpetrator, and may be intended to convey an intimidatory signal to Tibetans about passing on news about unrest or dissent to the outside world, particularly in the run-up to the summer Olympics in Beijing.

Since the incident on August 1, there has been a military crackdown in Lithang in

eastern Tibet, and a climate of fear in which Tibetans are often too frightened to speak to friends and family on the telephone.

Monks, government workers and other laypeople have also been required to engage in an intensified political campaign against their religious leader, the Dalai Lama, which is leading to continued resentment and despair. There have also been reports of Tibetans, including one senior lama, refusing to denounce the Dalai Lama, even while they know the risks of doing so.

According to a Tibetan source, during his trial in Dartsedo, Runggye Adak, a father of 11 children and a respected figure in his local nomadic community, told the court that he did not carry out his protest in favor of the Dalai Lama to be a hero.

He said: “I wanted His Holiness to return, and wanted to raise Tibetan concerns and grievances, as there is no outlet for us to do so. That made me sad and made me act.” Runggye Adak’s governmentappointed lawyer reportedly argued that asking for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet was purely a religious action, and not an act to bring down the government.

Mary Beth Markey, Vice President of the International Campaign for Tibet, said “An eight year prison sentence for expressing a wish that is commonly held among Tibetans, the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, reveals the crackdown against fundamental freedoms in Tibet today and does not square well with the image China wants to present to the world in the buildup to the Olympics. These hardline, confrontational strategies only risk creating further dissent and unrest, and do not support China’s wish for genuine stability in the region.”

Xinhua reported today that Adak Lupoe (Chinese transliteration: Lubo) and Kunkhyen (Jacmyang Goinqen) were sentenced at the Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Intermediate Court for spying for overseas organizations after they took pictures, made discs, and “provided them

Seminar on India’s role in resolving the issue of Tibet held

TibetNet[Thursday, November 22, 2007] Dharamshala: The New Delhi-based Bharat Tibbat Sahyog Manch (BTSM) and India Tibet Coordination Office (ITCO) jointly organised a one-day seminar on “India’s Role in Resolving the Issue of Tibet” on 20 November in Sapikar Hall, Constitutional Club in New Delhi.

In the morning session, Indresh Kumar, the founder and incumbent patron of BTSM, presided over the meeting of its working committee members and the Himalayan Parivar to hold a mass rally on 10 December at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.It was followed by the screening “Compassion in-Exile” to the members.

Later in the afternoon, Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche, while speaking as the chief guest at the workshop said, “ A friendly relationship between India and China could play a significant role

in bringing peace and prosperity in Asia.””If such a friendship is established, then it’ll help in the peaceful resolution of the issue of Tibet,” Kalon Tripa added.

At the function, Kalon Tripa and Indresh Kumar released books titled “Lhasa Pukare Mansarovar Ko” and “Arunachal Pradesh, Nurturing the Roots”. The former, which is a compilation of articles and essays by the Sangh leaders and academics concerning the Tibetan cause.

Edited by former HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, the 109-page book contains articles on the need of resolving the issue of Tibet.

The dignitaries present at the occasion were Kiren Rijju, MP from Arunachal Pradesh and Prem Kumar Dhumal, MP Rajya Sabha, Dr Kuldeep Chand Agnihotri, co-convener of the Core Group for Tibetan cause.

to overseas organizations” via Jarib Lothog (Lutog). “Some contents leak intelligence that endangers national security and interest,” the court said in its verdict today (Xinhua, November 20, 2007).

Xinhua stated that the actions of 52-year old Runggye Adak (Chinese transliteration: Rongji Azha), led to “public besieging of government offices...because local people were not clear about the truth”, which the court said was a severe disruption of public order. This refers to the gathering of more than a hundred Tibetans in the compound of the local police station in Lithang where Runggye Adak was detained after his protest action during an official ceremony at the horse festival. During the trial, Runggye Adak’s lawyer apparently argued that as Runggye Adak was in custody at the time, he could therefore have had no involvement in organising the crowds gathered in the compound of the police station.

The sentencing of the four Tibetans took place in an environment of tension and intensified repression, including a buildup of troops on the streets. The expressions of support among Tibetans for Runggye Adak’s statements at the horse festival led to the launch of an intense ‘patriotic education’ campaign throughout Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in present-day Sichuan (the Tibetan area of Kham). According to accounts in the official press, the entire month of September was given over to intensive “concentrated patriotic education activities” in which government workers had to express support for the government’s handling of the ‘August 1 incident’, as Runggye Adak’s protest is referred to. At the prefectural communicaions bureau, all staff, including retired staff, at the bureau were required to take two days a week to study Marxist theory on religion and ethnicity as well as the ‘August 1 incident’. (Ganzi Daily, September 5, 2007).

An element of the patriotic education was a requirement for staff to recite a scripted “public statement of political

attitude” in front of their colleagues and bosses. In the case of Kardze Nationalities Teacher Training College in Dartsedo, staff were required to recite: “Take a firm and decisive stance against the Dalai’s ethnic splittism; resolutely uphold the unity of the nationalities and the reunification of the motherland; resolutely support the decisive handling of the ‘August 1’ incident by the provincial party committee and the prefectural party committee; firmly establish the correct viewpoint of the motherland, the nationalities, religion and culture; support dialectical materialism and atheism.” (Ganzi Daily, September 28, 2007.)

Runggye Adak’s nephew, Adak Lupoe, who was sentenced to ten years today, was detained on August 21. He is in his early forties and respected in the local area for his Buddhist scholarship and for his concern about the Tibetan education of young people. Kunkhyen, who was sentenced to nine years, is a popular local musician, artist and teacher at Lithang Middle School known for his skills on the Tibetan stringed instrument, the ‘dranyan’, and for painting murals in some of the local monasteries. Jarib Lothog is a Tibetan nomad in his early thirties from Lithang who was detained in a hotel room in Chengdu and has been sentenced to three years.

The court described the contents of the pictures and disks that led to the conviction of Adak Lupoe, Kunkhyen and Jarib Lothog as leaking ‘intelligence’. In Chinese law, the concept of ‘intelligence’ has been treated almost interchangeably with state secrets, especially in the context of disclosures to the outside world or the charge of endangering state security. Its definition relies on the examination of what should be public, and in this respect courts and legislators fail to provide a clear interpretation. The Chinese authorities take great efforts to prevent news on incidents of unrest from reaching the outside world as part of a broader political culture of secrecy and in order to maintain political control.

China unhappy again over Dalai Lama’s Japan visit Phayul[Friday, November 16, 2007 Mr. Phurbu Thinley Members of Japanese Buddhist group welcome His Holiness the Dalai Lama on Thursday at the Haneda Airport. (Photo

by Tenzin Dasel/ Phayul)Osaka, November 16: China is unhappy again as His Holiness the Dalai Lama began his Japan tour at the request of the country’s own Buddhist groups.China, as usual, wasted no time on Thursday to perversely complain Japan as the Tibetan leader in exile started a nineday tour of the country.

China has officially expressed regret over Japan’s decision to allow Tibetan leader visit the country, according to China’s state controlled media.”We expressed our regret over Japan’s permission of Dalai’s entry into Japan and his visit to the country,” the media quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao as saying at a regular press conference.Japan’s top government officials are refraining from meeting the exiled leader of Tibet during the visit. Despite Japanese Government’s cautious effort not to offend the Communist giant’s sentiments, the mere visit by His Holiness at religious groups’ invitation has drawn in China’s sharp rebuke on Thursday. In its effort to lull a closer tie with China, Japan has gone to the extend of not providing security guards or police escorts for most of the Dalai Lama’s trip, in contrast to visits in 1995, 1998 and 2000

according to a report by a Japanese newspaper. “I feel ashamed of to see how he is treated here, compared with how Western democracies honor him, despite the risk of aggravating China,” Seishu Makino, a former Lower House member and founder of the Japanese Parliamentary Group for Tibet, had reportedly said.Japan’s decision is disappointing given the country’s sizeable Buddhist population; another report cited the Dalai Lama’s Tokyo representative Lhakpa Tshoko as saying.His Holiness was, however, extended a warm welcome on by the inviting Japanese Buddhist groups on Thursday at the Haneda airport where he arrived from the Tokyo International airport to leave for a one-day private stay at Kanazawa.

On Sunday, His Holiness will tour the holiest Shinto shrine of Ise and will preside over an interfaith forum participated by Shinto, Buddhist and Shugendo faiths on the same day at the Kogakkan University.

On November 20, His Holiness will speak for a sold-out crowd of some 5000 plus at a Buddhist Conference in Yokohama.His Holiness the Dalai Lama, revered by Tibetans as their undisputed leader, fled to India in 1959 following Communist China’s unprecedented repressions in his homeland.

He now campaigns for a meaningful autonomy for the whole of Tibetan territory that existed prior to China’s occupation in 1949.

Climate change a growing threat in Tibet, media report

Mount Everest November 20 2007.

BEIJING (AFP) — Climate change is causing more weather-related disasters than ever in the Himalayan region of Tibet, where the temperature is rising faster than the rest of China, state press reported Wednesday.

“Natural disasters, like droughts, landslides, snowstorms and fires are more frequent and calamitous now,” Xinhua news agency quoted the director of the Tibet Regional Meteorological Bureau, Song Shanyun, as saying.

“The tolls are more severe and losses are bigger.”

The temperature in Tibet has been rising by 0.3 degrees Celsius (0.54 degrees Fahrenheit) every decade, about 10 times faster than the national average, with visible consequences, a bureau study found.

“Problems like receding snow lines, shrinking glaciers, drying grasslands and desert expansion are increasingly threatening the natural eco-system in the region,” Song said.

The report is the latest in China to warn of the dramatic impact of global warming on the region known as the “roof of the world” and regarded as a barometer of world climate conditions.

The region’s glaciers have been melting at an average rate of 131.4 square kilometres (50 square miles) per year over the past 30 years, according to previously released Chinese government research.

Chinese researchers have said that even if global warming did not worsen, the region’s glaciers would be reduced by nearly a third by 2050 and up to half by 2090, at the current rate.

Song directly attributed two disasters in 2000 to climate change.

In one of them, a thawed snow cap caused a “rare and extremely largescale” landslide in Nyingchi prefecture in southeast Tibet.

More than 300 million cubic metres (10.6 billion cubic feet) of debris, piling up to 100 metres (330 feet) high, blocked a river and impacted 4,000 people in the area, the report said.

The other disaster was in Shigatse in southern Tibet, when a “once-ina-century” flood affected more than 60,000 people and inundated thousands of hectares of cropland.

TPI WORLD

The Tibet Post

After seeing the film Daughters of Wisdom

• Ochi Dolma has been a nun since the age of 14 and is one of Kala Rongo’s founders who helped build its first temple structure. Photograph courtesy of BTG Productions. •

AP, November 20, 2007. “Free Tibet” has become part of our lexicon due to countless bumper stickers adorning Volvos and fundraisers featuring Richard Gere. Despite the feminist persuasion of many Tibetan supporters, women in Tibet, particularly nuns, are rarely the focus of the movement. After seeing the film Daughters of Wisdom, which is currently on the film festival circuit, I was so inspired by Tibetan nuns and their spunk that I wondered why the “Free Tibet” movement doesn’t focus more on these incredible women.

Uns of Kala Rongo nunnery in Tibet

China backs ASEAN on Myanmar

P. S. Suryanarayana SINGAPORE: China on Sunday threw its weight behind the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) by taking the line that the Myanmar crisis be addressed through the good offices of the United Nations.

This became clear after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao held talks with Singapore Prime Minister and ASEAN Chairman Lee Hsien Loong here, on the eve of the 10-nation grouping’s annual summit. The two leaders, whose prime focus was on bilateral cooperation, discussed the Myanmar issue, which

Documentary director and producer Bari Pearlman documents the lives of the 300 nuns practicing Buddhism while living at an allfemale monastery in the Nangchen district of Kham, located on the Eastern Tibetan plateau north of the Himalayas. The area is home to over 60,000 subsistence farmers and nomadic herders, most of whom are illiterate and live in extreme poverty. For the women who choose to become nuns, their cooperative life is one of relative ease and security, as their days are filled with work, studying, meditation and rest.

Japan Opposition Leader Offers Dalai Lama ‘Support,’ Kyodo Says continued from front page

By Stuart Biggs Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) — Yukio Hatoyama, secretary general of the opposition Democratic Party of Japan, expressed “strong support” for the Dalai Lama’s efforts to gain greater autonomy for Tibet from China’s government, Kyodo English News reported.

Hatoyama, the second-ranked politician in Japan’s largest opposition party, made the comments during a meeting with Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader in Tokyo yesterday, would come up during a series of regional Kyodo said. The Dalai Lama arrived in Japan Nov. 15 for a 10-day visit, the report summits to be hosted by the ASEAN here said. in the next few days.

The remarks are likely to draw protests Military-ruled Myanmar is a member of from the Chinese government, which the 10-nation ASEAN, which is finalising expressed its “regret” when Japan allowed a charter with an accent on democracy as the Dalai Lama to visit the country, the a preferred system of governance. report said. Such remarks from a highMr. Wen later said: “We believe that we ranking politician carries “extreme weight,” should continue to promote [the] good Kyodo cited lawmaker Yukio Edano as offices [role] done by the United Nations, saying.

The Dalai Lama was forbidden from and rely on the efforts of the people of engaging in political activity during the visit Myanmar, so that the process toward to Japan. The spiritual leader fled to India national reconciliation can be restored and in 1959 to campaign for Tibetan self-rule the country can realise peace, stability, and religious freedom from the Chinese and development.”

Communist Party.

Cyclone claims 3,000 lives in Bangladesh continued from front page

Dhaka: November 20, 2007.

Bodies littered Bangladesh’s cyclone ravaged southern coastal districts, sparking fears of epidemic as authorities struggled to provide relief to lakhs of homeless survivors of the worst storm in nearly two decades that has so far claimed 3,000 lives.

The Red Crescent Society warned that the number of deaths due to cyclone Sidr that pummeled 25 of Bangladesh’s 64 districts on Thursday could be as high as 10,000 as reports of casualties were

trickling in from inaccessible worsthit areas.

Private ATN Bangla television put the death toll at 3,000.

With bodies and carcasses rotting and rescuers and medical teams finding it difficult to reach survivors of the worst affected 11 districts, the authorities feared outbreak of epidemic.

Food shortage: Nearly 27 lakh people were facing acute shortage of food and water.

A spokesperson of the Disaster Management Ministry said the

number of dead could rise further.

“The toll is jumping by hours. We fear it could be as high as 10,000,” Chairman of the Red Crescent Society Abdur Rab told reporters.

Thousands still remain untraced with five barges, 73 trawlers and 25 launches reported missing since the cyclone hit the coastal belt.

Red Crescent official Mohammad Nasirullah told PTI that their volunteers reported acute shortage of drinking water and food despite frantic relief campaigns in many affected areas. — PTI

25 November, 2007 Dharamsala

5

EU ministers mull over imposing new sanctions against Iran

19 Nov 2007, 0600 hrs IST ,AP, BRUSSELS: The European Union’s chief negotiator in the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program will consult with the bloc’s foreign ministers on Monday about whether to push for new sanctions to try to force Tehran to stop enriching uranium.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will brief the 27 ministers on the bloc’s options, as France and Britain argue for new penalties to push Iran to stop enrichment work, which they fear could be aimed at producing weapons.

A report released last week by the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency found Iran has been generally truthful in the information it has provided the agency about aspects of its past nuclear activities. But the International Atomic Energy Agency said it still could not rule out that Iran had a secret weapons program because of restrictions Tehran placed on its inspectors two years ago.

Iran’s refusal to meet demands to freeze enrichment, meanwhile, has fueled calls by the United States and Britain for a third round of UN Security Council sanctions.

Alvaro Mendonca e Moura, Portugal’s EU ambassador, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said Solana would outline steps the bloc could take.

An October foreign ministers’ meeting failed to agree on new sanctions.

“We said we would consider what additional measures we might take in order to support the UN process,” Mendonca e Moura said.

He also said Solana was preparing for the possibility of another meeting with Iran’s nuclear negotiators, but that a meeting had not yet been confirmed.

Talks planned for Monday in Brussels among representatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany had to be put off because China, which opposes toughening sanctions, said it would not attend.

Explaining the cancellation, an EU official said last week only that the Chinese informed them that they had scheduling problems.

However, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack suggested last week that Beijing was blocking plans for a new meeting.

It appears likely that the IAEA’s report on Tehran’s general cooperation in answering

the agency’s questions appears to have emboldened China and Russia - both of them Security Council members - to argue against new penalties.

France’s foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, has sought to persuade his EU counterparts to support European sanctions outside of the United Nations. He has failed to win widespread support and faces opposition, notably from Germany, which has extensive trade interests in Iran.

Speaking in Jerusalem Sunday, Kouchner said France’s position on Iran was unchanged.

“They have the right to set up civilian nuclear power ... but we are not ready to accept an atomic bomb,” he said.

Also on Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that he will consult with other Arab nations on a proposal to enrich uranium outside the region in a neutral country such as Switzerland.

The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council has proposed that a multinational consortium established by the GCC could provide enriched uranium to power plants in Iran, the Middle East Economic Digest reported earlier this month, citing Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

The plan would allow Iran to develop its nuclear energy program while at the same time removing fears it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Last week’s UN nuclear agency report is one of two on Iran’s nuclear program this month.

The other will be presented to the UN Security Council in New York by Solana, who has been tasked with trying to persuade Iran to accept offers of cooperation on civil atomic power projects in return for an enrichment suspension by Iran.

After Solana delivers his report, expected later this month, the five permanent council members - Russia, China, Britain, France, and the United States - plus Germany are expected to decide to move ahead with a resolution on new sanctions.

Iran has rejected claims by the US and EU nations that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Also Monday, the EU will assess the declaration of emergency rule in Pakistan and international talks on the future status of Kosovo. A new negotiating round is to be held in Brussels Tuesday.

Outspoken in Tibet The Wall Street Journal[Friday, November 23, 2007 14:03]How long does someone have to spend in jail for saying “long live the Dalai Lama” in China? Eight years, apparently. This was the sentence meted out on Tuesday to Runggye Adak, a Tibetan nomad who called for the return of Tibet’s exiled religious leader at a horseracing festival on August 1.The Chinese government has struggled for decades to quell the unrest in Tibet, and its heavyhanded tactics have been on full display in the city of Lithang, in Sichuan province, in recent months. Runggye Adak isn’t the only one imprisoned because of that day’s events. After his remarks, which were made in front of thousands of spectators, and his subsequent detention, hundreds of people staged a demonstration near the police center where he was being held to call for his release. Scores of Tibetans in the community were later arrested and three were sentenced on Tuesday to between three and 10 years in jail.In an Orwellian twist, the court verdict found Runggye Adak guilty of inciting the demonstration that called for his release — even though it occurred when he was already behind bars. The charges for the

other three Tibetans sentenced on Tuesday appear equally bizarre, although the trial was conducted in complete secrecy so it’s hard to know the whole story. Xinhua reported that the court verdict convicted the three of leaking “intelligence that endangers national security and interest.”

More specifically, they were found guilty of taking pictures, burning them on to CDs and sending them to foreigners.Meanwhile, those who are not under arrest are being subjected to a “patriotic campaign” that requires participants to denounce the Dalai Lama.

So much for the freedom of religious belief enshrined in China’s constitution.

Runggye Adak has left behind 11 children, the youngest of whom is less than a year old. Although two of his daughters are safe and free in India, life for the others will not be easy with their father in jail.As China attempts to whitewash its humanrights record in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics, the government will become more concerned about erasing the appearance of dissent in areas like Tibet.

Tuesday’s convictions show how far the government will go to silence those who dare to speak out.

6

TPI VARIETY

The Tibet Post

In India, a Tibetan Can Only Wait

25 November, 2007 Dharamsala

Merkel spokesman says no regrets about Dalai Lama meeting amid Beijing’s anger

A beaten and imprisoned former monk cools his heels in Dharamsala. Lhasa seems long ago and far away.

Palden, who like many Tibetans goes by a single name, was a teenage monk when he was arrested in 1992 along with 16 others for staging a small demonstration on the main street of Lhasa. It earned him six years imprisonment for committing a “counterrevolutionary act.”

About 18 months ago Palden settled in Dharamsala the northern India hill town that is home to the government in exile established when the Dalai Lama fled Chinese-occupied Tibet. He is 30 but looks 10 years older and is saddled with debilitating health problems that he says were brought on by beatings.

As many as 100,000 Tibetans live in Dharamsala, giving what was to be a way station an air of permanence. Scarlet-robed monks share the narrow streets with traders, tourists and the occasional wandering cow, while restaurants serve traditional Tibetan fare and hundreds of shops display Tibetan books. Although Palden says he is determined to fight for an independent Tibet, it is doubtful when, if ever, he will go home. As Dharamsala has become more Tibetan, Han Chinese now outnumber Tibetans in the remote mountain land itself, according to figures from the government in exile, which estimates that there are now 7.5 million Chinese against 6 million Tibetans.

Palden is hardly alone as a victim of harsh Chinese reaction to such offenses as possessing pictures of the Dalai Lama or audiotapes of his speeches. Some have been arrested for guiding people like Palden across the mountains to India. On November 21, for instance, Reporters Without Borders issued a statement condemning prison sentences of three to 10 years for “espionage on behalf of foreign organizations, putting state security in danger,” that were handed down to three Tibetans by an intermediate court in Sichuan province on the Tibetan border.

The three had sent abroad photos of demonstrations by nomadic Tibetans at the beginning of August.

In October, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch called for the release of four Tibetan 15 year olds who were arrested on suspicion of writing proindependence slogans. Amnesty received reports that electric prods were used on the children, and said in a statement that it had “long-standing concerns about arbitrary detention without charge, trial or judicial review, as well as torture and illtreatment of detainees in Tibet.”

Dharamsala is the headquarters of the GuChu-Sum Movement of Tibet, which provides assistance for former political prisoners like Palden. It takes its name from the Tibetan words for nine, 10 and three, which stand for September and October 1987, and March 1998. In those months, pro-independence rallies in Lhasa were brutally crushed by authorities, and many protesters were arrested and imprisoned.

Since the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1951, according to pro-Tibetan groups, around 1.2 million Tibetans are said to have died from executions, torture, hunger and

oppression. Thousands of monasteries and monuments have been destroyed in periodic waves of violence, although many have been rebuilt. In a kind of eerie reversal of decapitation, hundreds of ancient statues in Buddhist lamaseries were given new heads after Red Guards and others destroyed the old ones during the Cultural Revolution. While the Potala, the spectacular one-time home of the Dalai Lama above Lhasa, has been refurbished, the environment has been ravaged and millions of Chinese have been encouraged to migrate there, leaving Tibetans a minority. Earlier this month, the Dalai Lama accused China of “demographic aggression” and spoke out against the “cultural genocide” taking place in his homeland.

“Every Tibetan mind lives with fear and a feeling of terror,” he was quoted as saying at a function in New Delhi to celebrate him being awarded the US Congressional Gold Medal in October.

Although the Dalai Lama is revered by Tibetans, his proposed “Middle Way Approach,” which calls for autonomy rather than full independence, is not backed by all. The Gu-Chu-Sum Movement, for example, wants to see a complete Chinese withdrawal.

“The political prisoners have experienced the torture, the suffering in Tibet. They were not protesting for autonomy, they were protesting for full independence,” said Sonam Dolkar, a Gu-Chu-Sum human rights worker.

The 25-year-old, who was born in Dharamsala to exile parents, dreams of visiting her homeland one day. Now she monitors human rights abuses in Tibet and assisting former and current political prisoners.

Dolkar estimates that there are 103 political prisoners in Tibet, although some put the figure at 116. It is difficult to give a precise number because the group has little information about events in the remote areas. The numbers have fallen as political prisoners like Palden who were arrested in the early 1990s have been freed after long sentences.

The Gu-Chu-Sum Movement sends money to serving political prisoners and campaigns for their release. It also documents human rights abuses, publishes biographies of former prisoners, and gives financial support to those who need it.

Around 70 former political prisoners currently live at its premises in Dharamsala, where they receive subsidised medical care and have access to education and employment opportunities. Several work in a popular Japanese restaurant on the premises, and there is an internet café and a tailoring workshop where ex-prisoners make traditional Tibetan clothing. They can also study computer skills, English and Tibetan at the group’s learning centre.

Palden studied for more than a year but was unable to continue because of kidney problems, which he attributes to the torture he received in prison. In addition to the beatings, he says, prisoners were made to stand on broken ice for long periods of time as punishment for breaking rules. Now he is supported by the Gu-Chu-Sum Movement, and stays at its premises.

Speaking through Dolkar, who translates into English, he says he feels helpless but consoles himself by saying it’s no use hating the prison guards. “He feels that if he gets angry towards them, he is hurting himself,” says Dolkar.

The story of Palden’s arrest and imprisonment is fairly typical of former political prisoners. After police broke up the rally, he says, the protesters were taken to a military camp and severely beaten for half an hour. They were then taken to a detention centre and continuously beaten on the way, and again during interrogation.

Chinese prison guards used electric prods and rubber batons, and the prisoners were made to stand naked in the sun for many

hours. He says they were also made to give blood two or three times each, for use in transfusions. After five months in the detention center, Palden was sentenced and served the rest of his term in Lhasa’s Drapchi Prison. Here, political prisoners were kept away from the rest of the inmates, in the innermost building, to prevent their escape.

There were 12 political prisoners to a cell, he says. The food they received was poor – one dumpling and black tea for breakfast, boiled vegetables and rice for lunch, porridge for dinner. Once, after refusing to denounce the Dalai Lama, Palden was put in solitary confinement for 15 days and beaten. When he had first protested he expected to be killed, and when he wasn’t, he says, it felt like a blessing of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After a while, the torture and beatings didn’t scare him any more, as he considered it his fate.

Dolkar says many former political prisoners believe this, and it helps them to accept what has happened to them. “I think it is the power of Tibetan Buddhism, that it has subdued their minds,” she added.

A week before Palden’s release in May 1998, there was an uprising in Drapchi Prison. At a May Day ceremony in the prison grounds, officials raised a Chinese flag and the political prisoners protested in response. In the violence that followed, says Palden, four monks and five nuns were killed. He was severely beaten. Upon his release a week later, Palden was taken to various police stations, and finally to one in his village, near Lhasa, where relatives came to collect him. At first, he was not allowed to leave the village as authorities were afraid he might spread the news of the prison uprising.

Palden had worked as a carpenter before his imprisonment, but as a former political prisoner he found it hard to hold down a job. As part of his sentence, his political rights were suspended for two years after his release. During Chinese festivals, he wasn’t allowed to stay in Lhasa and had to return to his village. Employers would realise he was a former political prisoner, and he would have to find another job. He says this happened often, and he changed jobs many times. In addition, the authorities constantly monitored his movements. Although he hadn’t at first intended to go into exile, it became increasingly difficult to survive so eventually he left for India.

Palden believes that “non-violence and truth are the main weapons” in the fight for a free Tibet. When he and his colleagues first protested, he says, they thought about killing Chinese people but decided not to because this was against the wishes of the Dalai Lama.

The Gu-Chu-Sum Movement works hard to highlight the struggle for independence.

It is one of several groups backing the “Team Tibet” initiative in the run-up to next year’s Beijing Olympics. Organisers hope to recruit a team of Tibetan athletes, as well as celebrity supporters and members of the public, to publicise their cause.

Dolkar says the Olympics have put China in the spotlight, and she considers this a great opportunity for campaigning. In October, monk and independence activist Ngawang Pulchung was released from jail six months before the end of his 19-year sentence.

The Gu-Chu-Sum Movement says he was released early “as a gesture by the Chinese government to the world to maintain [its] phony image” before the Olympics. Dolkar says the Chinese authorities are also being more lenient with political prisoners who have families.

“I’m positive because I think if big changes happen in China, then automatically there will be an effect on Tibet as well,” she said.

But given the way China has swallowed Tibet, it is difficult to say when either she or Palden will see the streets of Lhasa.

Posted: 2007/11/20, From: Mathaba A German government spokesman here Monday stressed Chancellor Angela Merkel had no regrets about her meeting with the Dalai Lama in September which has led to a major worsening of German-Chinese ties.

Speaking at a routine weekly news conference, deputy government spokesman Thomas Steg admitted to “irritations and basic differences” between Berlin and Beijing over the question of the Tibetan leader.

Asked if Merkel would today opt to meet with the Dalai Lama in view of China’s strong reaction to the talks at the chancellery, Steg added that there was “no reason” to deal differently with the Dalai Lama issue than when the decision to hold such meeting was made in late summer.

He quoted Merkel as saying that “no one could dictate to her with whom and where she could receive”.

The Chinese government has called of a number of high-ranking talks with German officials since the controversial September 29 meeting.

Meanwhile, Steg reiterated German “interest in good and intensive relations with China.”

A pastor’s daughter, Merkel has repeatedly vowed to back the Dalai Lama’s political campaign to establish “cultural and religious autonomy” in Tibet.

Merkel’s meeting with the Dalai Lama has also caused frictions with her Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier who has voiced concern over deteriorating state of bilateral ties, according to the German press.

China is one of Germany’s most important economic partners as bilateral trade reached 76.72 billion euros last year, compared to 62.08 billion euros in 2005. —IRNA

Chinese bluster on Tibet and Taiwan Taipei Times: Published: November 22 2007, Contrary to expectations, China is not doing much to soften its image ahead of the Beijing Olympics by allowing its domestic critics to speak their minds or championing human rights in Sudan.

Instead, Chinese leaders are defending authoritarian rule at home and abroad and waging aggressive diplomacy against those who disagree.

This is a risky strategy and one that deserves to be challenged. Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has made a start. Like the leaders of the US, Australia and Canada, she has incensed Chinese officials (and some over-cautious Germans) by meeting the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. China has retaliated with thinly veiled threats to the commercial ties between the two countries.

China has long been sensitive about threats to its territorial integrity, but there is little excuse for its prickliness. Last month Beijing condemned Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, for his “disgusting conduct” in meeting the Dalai Lama and arrogantly demanded that Canada “correct its mistaken conduct”. Mr Harper, Ms Merkel and others have defended their right to meet whom they please; the shame is that Asian nations such as Japan, as well as some Europeans, kowtow to Beijing for commercial advantage.

Democracies should speak up for freedom.

The Tibet dispute is not about sovereignty. It is not unusual for democratic prime ministers and presidents to meet opposition leaders from other countries. Europe recognises Tibet as part of China, as does the Dalai Lama. Although condemned as a “splittist” by Beijing, he now calls for autonomy, not independence. He simply stands up for the Buddhist inhabitants of his homeland in the face of human rights abuses by the Chinese state.

Unlike Tibet, Taiwan’s de facto independence from the mainland is an obvious challenge to Chinese sovereignty, but even on this the Chinese leadership is too thinskinned. Beijing’s refusal to permit a routine US naval visit to Hong Kong this week seems to have been provoked by US plans to help upgrade Taiwan’s anti-missile shield, though no reason was given.

Taiwan needs an anti-missile shield because China has threatened to attack it and has hundreds of missiles stationed for that purpose on the Chinese coast. The Dalai Lama, likewise, needs to represent his people because the Chinese state is oppressing them. Chinese leaders, rather than wondering why foreign presidents meet the Dalai Lama, should tone down their oldfashioned rhetoric and think about meeting him themselves.

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