The Tibet Post International Online Newspaper

Merkel rejects criticism Page1 Man of principal Page 2 China condemns Dalai Lama Page 3 Ocean of wit and wisdom Page 4 Tibet Page 5 World Page6 China Page 7 Miss. World 2007 Page 8

Dalai Lama: Tibetans ‘should pick Dalai Lama’

Page 3 Vol. 01, Issue 04, 5 December, 2007 T P I S h o r t s Ta k e s

Tibetan Parliament Sanctioned Revised Budget of CTA

Dharamshala, December 1 - The Tibetan Parliament in Exile has sanctioned a total revised budget of Rs 883,741,705.60 of the Central Tibetan Administration for the year 2007/08.

According to the notice issued by the Parliamentary Secretariat today, the meeting of standing committee members was convened to review the revised budget from 26 November.

The seven departments and offices of the CTA had submitted their respective revised budget at the end of October to the Department of Finance and the Kashag, which in turn presented it to the Tibetan Parliament for its approval.

Through the revised budget the departments can seek new and additional budget required for the activities for which fund sanctioned under the original budget is not sufficient. (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

T i b e t

Bring Tibet rail to Nepal, Kathmandu tells Beijing Indian Express [Monday, December 03, 2007 09:46]

By Pranab Dhal Samanta Nepal: As opposition to India’s border road plan grows, agreement reached on widening Kathmandu-Lhasa road New Delhi, December 2: While India struggled last week to allay Nepalese concerns over a proposed highway along the Indo-Nepal border amid outrage over a Nepalese parliamentary committee report, China has had a pleasant experience with Kathmandu formally requesting Beijing to extend the well-known Tibet rail into Nepal.

Tibetan in Exile

New Tibetan Welfare Officer of Dharamsala elected TibetNet[Monday, December 03, 2007 17:17] Dharamshala, December 3 Tsering Phuntsok has won the final round of election for the post of Tibetan Welfare Officer of Dharamshala with 69.39% of the total cast.

In a statement released on 1 December by the chief election commissioner, CTA, said that “We are pleased to announce that in accordance with Article 80 (1) of the Tibetan Election Regulations, Tsering Phuntsok has been declared as the people’s elected Tibetan Welfare Officer for 3 years w.e.f from 1 December 2007".

Of the total 866 votes cast in final round of election held on 29 November, with 3 votes nullified, Tsering Phuntsok secured 601 votes and Lodoe Sangpo with 252 votes.

The official ceremony for taking charge of the office will be held later on. (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

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Ronguye Adak, Relatives of Jailed Tibetan Nomads Appeal Convictions in Sichuan page 8

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Merkel rejects criticism from China over meeting with Dalai Lama 2 Dec 2007, 0851 hrs IST,AFP BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel brushed off criticism from China over having received the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, in an interview with German radio broadcast on Sunday. ”I receive who I think should be received,” Merkel told Deutschlandfunk radio.

Beijing reacted angrily to the September meeting, calling on Berlin to acknowledge it had made a mistake. ”Germany and its government are partisans of a united China, there is no question about it.

The Dalai Lama (only) wants cultural independence ... which is why it in no way calls China into question,” said Merkel.

Berlin wants friendly relations with China, but it should be possible for there to be differing opinions within a friendly relationship, she added.

On Wednesday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that Germany and China could remain friends as long as Berlin recognises that it had committed an error.

Merkel had a private meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama at the end of September despite warnings from Beijing.

German industry criticised her decision to hold the meeting because the damage it would do to commercial relations with China.

German news magazine Der Spiegel became

Angela Merkel with the Dalai Lama in Berlin on September 23, 2007. Despite China’s protest, Chancellor Merkel of Germany met with the exiled Tibetan leader at the Chancellery, making it the first historic visit of its kind. Merkel’s meeting with the Dalai Lama was reportedly praised by some senior officials in her party and from the opposition.

the latest casualty from the chill in SinoGerman relations.

It announced Friday that it was pulling out of

China loses temper at Miss Tibet

a week of cultural events in which it was to have participated in China due to what it called official “censorship”.

Tibet

Tibet sisters jailed over Dickensian child gang

Tue Nov 20, 2007 12:15pm IST BEIJING (Reuters) - China has sentenced two Tibetan sisters to lengthy jail terms for running a crime gang that forced a dozen children to beg or steal and kept them in line with brutality, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday. The women and 14 relatives from Xigaze in the Buddhist Himalayan region forced more than 10 children to beg and steal for them over many years, Xinhua said of a saga which makes Charles Dickens’ Fagin, who in “Oliver Twist” ran a gang of child pickpockets in 19th century London, look tame by comparison.

The gang locked the children in guarded rooms at night and divided them into several groups, each of which had to make between 100 yuan ($13.50) and 300 yuan from begging or theft a day, it added.

“The sisters and their husbands exercised brutal violence, such as scorchings with hot cooking oil and beatings for those who tried to escape, failed to meet the quotas or refused to steal,” Xinhua said. Baiqu, Wangmu and other gang members Tsering Chungtak, Miss Tibet 2006 with Lobsang Wangyal, director Miss Tibet at the press conferwere arrested in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in March ence in New Delhi. (Photo by Tenzin Dasel/Phayul.com) and police confiscated half a million yuan of illegal misstibet.com[Wednesday, December 05, 2007 19:25] Tibetan people,” Chungtak said after returning from gains, Xinhua said. Convicted of theft, mayhem and organising minors to beg the sisters were jailed Press Club of India, New Delhi, December 5 — Malaysia.

Miss Tibet 2006 Tsering Chungtak has withdrawn She returned to Delhi on Tuesday, after spending for 20 and 19 years respectively. Their co-defendants were jailed for between two and 17 years. from the Miss Tourism Pageant in Malaysia, after eight days with the other contestants.

China put pressure on the organisers to bar Tibet Until and unless the Tibetan issue is resolved, fulMiss. Tibet from the event. filling the wishes of Tibetans for greater freedom Tsering Chungtak was asked to either wear a sash in Tibet, such a title is unacceptable to Miss Tibet. labelled Miss Tibet-China, or pull out of the pag- Delegates from thirty countries around the world eant after the Chinese consulate in Kuching in have congregated in Sarawak, a state in eastern eastern Malaysia pressured the organisers. Malaysia, for this pageant, which was first started Chungtak opted to pull out, since the title of “Miss in 2003. The finale will be held on 7 December.

Tibet-China” was not acceptable to her.

The pageant is organised to promote international ”I felt that this was not acceptable to me at all. goodwill and understanding, and to celebrate the The Tibetan issue is still the same as ever. diversity of cultures.

China is in control of Tibet, and there is no free- Alaric Soh, the founder of the pageant, said dom in Tibet. China constantly violates human through email, that he felt saddened about the rights, and threatens the environment in Tibet, whole issue. “I wish politics didn’t show its face Tsering Chungtak with the Chinese representative causing concern about the very survival of the in this pageant.”

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05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

The T i b e t P o s t I n t e r n a t i o n a l

The Crying Voices of a Snowland “Tibet” Since arriving at Dharamsala again, I have met many open-minded and various scholars and students, as well as many Western experts on China and Tibet. Because of the encouraging and at times meaningfulness discussions, I have learned directly the Chinese view on the situation in Tibet, as well as the strong consequence these views have had on China scholars in the India, I would like to show my reflections on the forty-five years of Chinese. I already explained deeply and but briefly, the Communist Chinese Government’s justification of their occupation of Tibet, and it shows Tibetans view themselves as distinct from Chinese and other, it is about several basic issues also included.

Every year marks the anniversary of what the Chinese Government so calls its “peaceful liberation” of Tibet. Anyway, the consequences of that event the mass flee of the Dalai Lama and 80,000 Tibetans from their patrimonial homeland are hardly what one would expect to result from a “peaceful liberation.” Moreover, after fortyseven years of absolute rule by China, in year 2000 alone more than 3,000 Tibetans crossed the Himalayas to gain a small political and religious freedom and to receive a modern education in India, home of the Tibetan exile government. Contrasting to the tragic experience of these past forty-five years, a brief step back to a pre-history might serve, without dwelling at length on the historiography, as a model of mutual respect and recognition for China and Tibet. In 641 AD, the Chinese Princess Wangchen was married as a junior queen to the Tibetan King Srongtsen Gampo. As a gift to her new country, the Princess brought with her the Buddhist statue of Jowo Sakyamuni. Even today, this very statue of Jowo Sakyamuni is still revered by Tibetans as one of the holiest Buddhist statues and is visited by hundreds of thousands of Tibetan pilgrims at the Jokhang temple in Lhasa. In 731 AD, nearly a century after Princess Wangchen´s marriage to Srongtsen Gampo, another Chinese bride, Princess Chin-Cheng, a devout Buddhist, was given to the Tibetan King Tride Tsug-tsan. She is said to have contributed greatly to the propagation of Buddhism in Tibet. Interestingly, this particular period, known as the Tang dynasty in China and as the Yarlung dynasty in Tibet, is considered the Golden Age in both countries.

Both were Buddhist dynasties. Is there any way that the spirit, if not the total substance of that relationship, can be revived again? The rest of this article will discuss the contemporary relationship between China and Tibet and show how far we have strayed from that historical period of harmony.

The Liberation or occupation?

The Chinese Government maintains that Tibet was “peacefully liberated” in 1951 from both imperialism and a brutal feudal system, that was “hell on earth. According to this argument, Tibet has been transformed into a “Socialist Heaven” through the introduction of revolutionary socialist measures.

This justification of the invasion of Tibet is no different from the age-old argument of Western colonialism: invasion is good for the social and economic development of the occupied colony. If this charge is true, then the Chinese seem to be not only supporting, but also practicing the very imperialist policy they have long condemned, one of the foundational anathemas of the communist revolution. Moreover, this sort of justification echoes the claims Japan used when it invaded China and other East Asian countries during World War II ?that it was creating a “Greater Asian Co-prosperity Sphere.” If Chinese justifications for invading Tibet are legitimate, then it is hard to see how the British takeover of Hong Kong and the Japanese invasion of China were unjustified.

More to the point, I believe, one should question the claim that the level of oppressiveness of a government, in this case, Tibet´s supposed brutal feudal system, justifies invasion and occupation by another nation. If that logic held true, one could in theory argue that the Soviet Union or the United States would have had the right to occupy China during the Cultural Revolution, a period most Chinese would agree was a period of extreme oppression and bad governance.

Looking closer at this Chinese justification, an even more blatant disconnect with reality is clear. By any objective standard, the “liberation” of Tibet could hardly be described as “peaceful.” In the immediate aftermath of widespread Tibetan national uprising against Chinese in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), approximately 87,000 Tibetan “enemies” were “eliminated” from March to the beginning of October 1959 alone. This figure does not include the number of people who have lost their lives in eastern Tibet since the early 1950s. The Tibetan Government-in-Exile estimates that a total of 1.2 million Tibetans have died as a result of the Communist Chinese occupation as of the 1980s. This is a remarkably high number considering the size of the Tibetan population is currently only roughly six million, by Tibetan estimates. It is also a fact that Tibetans went through a period of famine as a result of the Great Leap Forward in 1958-61 and experienced even worse suffering during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976. Throughout this period of Chinese rule, Tibetans had no reason to feel “liberated.” As late as 1980, Communist Party Secretary General Hu Yaobang acknowledged during his official visit to the TAR that “the Communist Party had failed in Tibet. Far from eradicating poverty, in many areas the people´s living standards had declined” compared to pre-1950s condition. Still, there remains the oft-repeated nationalist argument that Tibet was never independent and has always been part of China. In 1951, shortly after the People´s Republic of China was formed, Tibet was forced to sign “the Seventeen Point Agreement,” the first and only legal document in which Tibetan sovereignty was surrendered to China. On the issue of independence, by now, however, this point has been more or less settled in academic and legal studies on Tibet; with the exception of mainland Chinese scholars, almost all Tibet experts agree that at least during the period of 1913 to 1951, Tibet was either an independent, or de facto independent, country.

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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 EDIT PAGE

The Tibet Post

Man of principle National Post Published: Saturday, December 01, 2007 This week, a rival newspaper ran a headline that had the Nobel Prizewinning anti-land mine campaigner Jody Williams asking, “Where’s Canada’s leadership in global issues?” There’s no sense pretending: By “global issues,” the Virginian scold means “ my issue,” which Canada is no longer pushing for quite as aggressively as it did under prior Liberal governments.

The funny thing is that “leadership” is ordinarily a code word in politics for doing and saying things you believe in, even when others judge them unpopular. On that score, the current prime minister has recently had quite a remarkable run of “leadership” in foreign policy.

Last month, for instance, he met personally with the Dalai Lama, pontiff of Tibetan Buddhism and leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile. The Chinese Communists consider it a grievous insult to treat the Dalai Lama as what he patently is — the living representative of a state and a religion that have been conquered and oppressed by a rapacious neighbour. A spokesman for China’s foreign ministry called the meeting “disgusting” and claimed it

had “seriously undermined SinoCanadian relations.” There is very little to be gained for Mr. Harper politically in meeting with someone like the Dalai Lama; if there are single-issue Tibet voters, they’re unlikely to go Conservative en masse, and a band of ragtag, dispossessed monks is not going to present the PM with some showy, prearranged trade deal either. He did it because the Tibet situation is an unrectified, unredressed outrage, and putting gentle pressure on China is the only practical means we have of preserving hope for a satisfactory resolution in the future.

The Prime Minister wasn’t finished delivering sharp elbows to major world powers. His government plans to go ahead with hearings and a House of Commons resolution on the “comfort women” from conquered nations who were forced to serve as sex slaves during the Second World War. An awkward process of framing the statement in a way that limits the harm to Japanese relations is underway, but any mention of Japanese war crimes is likely to antagonize the current Japanese government, whose leader has denied the

existence of comfort women.

Meanwhile, the PM was front and centre on Thursday at a somber Ottawa ceremony to mark Stalin’s 1932-33 terror-famine in the Ukraine, which is still constantly being minimized and recast as an accident by pro-Russian historians.

Although he avoided using the term “genocide,” he left no doubt where he stands on the issues of whether the famine was consciously engineered and who it was directed at, speaking of “what was done to the Ukrainian people” and stating that “The main instrument of Stalin’s persecution of Ukrainians was collectivization.”

This stance will win him no new friends in Russia, or with the international leftists who still see (or wish people to see) Stalin as a well-intentioned brute. Its only merit is that it is the truth, and standing behind the truth cannot be wrong.

The Liberals talked a good game about using Canada’s moral authority in the world to exercise “soft power.” But were they equally attentive to building up that authority, or employing it in the service of historical memory?

Monks and Mayhem in Tibet PRAYER OF THE DRAGON

By Eliot Pattison Whose e-mail address is mondaythrillers@aol.com Monday, December 3, 2007; This is the fifth in Eliot Pattison’s highly praised series about Shan Tao Yun, a Chinese national in exile in Tibet. Shan was once a senior investigator for the Chinese government, but when he made the mistake of probing high-level corruption, he was sent to a prison camp. There he became close to Tibetan monks who were imprisoned for their beliefs, and since his release has lived with and tried to protect the monks. This novel has two dramas in progress. In the foreground, Shan tries to solve a series of murders on and around the sacred mountain called Sleeping Dragon. But this investigation is set against the larger drama of an ancient, highly pacific and spiritual society fighting to survive the brutal Chinese occupation.

At the outset, the two monks whom Shan most reveres summon him to the village of Drango, where two men have been murdered and a third is in a coma. The village headman, or boss, who is a stooge of the Chinese, wants to avoid controversy by calling the unconscious man the murderer and executing him. Shan insists on an investigation, which takes him up Sleeping Dragon Mountain, where the murders occurred. The hands of both victims, for reasons that are not clear, were cut off. Shan soon discovers the sacred mountain is more crowded than one might expect. Outlaw miners are searching

for gold. A retired Chinese scientist lives in an ancient fortress with a German businessman and a Chinese college student. A secret Chinese military base is nearby. Finally, the man in the coma proves to be an American, a Navajo, who has come to Tibet with his niece, an anthropologist studying genetic, linguistic and cultural links between the Navajo and Tibetan peoples.

There is, in short, no lack of suspects as Shan seeks the murderer.

Pattison’s plot is complex, at times bewildering, although he does wrap things up neatly at the end. In truth, however, “Prayer of the Dragon” is less notable for its murder mystery than for its sensitive and highly detailed portrait of two cultures in conflict. When the Chinese invaded several decades earlier, they bombed temples and monasteries. Monks were killed or imprisoned and tortured to “reeducate” them to accept Chinese rule. Even in Drango, the corrupt headman sends village youth to China for education: “Where they are forced to speak only Chinese and sing the songs of Beijing. Where they are taught the Dalai Lama is a criminal.”

Amid these pressures, some monks fight to keep the old ways alive: “outlawed monks secretly working in their caves to illuminate prayer books for future generations, risking imprisonment or worse, when they could be safe in India.” A former monk, who has been put in a wooden

yoke that encircles his neck and immobilizes his arms, tells Shan: “I watch the sheep and memorize sacred texts. On the day I am able to prostrate myself again, my body will open up like a ripened fruit and a ball of fire will shoot out.”

At one point, a character asks, speaking of a hermit monk: “How does a holy man become deranged?”

Shan replies: “Perhaps the real miracle of modern Tibet is that they are not all like that.”

Shan’s investigation takes us into a world of spirits and ghosts, of sacred paintings, spirit feathers, prayer flags, cave drawings, ancient chants and death charms. He makes his way to the summit of the sacred mountain, where the monks believe there is a hidden entrance to the paradise “where gods and saints once lived in lush gardens and assumed the shape of rainbows whenever they chose.” On the journey to that sacred place, he barely survives a deathtrap set by monks centuries earlier to protect paradise from unworthy travelers. Surprises and mysteries abound here.

This novel taught me more about Tibet — modern and ancient — than I had managed to learn elsewhere over the years. It’s not a novel for everyone, but for the patient reader who cares about Tibet and Buddhism and deplores their treatment at the hands of the Chinese, it’s a powerful picture of courage in the face of tyranny.

The Tibet Post

TPI DALAI LAMA

Tibetans ‘should pick Dalai Lama’

Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 November 2007, 14:59 GMT The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, says his people should have a role in finding his successor.

Speaking in Amritsar, northern India, he told the BBC that Tibetans would also have to decide if the institution should continue at all after his death.

The Dalai Lama’s successor is usually chosen by senior Buddhist officials.

Analysts say the 72-year-old is considering breaking this centuries-old tradition in order to reduce the influence of China in the process.

Traditionally, Buddhist elders congregate after the death of the current leader and identify a young child to

succeed him, after being guided by dreams and signs.

The Dalai Lama warned that when he dies, China would try to promote its own candidate.

But he stressed, in an interview with the BBC’s Sanjoy Majumder, that ultimately it would be up to the people of Tibet to decide who they accepted, if anyone at all.

“The Tibetan nation is 2,000 years old. The Dalai Lama institution is relatively recent - only a few centuries old,” he said.

“If I die, it will be a setback for the Tibetan people for some time. But then the struggle will continue. “If the Tibetan people decide that the Dalai Lama

institution is no longer relevant, then it will automatically cease to exist.”

‘Violation of tradition’ Beijing claims sovereignty over Tibet, which it has controlled since invading in 1950. However, many Tibetans remain loyal to the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959.

And the spiritual leader reopened a war of words with Beijing by criticising the way it rules Tibet.

“Stability and genuine harmony - that is the Chinese government’s top priority. But you cannot have harmony under the gun,” he said.

Beijing responded by accusing the Dalai Lama of violating his own religious traditions.

“The reincarnation of the living Buddha is a unique way of succession of Tibetan Buddhism and follows relatively complete religious rituals and historical conventions,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

Beijing has denounced the Dalai Lama’s many foreign trips, including recent visits to the US, Germany and Japan.

It says he should stay out of politics and restrict himself to a religious role.

Buddhists believe the current Dalai Lama is the reincarnation of his predecessors.

Tibet festers as China-Dalai Lama talks off the boil

Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:54am IST

By Lindsay Beck BEIJING (Reuters) - The Dalai Lama has been racking up air miles, and China isn’t happy.

The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, considered a traitor by Beijing since leading a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has recently been received in capitals from Washington to Canberra, and will meet the Pope at the Vatican next month.

The diplomatic push has been met with a stream of vitriol from Chinese officials and state media, calling the 72-year-old a “splittist” bent on independence for Tibet and accusing him of orchestrating anti-Chinese activities in the remote region.

None of which bodes well for two sides which are supposed to be engaged in a process of rapprochement.

After six rounds of talks over five years that have nothing to show in the way of progress, analysts say both sides are hardening their positions, leaving Tibetans frustrated and China with a festering source of instability.

“The Chinese feel that the Dalai Lama has used his moral and religious authority to destabilise Tibet,” said Tsering Shakya, a Tibet scholar at the University of British Columbia.

“They have not only abandoned discussions about Tibetan autonomy, they have also abandoned offers of accommodation with the Dalai Lama as an individual religious figure.”

For a Tibetan government-in-exile that has operated for nearly five decades from the Indian hill station of Dharamsala, many feel there is nothing to lose by intensifying diplomatic engagement — even if it antagonises China.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 after the failed uprising against nine years of Chinese Communist Party rule.

“It’s hard to see for the Tibet government-in-exile what alternatives they would have that could serve them better,” said a Western diplomat in Beijing.

“Foreign governments are part of the advocacy push, but it’s a double-edged sword.”

The sharp end of the blade is Beijing’s response to the Dalai Lama’s wave of visits.

PERSONAL ATTACKS China has stepped up its campaign against him with personal attacks featured regularly in state media.

“He is trying to internationalise the issue of Tibet with a two-step splittist approach. The first step is autonomy and the second step is independence,” Xinhua news agency quoted Ciren Jiabu, a local Tibet scholar, as saying.

“The Dalai Lama should be fully responsible for the failure of those dialogues,” the same piece quoted An Caidan, a member of China’s delegation to the talks, as saying.

An internal Communist Party memo that surfaced last month also showed the Party questioning the loyalty of ethnic Tibetan members. And analysts say university campuses in Lhasa are strewn with banners personally attacking the Dalai Lama.

Pro-Tibet groups say such attacks have little effect on public support for the movement.

“This hysteria, this vitriol that comes out of Beijing, people roll their eyes at it. Nobody’s quaking in their boots,” said Mary Beth Markey, a vice president of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet.

BUSY OR BAD YEAR? Markey also disputes the idea that the Dalai Lama has been on a diplomatic offensive, saying that he always has a busy calendar, but the difference is that he is being received by more leaders.

This year, he met U.S. President George W. Bush at the White House, in addition to leaders of Austria, Germany, New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

“Western leaders are frustrated in their own outreach to China and they see the Dalai Lama as a figurehead for human rights and a signal to Beijing that they are concerned about political freedom,” Markey said.

But for the Chinese side, it’s a bad year for compromise.

A five-yearly Communist Party Congress in October brought a wave of leadership changes, meaning China’s bureaucracy charged with spearheading the Tibet dialogue is in transition.

China is also loath to change the status quo and risk instability ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

But as talks stagnate, signs of discontent in Tibet and ethnic Tibetan areas of western China are increasing.

Last year, almost 10,000 Tibetans converged on a monastery in China’s northwest, mistakenly thinking the Dalai Lama was there.

This month, four ethnic Tibetans were jailed for “inciting to split the country” and engaging in “splittist activities” after publicly calling for the Dalai Lama’s return.

“Whatever China thinks about the Dalai Lama, it is quite clear he has moral authority and religious authority in Tibet,” said Tsering Shakya. “Without some sort of accommodation or reconciliation with him, the Tibetan issue will fester.”

3 China condemns Dalai Lama for ideas on succession 05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

Reuters [Friday, November 30, 2007 09:49]

having senior lamas follow Vatican conclave

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Foreign Min-

practice and elect one of their number to suc-

istry condemned the Dalai Lama on Thurs-

ceed him, and giving Tibetans the chance to

day for making a series of suggestions over

vote on whether to do away with the institu-

how his successor as Tibet's spiritual leader

tion of Dalai Lama altogether. He has talked

might be chosen.

of a possible referendum, but his spokesman

"The Chinese government has a policy of

was quick to point out that the idea was not

religious freedom and respects Tibetan

for a general vote to choose his successor.

Buddhism's religious rituals and historic con-

"The referendum (would be) on whether the

ventions," said ministry spokesman Liu

institution of the Dalai Lama should con-

Jianchao. "The Dalai Lama's related actions

tinue or not," Tenzin Taklah told Reuters in

clearly violate established religious rituals

India on Wednesday. "It's just an idea".

and historic conventions and therefore can-

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu said on

not be accepted," he told a regular news con-

Thursday that China could not accept any

ference, without elaborating.

form of referendum on the Dalai Lama's role.

Traditionally, a Dalai Lama's death provokes

China has ruled remote, mountainous Tibet

a search for his reincarnation among chil-

with an iron hand since Communist troops

dren born in Tibet at the same time.

invaded in 1950, and Tibetans have chafed

Many Tibetans fear the death of the current

under the yoke ever since.

Dalai Lama, now 72, would be a major set-

Tibetan monks rioted last week after an al-

back in their fight for more autonomy within

tercation between them and a Han Chinese

China or for outright independence, creating

shopkeeper. It was the most recent of a string

a leadership vacuum that Beijing could be

of incidents in Tibet, where tensions between

expected to exploit. In hopes of circumvent-

Chinese and Tibetans remain high. Liu said

ing this, the Dalai Lama has long suggested

that while he had no more details on the

that his reincarnation be sought outside

incident, the general situation in Tibet was

China. More controversially, he also sug-

stable and its economy was developing well.

gested in Japan this month that his succes-

"Anyone who tries to disrupt Tibet's sta-

sor could be chosen before his death.

bility and development will not have the

Other options he has considered include

support of the people.

Chinese whispers miff Tawang - Monks await Dalai Lama

Lama Nawang Norbu

NISHIT DHOLABHAI New Delhi/Tawang, Nov. 28: The country’s biggest monastery, the Galden Namgyel Lhatse in Tawang, has blamed Delhi for not allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Tawang. “The Dalai Lama has visited this place before and had promised to be here in 2007 but since he is not coming here, people think and suspect that it is because of the Indian policy on China and the neighbouring country’s claim on Arunachal Pradesh,” said the monastery’s third head, Lama Nawang Norbu. On his last visit to Tawang in 2003, the exiled Tibetan leader had told lamas here that he would conduct a puja of the deities Lokeshwara and Manjushri this year. However, di-

plomacy has prevented New Delhi from speaking loudly on Arunachal Pradesh despite China’s persistent claims on Tawang and Arunachal Pradesh. India’s insistence to speak in whispers on the issue while negotiations with Beijing are in progress at the political level is understood but not accepted at the monastery. Norbu said once the Tibetan leader comes here, “people will be reassured”. Most lamas here speak fluent Hindi but while speaking officially to the minister, Norbu spoke in Bodhi through an interpreter. Minister of state for commerce Jairam Ramesh assured Norbu that he would ask Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look into the matter. “For us, he is our leader and his visit means a lot to us,” said Lama Tashi, on deputation at this Mahayana Buddhism monastery from Bangalore. The minister, in Tawang to inaugurate the Buddha Mahotsav, had to listen to the antiChina story several times over from politicians, civilians and finally, from the spiritual leaders. Only when Ramesh emphatically said Arunachal Pradesh “is an integral part of India” was the gathering pacified.

Pope will not meet Dalai Lama Vatican, Nov. 26, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) will not meet with the Dalai Lama when the Tibetan Buddhist leader visits Rome in December, the Vatican has announced.

The announcement contradicts reports that had circulated early in November and sparked angry reactions from Beijing.

Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, told reporters that “no audience is planned” during the Dalai Lama’s trip to Italy. The Vatican had never officially announced plans for such an audience, although informed officials had told reporters that a meeting was being planned.

Reports that the Dalai Lama would meet with the Pontiff drew a strong reaction from the Chinese government, which warned that any such meeting would be “an offense.” A government spokesman in Beijing said that the Vatican should “show sincerity to improve relations” by abandoning the plans.

The Chinese regime has consistently objected to any meetings by world leaders with the

Dalai Lama, who is regarded as a key symbol of Tibet’s hope for freedom from Beijing.

The Dalai Lama has frequently expressed his opposition to Chinese occupation of his country— although he has dropped his public demands for Tibetan independence. He has lived in exile since 1959.

The Vatican has been engaged for months in delicate negotiations with Beijing, aimed to ease government controls on the Catholic Church in China. While Pope Benedict has directly challenged the Communist government’s claim to authority over the Church— most notably in his June 30 message to Chinese Catholics— he has generally avoided clashes on matters that the Holy See does not consider essential to the Church’s mission.

The Pope met with the Dalai Lama in October 2006, but the Vatican underlined that the meeting was a “private courtesy visit” and the conversation was confined exclusively to religious matters. That papal audience with the Buddhist leader did not appear on the official Vatican calendar.

4

05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

TPI INTERVIEW

Ocean of wit and wisdoms

H.H The 14th Dalai Lama Lhamo Thondup was born on July 6, 1935 in Taktster, a small village in the Amdo region of northeast Tibet. But neither his parents — farmers who grew barley, buckwheat and potatoes — nor his three elder brothers and one elder sister (a younger sister and brother came later) were to discover his true identity until a few years later.

Then, when the little boy was 4, a party of senior Buddhist monks and officials from the distant capital of Lhasa arrived in the village searching for the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama — the spiritual and temporal leader of Tibet, whose title means “ocean of wisdom.” The party was led by Kewtsang Rinpoche, a respected monk who had chosen to head northeast as that was the direction in which the face of the embalmed 13th Dalai Lama (known as “the Great 13th”), who died on Dec. 17, 1933 was said to have mysteriously pointed.

Apparently, when these strangers visited the Thondup household, little Lhamo ran up to Rinpoche and grabbed the rosary belonging to the previous Dalai Lama that he was wearing around his neck, saying, “It’s mine, it’s mine!” The little boy also unerringly chose other items that belonged to the previous Dalai Lama from a mixed assortment of artifacts.

In the winter of 1940, Lhamo was taken to Tibet’s seat of government, and the Dalai Lamas’ winter seat, the 17th-century Potala Palace in Lhasa, to be officially installed as the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, thereby carrying on a lineage dating from 1391, when the first Dalai Lama was born. Since then, all Dalai Lamas — including the third one, who was born in Mongolia — have been considered to be manifestations of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

However, the 14th Dalai Lama’s “reign” over Tibet — a country the size of Western Europe that is often referred to as the “roof of the world” due to its average altitude of 3,500 meters — was rudely interrupted in 1950 when the country was invaded by the Chinese army.

After that, despite his intense wish to stay with his people, conditions for the Dalai Lama became increasingly difficult — as they were for Buddhism throughout the country. Finally, with fears for his safety growing, on March 17, 1959 the Dalai Lama was forced to flee the Potala Palace by night with his mother, younger brother and younger sister, senior teachers and advisers.

Guided by Tibetan guerrillas, and constantly in fear of a Chinese ambush, the party — with the Dalai Lama at times disguised as a common soldier with a rifle across his back — made the long, arduous trek over the Himalayas to India. Once there, and granted sanctuary (much to China’s ire) by India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the Dalai Lama set up his government-in-exile in the former British hill station of Dharamsala in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where it remains to this day.

From this “capital in exile,” the Dalai Lama has furthered the democratization he started while still in Tibet. In 2001 and again in 2006, the academic and monk Samdhong Rinpoche was chosen as prime minister in elections stipulated to take place every five years. Hence the Dalai Lama

says of his current status, “I am currently semiretired politically and act like a senior adviser.’’

Nevertheless, he continues to tour the world campaigning for Tibet and its Tibetan inhabitants, as well as for his 130,000 fellow exiles. In 1987, he dropped his demand for full independence, and this October restated in his U.S. Congressional Gold Medal acceptance speech that he “is seeking a meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people within the People’s Republic of China.’’

However, during the Chinese occupation to date, some 1.2 million people — many of them monks and nuns — have reportedly died due to torture, starvation or imprisonment, and around 6,000 Buddhist temples and monasteries have been destroyed. Additionally, in the last decade in particular, there has been such a huge immigration of Han Chinese, the ethnic majority in China, to what Beijing calls the Tibet Autonomous Region (of the People’s Republic of China) that the 3.6 million Tibetans must now share their homeland with around 7.5 million Chinese. The threat of cultural annihilation intensified with last year’s opening of the Quinghai-Tibet railway line providing a cheap and easy way into Lhasa.

When he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, the Dalai Lama said, “I believe the prize is a recognition of the true values of altruism, love, compassion and nonviolence which I try to practice.” This policy, however, has come under fire from Tibetans both inside and outside Tibet, especially the radical nonreligious Tibetan Youth Congress, for not being proactive enough.

At present, one of the most contentious issues between Dharamsala and Beijing is the selection of the reincarnation of Panchen Lama, who is second only to the Dalai Lama in the hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism.

Though the Chinese deny the legitimacy of the Dalai Lama’s choice, he says that the Chinese themselves refer in private to their own selection as “the fake Panchen.”

The Japan Times caught up with the Dalai Lama while he was on a bullet train from Nagoya to Shin-Yokohama during his recent nine-day visit to Japan that ended on Nov. 23. A “simple Buddhist monk” he may be by his own account, but shy and retiring he certainly isn’t, and throughout the interview he spoke enthusiastically to this reporter and another from Japan’s vernacular press in a voice robust enough to fill the entire carriage. But no matter how serious the subject about which he spoke eloquently in his idiosyncratic but very good English, His Holiness always smiled, laughed or cracked a joke along the way.

You say you are semiretired, but will you ever retire completely? And how would the next leader of the Tibetan people be chosen if you did?

Retirement from the Dalai Lamaship? I cannot retire. (Laughs.) I think when the majority of people do not consider me as the Dalai Lama, then I will retire. (Laughs.) I’m kind of joking.

Since 2001, we have had an elected political leadership; every five years elections take place. So since then I have been semiretired politically. When we were in Tibet, around 1952, I started some changes. That was the beginning of democratization. But we could not carry out these programs inside Tibet because there were a lot of complications. Then after we came to India in 1959 as refugees, we were fully committed toward democracy. In 2001 we achieved an elected political leadership. So since then the main decisions have been in the elected leader’s hands and not mine, and I am acting like a senior adviser. Last year Samdhong Rinpoche was re-elected, and there is a limit of two terms, so in four years a new person will come — through elections.

I don’t consider that it is important to preserve the Dalai Lama institution. I think it is very important to make clear that the preservation of Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism, and the preservation of the Dalai Lama institution, are totally different. This institution, like any other institution, at certain times it will come, and at certain times it will go. But Buddhism, and the

Tibetan cultural heritage, will remain as long as Tibetan people remain there.

Then in 1992, I stated that when the time comes for our return to our Tibetan homeland with a certain degree of freedom — that means genuine autonomy — then I will hand over all my legitimate authority as the Dalai Lama to the local Tibetan government.

We have arranged it so that the Tibetan struggle does not depend on one person, but depends on the people. So the people elected their own leadership. That’s logical.

You have reportedly said that your successor can be decided while you are alive. He can be chosen from a group of senior monks, rather than through the centuriesold process of reincarnation. Can you tell me how you will decide your successor?

There have already been casual talks on this issue among the spiritual leaders of Tibet’s top religious sects, of which there are five or six major traditions, each with its own spiritual leader. From time to time we gather. I also casually mentioned this issue, but we have not yet had serious discussions about it. Eventually, we will have some discussions.

The dominant Liberal Democratic Party in Japan’s ruling coalition is trying to overturn the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution. How would you feel if the Buddhist-backed New Komeito Party that is the LDP’s coalition partner supported such a policy?

That is up to the Japanese. It is not my business. Everybody knows my basic position that I am totally against war. My dream of the future is a demilitarized world.

I always say that everywhere I go, although I don’t think this will be achieved in our lifetimes. But we should have a blueprint or vision for the future. The ultimate goal is to have the whole planet demilitarized.

But if you say the world should be demilitarized, how do human beings have to change for that to become a reality?

We human beings have to become more realistic. That is the only way. At present, many of our viewpoints are unrealistic.

That’s my view.

What do you mean by unrealistic?

What do you gain through war?

Power, land . . .

Silly! Today, the whole world belongs to 6 billion human beings. If you go into deep space, there are no marks of different national boundaries on Earth, except some rivers and mountains. And actually in our life, there’s a global economy and a global environment. Individual nations cannot solve these things. We have to look at these issues as global issues.

The other day I met some Russian journalists. I put forward a theoretical concept of one world like one entity. I mentioned a demilitarized world and that national interests should be secondary. What are important are the interests of humanity. I said that the vast empty land in Russia should welcome more Chinese. In Tibet’s case also, we have a lot of land. Theoretically, they (the Chinese) are most welcome. However, that should be a part of a proper invitation, a full agreement, and a full appreciation of the local people. At this moment, the Chinese are mainly concerned about their own interests, not the interests of 6 billion people. Under these circumstances, the more Chinese who come to Tibet, we do not welcome that. If we come to a mutual agreement, then that is good.

Look at the United States’ policy. Their motivation for the restoration of democracy is good. But their methods involve violence, which results in more complications, more distance from Arabs. This is the nature of war. You may solve one thing, so, for example, toppling Saddam Hussein achieved something but created a lot of unexpected problems. Today, destruction of your enemy is destruction of yourself. That is reality. In this reality, everything is interdependent. But to use force to destroy your neighbor is unrealistic. Do you understand now? (Laughs.)

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently stated that 90

percent of global warming is human-induced. U.N. data also shows that 25,000 people die every day from hunger and hunger-related diseases. Do you see a solution?

Yes, certainly. It again comes back to being realistic and unrealistic.

There are two things to consider here.

Firstly, with regard to the economy, there is a serious problem of the gap between the rich and the poor on a global level and on a national level. Look at the United States: the number of billionaires is increasing, and the poor sometimes become even poorer. I think this gap is also increasing in Japan.

Now unfortunately in China also, there is a huge gap between rich and poor, and in Russia too. In China’s case, it is unbelievable. A socialist country led by a communist party and yet still the gap is increasing. In India also.

On a global level, now the northerners, the industrialized nations, have too much consumerism and surplus. In other parts of the world, like Africa, Latin America, and also Asia, the basic necessities are not adequate and in some cases, starvation also exists. It is really terrible. So this gap is not only morally wrong but on a practical level is the source of problems. Now European countries, America, Australia and Japan are facing the problem of (unmanageable levels of) immigration.

Consumerism is an unrealistic attitude to take. It’s unrealistic to think that resources are limitless and that consuming more is our basic right. There are limits to natural resources.

So we have to think about our lifestyles in a way that will make us content. This is very much tied up with our moral principles. If other people feel happy, naturally we feel happy. If your neighbor is facing starvation and you don’t care and you carry on with your consumerism, it is morally wrong. But it’s also a question of practicality. Those nations with higher living standards will eventually face problems. So it is better to know that, and with that knowledge, people will be more content with their lifestyles. Otherwise you always expect a higher, higher, higher income — then one day it will be stuck and you will be totally shocked, and in some cases suicide also occurs.

This is related to another important thing.

We are part of humanity; Japan is part of the world. If a critical situation occurs in the world economy, the Japanese economy will also suffer. That is today’s reality.

Therefore you should have a holistic view.

Everything is interdependent. Everything is interconnected.

Now the environment issue. Of course, I learned about the environment issue only after I went to India. When I was in Tibet, everything was very pure. I think the nature of god purified our air, our water, our soil. (Laughs heartily.)

(But) the environment issue is really very, very serious. So through education we must make clear the consequences of the gap between the rich and poor and about consuming limitlessly. These are short-sighted and unrealistic views.

One real problem is the population. There should be a limited population and higher living standards. That’s very, very important. I think there are a lot of problems involved.

If the Chinese government decides your successor, what will the Tibetan people do?

It’s like the issue of the Panchen Lama.

There are two Panchen Lamas: there’s one official Panchen Lama that the Chinese themselves call Char Panchen, which means “false Panchen.” For the Tibetans there is no question: there is one Panchen Lama in their hearts, and one they give lip-service to. So the Chinese government is already thinking about the 15th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. They may choose one boy who is the government’s official Dalai Lama but not the Dalai Lama of the Tibetans’ hearts.

So there is an additional problem.

In your book “The Art of Happiness,” you say there are many different negative emotions, such as anger, jealousy and hatred.

Which emotions do you personally struggle with and why?

Every kind of emotion. I’m a human being.

Same brain (points to my head). Everybody has the same brain and the same po-

The Tibet Post tential of different emotions. I think that sometimes within 24 hours one emotion is stronger, and the next day another emotion is stronger. As a Buddhist monk, also a Buddhist practitioner, I think that generally speaking an opposing emotion acts as a counterforce to an emotion. The very purpose of Buddhist practices is to act as a counterforce to destructive emotions, so it does work. They are antidotes.

Anger and hatred are destructive. According to medical scientists, strong anger and hatred actually eats away at our immune system. So the counterforce or antidote, the opposing force, is loving kindness. So a more compassionate person’s brain functions better, with less stress and lower blood pressure. This is nothing to do with religion; nothing to do with god. But in reality, humans physically require others’ affection as soon as we are born. Without a mothers’ affection we can’t survive. Not only human beings but animals, most animals. So affection — loving kindness — is the ultimate source of our survival.

And because of our own experience we feel tremendously happy when we are receiving affection from our mother, so that cultivates in our mind the potential of affection to others. So we can say these emotions are constructive emotions, while anger, hatred, jealousy, these are destructive emotions judging from their results.

These things have got nothing to do with religious faith. I usually call these “secular ethics.” Irrespective of whether you accept religion or not, this is according to our common sense, our common experience, and also scientific findings. Some emotions are very helpful, very good, therefore we consider them positive. Some emotions have a very negative effect on our health, our society and on our family life, therefore these are considered destructive. Using our common sense is what Buddhists call “analytical meditation.”

Analyze. When we talk about emotion, it is a vast field. There are thousands of different emotions. It is important to identify these emotions — what has value, what is negative — then try to reduce the negative emotions and try to increase positive emotions. That’s the main practice.

Yes, but which emotion do you personally struggle with the most?

Anger. One of my main practices is compassion. The opposite of compassion is anger and hatred. In terms of hatred or ill-feeling toward other people, I almost have none. It’s there for a short period of time but then gone. My negative feelings never linger.

One particular Tibetan monk, just as an example, spent 18 years in a Chinese gulag (labor camp) and underwent political indoctrination in the 1960s and ’70s. In the early ’80s he escaped and came to India. I had known him before 1959 and . . . we talked casually about his experience in the Chinese labor camp. He told me that on a few occasions he faced some problems, some dangers. I asked what danger, and his answer was, “Danger of losing compassion toward the Chinese.” As a result of practice, you see, people can develop that kind of attitude. So they deliberately try to keep compassion toward their enemy. That ultimately brings into their mind more calm, more peace. But if people let anger and hatred develop, it destroys their own physical well-being — and is no harm to the Chinese.

Usually we consider anger comes as a protector, don’t we? When we face some problems, anger comes and brings energy. So we welcome some anger, don’t we? But that’s unrealistic. (Laughs heartily.)

Are there any developments in negotiations between China and . . ?

No. What are the obstacles between you and China?

Direct contact with the Chinese government started in 1979. Then in the early ’80s there was real hope under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, and the general secretary, the really remarkable communist Hu Yaobang, who admitted the past mistakes when he visited Lhasa. Then, in the mid’80s, a democratic movement started in many Chinese universities, and Hu Yaobang’s attitude was very, very open and Continued on page 6

TPI TIBET

The Tibet Post

05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

5

Keep up human rights pressure on China in the run-up to 2008 Olympics Chinese Ambassa-

EU Policy Director of ICT, Vincent Metten, intervening in the EP’s subcommittee on the Human Rights situation in Tibet

European Parliament press release November 29th, 2007 With next year’s Olympic Games in Beijing just around the corner, the world must keep up the pressure on China over its human rights record, a hearing of the

European Parliament’s Human Rights Subcommittee attended by over 200 people was told on Monday. Several NGOs, including a Chinese dissident speaking live via internet telephone conference, described the widespread human rights violations still being perpetrated by the authorities.

Understanding the meaning of Middle-Way policy is indispensable

Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche addressing at a two-day workshop on Middle-Way Approach organised by the Department of Information and International Relations from 28-29 November 2007 in Gangchen Kyishong (Photo: Sangjey Kep)

TibetNet[Friday, November 30, 2007 13:19]Dharamshala - "Each and every Tibetan has a responsibility to contribute to support the process of implementing the Middle-Way Approach with a clear understanding of its meanings," Kalon Tripa Samdhong Rinpoche said.

Kalon Tripa was speaking during a twoday workshop on Middle-Way Approach to the Tibetan settlement officers organised by the Department of Information and International Relations yesterday.

He said, " In order to contribute to this policy, every Tibetan must have a clear understanding of the meaning of MiddleWay Approach," adding, "there is no way for making any contribution, without having a clear knowledge of the policy."

"The support by the majority of the exiled Tibetans on the Middle-Way policy must be demonstrated explicitly," he added.

He also said, "Tibetans must unambiguously demonstrate the clear official position while implementing the Middle-Way Policy and it should be

demarcated from that of the nongovernmental organisations."

"It is morally wrong for those who pursue different political position than that of the official one, to imply in speech or gesture of having internal consensus with the government or enjoying government's support in implicit," he added.

He reiterated that there is no change in the basic principles of the Middle-Way policy since it was proposed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1979. However, the way of expressing the policy is undergoing a process of evolution with the passage of time.

He said there has been substantial development in making clear the components of Middle-Way policy to the Chinese leadership since the resumption of dialogue in 2001.

Kalon Tripa then explained the proposed 11 model action plans, which were broadly categorized as educational, social, economic, religion and culture.

These plans include engaging in meritorious actions to enhance the collective merit of the Tibetan people; establishing close ties with all the people who have cultural, religious and linguistic affinities with the Tibetan people; sustaining Tibetan language and culture by providing an adequate level of modern education to the children; providing help for the education and health care of Tibetans in Tibet; spreading awareness on the current state of Tibet and clarifying misunderstandings and misinterpretations - including to the Chinese based in the Mainland China; preserving the unity and harmony of Tibetan community in exile; and others. (www.tibet.net is the official website of the Central Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.)

Opening the hearing, subcommittee chair Hélene Flautre (Greens/EFA, FR), pointed out that it was taking place two days ahead of the 10th EU-China summit. She regretted the absence from the hearing of a representative from the Chinese embassy A ‘human rights disaster’ in China The first guest speaker was cyber-dissident Hu Jia, who with his wife Zeng Jinyan was one of the candidates for the EP’s Sakharov Prize this year (see link below). Speaking from house arrest in Beijing on a webphone link via an interpreter, Hu Jia told the hearing that ‘a human rights disaster’ was taking place in his country. A million people had been persecuted for fighting for human rights, many being detained in camps or mental hospitals. He highlighted the ‘irony’ that the head of China’s Olympic Games body was also head of the National Security Bureau, which he likened to ‘the mafia being in charge of the games’. There was a conflict between the West’s hope that holding the games in China ‘would foster democracy and openness’ and the Chinese authorities’ hope that the games would legitimise their rule. He urged Europe to ‘stand firm’ and in particular not sell arms to China.

Hu Jia was unable to answer questions from Ana Gomes (PES, PT), who asked whether it was true that a senior party official had called for the authorities to ‘come clean on Tiananmen Square’ and how many people were still detained in prisons or hospitals because of those events.

IOC must not duck the issue Former Olympic fencing champion Pál Schmitt (EPP-ED, HU), who is now an MEP but spoke on Monday in his capacity as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), initially insisted that the IOC ‘does not take the lead in human rights and political matters’ and is ‘not in a position to pressure China on issues outside the Games’. The IOC’s view was that it was best ‘to hold open a new door to China’.

This view was questioned by Hélene Flautre and openly challenged by Edward McMillan-Scott (EPP-ED, UK), who said ‘Article 1 of the Olympic Charter refers to fundamental ethical principles, so the IOC does have a mandate to look at these matters’. Moreover, the IOC had once banned

South Africa from the games because of apartheid, thus showing that ‘it can take political positions’. Indeed, Mr McMillanScott argued ‘it is time for the IOC to make a political statement’ on the situation in China. Mr Schmitt then agreed to this, saying he would speak to the IOC board, which he admitted ‘cannot close its ears’ to these demands any longer.

Phelim Kine (Human Rights Watch, Hong Kong) focused on the issue of media freedom, pointing out that in order to be awarded the 2008 games, China had promised that the media would be able to operate freely. But, he said, ‘the IOC is failing to ensure that China lives up to its promises’ and is ‘turning a deaf ear’ to Human Rights Watch’s reports.

Mr McMillan-Scott read out a speech on behalf of Hong Bing Yuan, a Chinese human rights defender now resident in Australia who was unable to travel to Monday’s hearing.

According to this statement, ‘people are still being imprisoned and murdered’, the treatment of Falun Gong is a ‘human rights disaster’, ’90 million people are working as slave labour’ and overall the situation will ‘bring shame and disgrace to the Olympic spirit’.

‘The struggle for human rights in China is a marathon’ Sharon Hom (of the New York based NGO Human Rights in China) spoke of the authorities having a ‘blacklist of 42 categories of banned individuals’, which she described as ‘a chilling tool for social control and intimidation’. This, she said, ‘should be of concern to the IOC’. She also said the government was ‘having trouble maintaining domestic control while presenting an open image to the world’ and urged the EU to maintain the pressure in bilateral meetings with China. ‘The struggle for human rights is a marathon’, she said, but if successful it would be ‘good for China and the world’.

The final speaker was Vincent Metten (International Campaign for Tibet), who highlighted the clampdown on Buddhism, the ‘demographic colonisation’ and environmental deterioration of the region and the socioeconomic marginalisation of Tibetans.

26/11/2007 Subcommittee on Human Rights In the chair : Hélene Flautre (Greens/EFA, FR)

China: Another crackdown on right to freedom of expression November 28, 2007 Tibet - In yet another crackdown on right to freedom of expression, Chinese Internet authorities have shutdown a Tibetan language website www.tibetcm.com and its popular blog on 16th November, sources say. The Chinese internet police have deleted all the website’s data from its server that has over 10,000 blog articles by their users.

On October 16, a day before His Holiness the Dalai Lama was honored with the Congressional Gold Medal, the website along with another Tibetan language website www.tibettl.com faced temporary shutdown. The reason for shutdown was the political content and information about the Congressional Gold Medal in blogs posted by thousands ofusers.

While the tibettl site was relaunched on 16th November under the same name, the tibetcm site has been terminated completely and ordered that they cannot use the same server to host the site again. Tibettl site in a move to save their language site has separated their site tibettl from its popular blog content, now they have moved their blog site under a new name www.tibetabc.cn

However, the webmasters at the tibetcm in a web post have expressed strong desire to re-launch their site from another server and apologized to all their users. The post reads that even though sheer domination has completely terminated their website (known as the lamp website in Tibet), they have already taken precaution and backed up almost all their website and blog data, they have received financial help and moral support from some loyal local Tibetan leaders and many friends from near and far and now they are determined to shortly re-launch their site from another server.

In December, Chinese Internet Authorities ordered Tibetan web masters to weed out all blog articles related to Tibetan author Woeser that are published on Tibetan websites in Sichuan Province. Tibetan author Woeser who primarily writes in Chinese is well known for many famous books like ‘Serjye’ about Cultural Revolution. The Chinese government blocks access to thousands of news Web sites like our website www.phayul.com but users in Tibet could download a software called freegate, bypass the firewall and view our website.

dor in Delhi Refuses Interview for Documentary on Tibet

Lara Damiani interviews His Holiness, the Dalai Lama in Delhi on 25 November After repeated requests for an interview, Australian filmmaker Lara Damiani who was in Delhi recently, was refused an interview with Chinese Ambassador Mr Sun Yuxi.

Damiani was in Delhi recently gathering more interviews and footage for her documentary about Tibet “No Currency in Compassion”.

After repeated communication with the Chinese Embassy in Delhi, Damiani finally managed to get a response to her request for an interview with the Chinese Ambassador in Delhi, only to be told he was “too busy with farewell parties” to accept the request.

“I was told that the Ambassador was into the final two weeks of his tenure in that role and as a result was too busy attending farewell parties to meet with me” said Lara. “I was disappointed as I was providing an opportunity for the Chinese Government to be involved in my documentary” she said.

While the Chinese Ambassador refused to meet with Damiani, she was beaming with excitement about her hour long interview with His Holiness the Dalai Lama who was more than generous with his limited time for an on camera interview.

South Australian based Lara Damiani was so inspired by the plight of Tibet and the Tibetans and a burning desire to spread the message of Tibet in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics, that she decided to make a feature length documentary about the issue in November last year.

The documentary, currently in production, highlights the last remaining non-violent freedom struggle in the world today and has been self-funded to date.

“When he visited in June, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said to me at the press conference in Melbourne ‘Time is running out, that’s true. If the present situation remains another 10-15 years, I think most probably, Tibet will finish’.

This documentary is my effort to spread the message that something must be done about Tibet before it’s too late” said Lara.

The documentary will raise global awareness about issues in Tibet such as Human Rights abuses, Environmental Destruction and the destruction of Indigenous Culture.

It aims to use the spotlight on China and the Olympics in 2008 to gain maximum global exposure for Tibet.

It explores the issue that time is running out for Tibet and looks at the complexities faced by this nation as it continues its non-violent freedom struggle.

To help fund the documentary, 2008 Pictures of Tibet calendars, featuring stunning photography by Claudio Raschella taken in Tibet in July are available for sale at www.thetibetproject.com

6

05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

TPI WORLD

Rudd sworn in as new Australian PM

3 November, 2007, SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his team were formally sworn in as Australia’s new government Monday, nine days after sweeping to power in elections that ended more than 11 years of conservative rule.

Rudd, 50, has put global warming and keeping Australia’s resource exportfueled economic boom at the top of his priorities list, and was due to call his first Cabinet meeting later Monday.

Rudd was the first of 30 ministers to take the oath of office before Governor General Michael Jeffery on Monday in ceremonies broadcast nationally, formalizing the hand-over of government from ousted prime minister John Howard.

Among the ministers are Australia’s first female deputy prime minister, Julia Gillard.

change — Howard had refused to sign the Kyoto pact.

Malaysia’s leader said Rudd’s plan to pull Australia’s 550 combat troops from Iraq would also improve the country’s international standing, the Malaysian national news agency Bernama reported.

Rudd spoke by phone with U.S. President George W. Bush on the day of his electoral victory. He declined to give details of the conversation, but said he plans to visit Washington next year.

Rudd’s election brought a sharp and Rudd has moved quickly to bring mortifying end to the 11-year rule of Australia into international talks on Howard, Australia’s second-longest fighting global warming, and to head off serving leader and a strong ally of potentially thorny relations with the Bush.

United States and key Asian neighbors. Howard also lost his own district seat The emphatic victory for Rudd’s Labor in Parliament — a fate suffered only Party swings Australia toward the once before by a sitting prime minister political left and puts it at odds with key in 106 years of federal government. security ally Washington on two crucial Howard, who reshaped Australia’s policy issues — Iraq and global image abroad with his unwavering support for the U.S. war on terrorism warming.

The day after sweeping to power in and in Iraq, failed to read the signs that general elections on November 24, Rudd voters had grown tired of his rule. held meetings with government officials Howard had campaigned on his about the mechanics of signing the economic management, arguing that Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse Rudd could not be trusted to continue Australia’s 17 years of unbroken gas emissions.

He also took phone calls from foreign economic growth, fueled by China’s and India’s hunger for Australian coal leaders highly relevant to Australia.

Britain, New Zealand and Indonesia and other minerals. noted that Rudd’s election would boost Rudd had argued that Howard, at 68, Unstoof Kalaclimate Rongo nunnery in Tibet was out of ideas. international efforts address

Putin set to form government in Russia

Bureau Report Monday, December 3, 2007 (Moscow) The United Russia Party led by President Vladimir Putin is all set to form the next government in Russia.

The latest poll results say the party has made a sweep of the polls winning more than 60 per cent of the votes.

As Vladimir Putin walked in to vote for the Parliament, his confidence showed it all. The ruling United Russia Party led by the President himself will have

around 350 of the 450 MPs in the State Duma.

Vladimir Putin, President, Russia said, ‘’I am in a holiday mood. The campaigning is over, all that remains is for the electorate to vote for the party they find most convincing.’’

The Czar is so famous that a majority of Russians stand by the fact that Putin has been the architect of the country’s recent developments and will shape the country’s future.

Gennady Belyshchev, Resident, Moscow said’’, ‘’What he (Putin) has done in the last years, what he has managed to correct - there are no others like him.

And I think he will take his achievements even further in the near future.’’

The opposition led by the communists said they will fight the results out legally, citing voting irregularities. ’’People are scared because it was a fear campaign around Russia telling the people no matter what you do there we will know. So the government was trying to use this genetic fear that had been accumulated over decades in the Soviet Union telling the people you cannot hide from us,’’ said Garry Kasparov, Leader, Opposition.

Gennady Zyuganov, Leader of Communist Party said, ‘’If in Yeltsin’s time there were only two ways of mishandling voting - intimidation and tampering with final ballot protocols, now they have come up with at least a dozen and a half ways of how to get people to vote and deceive them.’’

So the next step for this Former KGB man seems to be the post of Prime Minister, thereby re-establishing his hold over the former Soviet Union’s polity.

Premier Wen: China-Japan talks successful?

chinaview.cn 2007-12-03 BEIJING: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao met Japan’s Foreign Minister on Sunday, saying trade and economic talks to strengthen ties between China and Japan have so far been successful.

Chinese Premier Wen Jia Bao met with Japan’s Foreign Minister Masahiko

Komura as part of weekend discussions, which bring together the largest number of officials from the two countries since they opened diplomatic ties 35 years ago.

Wen Jia Bao says trade and economic talks aimed at strengthening ties between the two neighbors have been successful so far.

He adds that bilateral relations have taken another step forward, especially in trade and commerce. Can they be a friend?

For his part, Komura says there were “meaningful discussions” on Saturday, when the talks began. And he believes the two nations can cooperate in coming up with an appropriate joint statement for both the Chinese people and the Japanese people. So far, two modest agreements have been struck. One is a 420 million U.S.

dollars Japanese loan to China to fund 6 environmental projects. And the other is a treaty to allow the countries’ police and prosecutors to work directly on criminal extraditions.

But no breakthroughs have been reported on the East China Sea gas field issue.

At Saturday’s meetings, the two sides agreed to more exchanges between militaries and defense officials. They also tried to settle dates for an upcoming visit to China by Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, and a reciprocal trip to Japan by Chinese President Hu Jintao. It’s possible that the Chinese president may visit Japan during the cherry blossom season in April.

(Source: cctv.com)

The Tibet Post

Climate Talks Take on Added Urgency After Report

By PETER GELLING and ANDREW C. REVKIN Published: December 3, 2007 JAKARTA, Indonesia, Dec. 2 — Thousands of government officials, industry lobbyists, environmental campaigners and observers are arriving on the Indonesian island of Bali for two weeks of talks starting Monday that are aimed at breathing new life into the troubled 15-year-old global climate treaty.

A heightened sense of urgency surrounds the meeting in light of a report issued last month by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which detailed the potentially devastating effects of global warming in the panel’s strongest language yet.

But few participants expect this round of talks to produce significant breakthroughs. At most, they say, it will result in new commitments to negotiate to update the original treaty by the end of 2009.

“The bulk of attention will be on the future,” said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the organization administering the treaty.

“My hope is that we can formally launch negotiations and form an agenda for those negotiations that will lead to a long-term policy response to climate change.”

The original treaty, signed by almost all nations in 1992, set voluntary goals for curbing the emission of greenhouse gases, which mostly come from burning fossil fuels and forests, and which have been linked by scientists to global warming. But few of those goals have been met.

Five years later, the Kyoto Protocol, a much-praised 1997 addendum to the original pact, set mandatory limits on emissions, but only for the three dozen industrialized countries that ratified it, and only through 2012. Since it took effect in 2005, emissions have continued to rise in many of those countries.

“We would be in big trouble if we can’t reach an agreement to move forward by the end of the conference,” Mr. de Boer said. “The science is clear. We now need a political answer.”

By far, the biggest obstacle to forging a new accord by 2009 is the United States, analysts say. Senior Bush administration officials say the administration will not agree to a new treaty with binding limits on emissions.

Instead, President Bush recently proposed that the world’s biggest countries work toward a common, long-term goal set decades in the future, without specific targets or limits, and more immediate goals set by individual nations using whatever means they choose.

In his latest statement on climate change last Wednesday, Mr. Bush said, “Our guiding principle is clear: we must lead the world to produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and we must do it in a way that does not undermine economic growth or prevent nations from delivering greater prosperity for their people.”

Paula Dobriansky, the under secretary of state for democracy and global affairs, said in a recent interview that any new agreement should involve all the world’s major economies. “We feel very strongly about having a global framework here,” she said. “In order to have a global framework there has to be an effort here to determine how one can engage all the players. In order to do that there has to be some flexibility in this.”

The United States will soon stand alone among industrialized nations in its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, with the new Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, having said in no uncertain terms that his country would now ratify it.

“The Bush administration is the only government in the world that is opposed to mandatory emissions reductions being included in a new treaty,” said Philip Clapp, the deputy managing director of the Pew Environment Group, based in Washington. “The question is, will they block others from moving forward.”

While most developing countries — including China, which is poised to overtake the United States as the largest source of greenhouse gases — have agreed to negotiate treaties that require richer nations to reduce emissions, they remain opposed to taking on such mandatory limits themselves.

By contrast, adherents to the Kyoto pact, led by the European Union, are eager to extend and even broaden current emission restrictions. One reason is that Kyoto nations are already buying and selling credits — already worth several billion dollars a year — for cutting greenhouse gas emissions under the so-called cap-and-trade system.

Such trade could collapse if the restrictions are not extended.

“Negotiations in Bali cannot afford to fail,” said Adam Nathan, director of communications for the Carbon Markets Association, an international industry trade association. “It is vitally important that ministers meeting in Bali do not let the date for a new global agreement slip beyond 2009, as this will send a weak signal to the carbon markets.”

The growing call for financial aid to help the developing countries most threatened by the negative effects of a warming climate — like harsher droughts, floods and disrupted water supplies and agriculture — is expected to be a central issue at the Bali talks.

The recent United Nations Human Development Report pointedly criticized the world’s industrialized powers for not living up to existing commitments under the original Framework Convention. So far, only $26 million has made it through financial pipelines ostensibly intended to funnel billions of dollars for climate-adaptation assistance, the report said.

The United States also plans to press for commitments by rich countries to spend more to refine and deploy nonpolluting energy technologies, including systems for capturing carbon dioxide emitted by power plants, and for all countries to change trade and tariff policies to speed the diffusion of such technologies to places where they are needed most, like China.

For ordinary residents here in Indonesia, a political solution cannot come soon enough. The WWF, the global conservation organization formerly known as the World Wildlife Fund, says Indonesia is highly vulnerable to climate change. Drought, floods, landslides and rising sea levels are part of daily life here.

“To Indonesians, these problems are becoming commonplace,” said Farah Sofa, national director of Walhi, Indonesia’s leading environmental watchdog group. “It’s really bad. Governments should be our protectors.

They have to find a way forward.”

Peter Gelling reported from Jakarta, and Andrew C. Revkin from New York.

TPI CHINA

The Tibet Post

05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

7

Sarko slams China on Dalai Chinese troops travel to Tibet using mountain railway Lama, but nets $30 bn contracts

BEIJING: French president Nicolas Sarkozy on Monday demonstrated how bilateral politics can multiply business by bagging $30 billion worth of contracts from Chinese leaders, after attacking them over issues ranging from trade to the Dalai Lama’s status. The size of the contracts is about three times the expectations of the French industry, sources said.

The deals will enable French suppliers of nuclear reactors and aircrafts to race ahead of Russian and American enterprises, which themselves are eyeing the Chinese market to bag similar deals. France will not only upgrade Chinese nuclear technology but has also offered to give Beijing a 35% stake in three uranium mines that it owns in Africa.

The deals come at a time when Beijing has cancelled a series of meetings with German government representatives following chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent meeting with the Dalai Lama.

Government leaders in the US, Canada and Australia have also met the Lama in recent months and Beijing would do almost anything to stop Paris from following suit, sources said. ”The total amount of these contracts has never been matched before,” Sarkozy said after attending the contract-signing ceremony along with Chinese president Hu Jintao. French officials accompanying their president were exuberant. ”It’s a record. In the history of the civilian nuclear industry, there’s never been a deal of this magnitude,” Areva chief executive Anne Lauvergeon said after his company got a contract to supply two European Pressurised water Reactors.

The French president also helped Airbus win a deal to supply 160 planes worth $17 billion. This includes 110 planes from the short-haul A320 family and 50 A330 wide-body passenger airliners.

Continued from page 4 realistic toward those democratic movements. So finally he was disgraced. The overall Chinese government policy become hardened. Then finally the Tiananmen event happened (in 1989).

At the fifth meeting, the Chinese officials acknowledged that the Dalai Lama’s side was not seeking independence. But soon after they intensified accusations against me as a “splitist.” Meantime, inside Tibet, suppression was increasing. Then this year, around May or June, at the sixth meeting, the Chinese delegation’s attitude was much hardened.

Chinese officials say there is no Tibet issue, that in Tibet everything is very smooth.

We said we want to see the reality. If things are really as nice as the Chinese government is saying, then there’s no problem. So we asked them to let us see, and also explain to the Tibetan people inside Tibet that we are not seeking independence. We are not splitists. We have a right to tell them the truth. So we are waiting for their response.

One long-standing conflict in the world is that involving Israel, which you could call a conflict of religions. If you had a magic wand, what would you do in Israel?

That is a silly question. It’s an unrealistic question. I’m of no use. I have been to Israel on a few occasions and each time I deliberately meet Palestinians and Israelis.

I always give them encouragement in efforts for dialogue or compromise in a spirit of reconciliation. Quite a number of Israelis agree fully, and some Palestinians I met, some Muslims, really are very good persons. There are some strong organizations really working hard to create closer understanding between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

So wherever I go, from my little capacity I always try to make a contribution. But I have no miracle power; that’s nonsense.

(Laughs.) If I had that kind of miracle

power, I should use it in Tibet, shouldn’t I? That’s logical. (Laughs.)

I’m Buddhist, I’m a Buddhist practitioner.

So actually I think that according to nontheistic Buddhist belief, things are due to causes and conditions. No creator. So I have faith in our actions, not prayer. Action is important. Action is karma. Karma means action. That’s an ancient Indian thought. In nontheistic religions, including Buddhism, the emphasis is on our actions rather than god or Buddha. So some people say that Buddhism is a kind of atheism.

Some scholars say that Buddhism is not a religion — it’s a science of the mind.

Do you agree with that?

Oh, yes. I even consider Buddha and some of his important followers like Nagarjuna (one of Buddha’s leading disciples) to be scientists. Their main method is analytical.

Analyze, analyze — not emphasis on faith.

And these masters are not magicians. (Jokingly pretends to clip me around the head and laughs.)

Sorry. It was a hypothetical question.

You met German Prime Minister Merkel recently, and U.S. President Bush. But Japan’s Prime Minister Fukuda has not met you.

I have never met any political leader here.

Of course, there may naturally be a sensitivity as the next-door neighbor of China.

From my side I never want to create any inconvenience. So no problem. My main interest is the promotion of human values and religious harmony. In these two things, the public is more important than government leaders.

So wherever I go, I’m always happy having meetings with the public. Everywhere I go the concerned people organize the public meetings. So with government leaders I have no particular political agenda. If there is a possibility of willingness from the government leaders themselves, without difficulties, to meet with me, I’m happy. If they find little difficulties, no problem.

1 Dec 2007, 2024 hrs IST , Saibal Dasgupta , TNN Britain, New Zealand and Indonesia noted that Rudd’s election would boost international efforts to address climate change — Howard had refused to sign the Kyoto pact.

Malaysia’s leader said Rudd’s plan to pull Australia’s 550 combat troops from Iraq would also improve the country’s international standing, the Malaysian national news agency Bernama reported.

Rudd spoke by phone with U.S. President George W. Bush on the day of his electoral victory. He declined to give details of the conversation, but said he plans to visit Washington next year.

Rudd’s election brought a sharp and mortifying end to the 11-year rule of Howard, Australia’s second-longest serving leader and a strong ally of Bush.

Howard also lost his own district seat in Parliament — a fate suffered only once before by a sitting prime minister in 106 years of federal government.

Howard, who reshaped Australia’s image

abroad with his unwavering support for the U.S. war on terrorism and in Iraq, failed to read the signs that voters had grown tired of his rule.

Howard had campaigned on his economic management, arguing that Rudd could not

be trusted to continue Australia’s 17 years of unbroken economic growth, fueled by China’s and India’s hunger for Australian coal and other minerals.

Rudd had argued that Howard, at 68, was out of ideas.

Democracy Advocate Wins in Hong Kong

By DONALD GREENLEES Published: December 3, 2007 HONG KONG, Monday, Dec. 3 — A victory on Sunday by a popular figurehead of the democracy movement in an election for a legislative seat here has given fresh momentum to demands for the early introduction of promised democratic reforms.

In one of the most fiercely contested and symbolic elections since China assumed control of Hong Kong a decade ago, the democracy advocate, Anson Chan, a 67year-old former leader of the civil service, won a decisive victory on a platform that called for full democratic rights to be granted to voters of Hong Kong within five years.

Mrs. Chan, whose service as chief secretary straddled the last years of British rule and the early years of Chinese rule, won 54.6 percent of the vote, or 175,874 of the 321,938 ballots cast, according to

official results announced early Monday.

Her main rival, Regina Ip, 57, who oversaw an attempt to introduce a deeply unpopular anti-subversion law as security secretary of Hong Kong in 2003, won 137,550, or 42.7 percent, of the vote. Although both candidates contested the election as independents, Mrs. Chan was supported by a coalition of democratic parties. Mrs. Ip was supported by pro-Beijing parties.

“The result of this election indicates that Hong Kong people are anxious to put forward democracy,” Mrs. Chan said after her victory was announced, The Associated Press reported Monday. “We think we’re all ready to implement universal suffrage in 2012.”

She said she expected that the governments in Hong Kong and Beijing “would listen to the genuine voice of Hong Kong people.”

You have been through many things in your life, many problems. Your country is going through much strife. Yet you still laugh.

Your laugh is very infectious. Why can you still laugh?

It’s my profession. (Laughs.) Generally speaking, Tibetans are not like Japanese (makes an impersonation of an impassivelooking Japanese person) or some Indians also. I think Tibetans are more like Italians.

More jovial. Not like Germans or Englishmen, who are a bit reserved. I think generally Tibetans are like that. That’s the Tibetan nature.

Then I think of our own sort of family.

We come from a small village, not a big town. I think of our daily lifestyle as very closely knit. So it’s more jovial, always laughing, teasing and joking; things like that. I think that becomes our habit, firstly.

Then also, as I often say, there’s realistic and unrealistic. Of course there are a lot of problems. But if you think only of the negative side, that’s no use to solve the problem. It destroys your peace of mind.

And everything is relative. Even in the worst sort of tragedy, there could be some positive things. So by taking a holistic view you can also see some positive things there. If you feel some negative thing as something absolute, your worry, your anxiety will increase. If you look at these things more broadly, you can see this is bad, but still OK. That kind of feeling comes, I think, through my practice, through Buddhist concepts. I think they are very helpful.

For example, we have lost our country.

We are homeless people. We have difficulties, and there are also a lot of difficulties inside Tibet. Meantime, the homeless experience, the homeless life, also brings lots of positive things, new opportunities such as meeting different people without consideration of formality.

So this morning at my sort of farewell meeting with the organizers of my visit here to

Ise Shrine [one of Shinto’s most important sites], I spoke in my usual way of talking and my way of conduct was completely informal, so I apologized for my way. I think in Europe one newspaper described my conduct as “radical informality.” So I apologized if my complete informality created inconvenience for my Japanese hosts.

(Laughs.) My way of communication really fits with the American public. In Germany also, when I talk to a large gathering of 10,000 or something like that, mainly youth, it seems they love my sort of attitude. Open, sincere, frank.

After you received the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal, what was the reaction in Lhasa or elsewhere in Tibet?

More restrictions. In fact, that day — Oct. 17 — the Chinese local authorities warned the local Tibetans to not carry out any sort of celebration. Then the public in Lhasa, I think thousands, dressed like it was New Year and went to the temple and prayed. It seems that the Chinese authorities failed to control that because there were too many people. Then at one big monastery where previously there were around 8,000 monks, but where nowadays there are about 1,000, from early morning some monks tried to symbolically whitewash the house. Then local Chinese authorities tried to stop this. Then more monks came, and eventually almost all the 1,000 monks were there. Then the Chinese brought about 4,000 soldiers, and some monks were beaten and arrested. So there are a lot of restrictions.

A lot of restrictions.

They (the Chinese) still accuse me of being a splitist and call me an enemy of the people — even an enemy of the Tibetan people.

What do you think? Am I here acting as an enemy of the Tibetan people? (Laughs.)

That’s ridiculous.

The current electoral system in Hong Kong allows voters to directly elect only half the members of a 60-seat legislature; the remainder is elected by limited franchise from special interest groups. The chief executive, Hong Kong’s leader, is chosen by an electoral college of 800 representatives, most of them loyal to Beijing.

In some quarters, the election was billed as a referendum on the nature and timing of democratic reforms long promised to Hong Kong.

But analysts say Beijing is in no hurry to see Hong Kong become a model for democracy on Chinese soil and is unlikely to agree to significant reforms by 2012, when elections are due for the chief executive.

With democratic reform emerging as the central issue of Sunday’s election, the campaign generated more political emotion than Hong Kong has seen in a long time. Scuffles broke out at several political rallies during the campaign, on one occasion leading to the arrest of a young supporter of Mrs. Ip. Election day, however, was peaceful, the electoral office said.

The results are a fillip to the democratic cause as the Hong Kong government prepares a proposal on democratic reform that it will put to the Legislative Council and the central government in Beijing for approval next year.

Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong’s miniconstitution, China is obliged to introduce democracy, but the document is vague on when and how that should happen.

Democrats and pro-Beijing conservatives are deeply divided over several issues, including how soon democratic reforms should be introduced and the rules for screening candidates for chief executive elections, which is a stipulation of the Basic Law. Mrs. Chan championed a liberal model for reform that would allow an open field for chief executive elections and a fully elected legislature by 2012.

Michael E. DeGolyer, a political scientist who has observed elections in Hong Kong since 1988, said the democratic reform model to be proposed next year by the chief executive, Donald Tsang, could be influenced by the outcome of the election.

But he said the total votes received by Mrs. Chan might have fallen just short of what Mr. Tsang viewed as a decisive endorsement of her model.

“If 60 percent of the people agreed on a certain model, that would influence what he takes to Beijing,” Mr. DeGolyer said.

During the election campaign, Mrs. Ip argued that Beijing would not allow Hong Kong to move too far or too fast with democratic reform.

She advocated a more modest package of democratic reforms and supported 2017 as a possible alternative date for free elections.

“Unless we come together, Hong Kong’s dream of democracy will forever remain beyond our reach,” she said in a campaign speech to foreign correspondents.

Printed at Imperial Printing Press, Gurudwara Road, Kotwali Bazar, Dharamshala-176215 (H.P.) Tel: - 222390/224453

8

05 December, 2007 Dharamsala

TPI VARIETY

Greenpeace warns of rising climate change BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 3 (AP) — Greenpeace launched a move on Monday by unveiling a giant thermometer outside the Bali climate conference to warn the delegates of rising global temperatures.

Delegates from more than 180 countries and regions began their battle in Nusa Dua Bali, Indonesia, from Dec. 3 to 14 to share responsibility in securing the planet from global warming.

Words on the 6.7-meter high thermometer said: “Don’t cook the climate!”

“For years, governments have let us, their citizens, down by failing to get

to grips with the problem of climate change. They’ve left us increasingly exposed to the biggest threat that civilization has ever faced” said Stephanie Tunmore of Greenpeace International.

Greenpeace demanded the delegates to set a two-year deadline to agree the action plan needed for the very survival of the planet.

The group said that the developed countries, responsible for over 80 percent of all the man-made emissions currently in the atmosphere, must also find ways to help the developing world to

deal with the impacts of climate change and to obtain clean technology.

The group said it was possible to keep the worst impacts of climate change, such as extreme weather events, water crises and increased hunger, from putting millions of people at risk. This will take a revolution in the way people use and produce energy, and a strong commitment to stop deforestation worldwide.

The volume of greenhouse gases emitted by industrialized nations rose to near-record levels in 2005, the United Nations has said.

Miss China crowned Miss World 2007

Indo-Asian News Service Saturday, December 1, 2007 (Sanya, China) Miss China Zi Lin Zhang was crowned Miss World 2007 at a glittering event at the Chinese tourist resort of Sanya

Saturday, beating 106 participants.

India’s Sarah-Jane Dias failed to make it to the semi-finals.

Miss Angola Micaela Reis, 18, was the first runner up while 19-year-old Carolina Mor n from Mexico was the second runner up at the gala Saturday night held in the Crown of Beauty Theater at Sanya in Hainan province.

Zhang was crowned by last year’s Miss World, Tatana Kucharova, from the Czech Republic, after Julia Morley, chairperson of the Miss World Organisation and of the international panel of judges, announced her name as the winner.

Valene Maharaj of Trinidad and Tobago and Annie Oliv of Sweden were the other two in the last five at the pageant, the second largest edition after Miss World 2003.

The delegates reached Sanya on November 2 and visited a number of popular spots in China.

In the fast track awards, Zhang was the Miss World Top Model, Miss

Dominican Republic Ada Aim e de la Cruz the Miss World Beach Beauty, Miss United States Abigail McCary the Miss World Sports and Miss Ghana Irene Dwomoh the Miss World Talent.

The Beauty With A Purpose title was won jointly by Miss Ecuador Valeska Saab and Miss Hong Kong Kayi Cheung.

Unlike 2005 and 2006 editions, this year’s event did not have continental zones in the selection of the semifinalists.

The event, hosted by Chinese TV presenter Angela Chow and Latin American celebrity Fernando Allende, also witnessed some high voltage and touching dance performances.

One of the highlights was Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, introducing his grandfather’s televised message on World Aids Day. It was followed by children from South Africa and a local school and all the contestants joining in singing the World Aids Day song.

Relatives of Jailed Tibetan Nomads Appeal Convictions in Sichuan RFA[Wednesday, December 05, 2007 08:03] Ronggyal Adrak. Photo: Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy WASHINGTON — The relatives of four Tibetan nomads who were handed jail terms of up to 10 years after one of them called publicly for the return of the Dalai Lama have lodged an appeal with a higher court in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan.”Both verbal and written information was received by the Court,” an official at the People’s High Court in the provincial capital of Chengdu told RFA’s Tibetan service.”You will learn the decision of the Court in due course. One should trust in the law of China,” the official said in response to questions about the appeal.Adruk Gyatso and Chaktsa Lobsang travelled first to Chengdu to file the appeal. Sonam Dolma, wife of Ronggyal Adrak, and Tsewang Dolma, mother of Adruk Lopo, followed on at the request of the Court, sources in the region said.All the residents of Ronggyal Adrak’s nomadic village submitted an appeal asking for justice, and two representatives, Samten and Lobsang Norbu, reached Chengdu with the documents.”This document was signed by all the members of Khashur Village and presented to the High Court,” the source said. ’Denunciation campaigns’ Ronggyal Adrak was jailed for eight years

by Karze Intermediate Court in Dartsedo (in Chinese, Kangding), which convicted him of “splitting the country” and subverting state power.Adruk Lopo and Jamyang Kunkyen were sentenced to 10 and nine years in jail, respectively, for sending photos to overseas organiza-

tions. Another Tibetan named Lothok was jailed for three years for providing information to foreign organizations.”After the announcement of the sentence to Ronggyal Adrak and the others in the court, Adruk Lopo, who was sentenced for 10 years, demanded an opportunity to speak against the decision, but he was not allowed to speak and was escorted away forcefully by police,” a source in Kangding said.”The relatives of four persons who were sentenced to 3-10 years to jail had originally tried to appeal against the decision of the Intermediate Court but they were not allowed to do so in the same court,” the source added.All four men — the other three were identified as Adruk Lopo, Jamyang Kunkyen, and Lothok — protested when their sentences were read out in court, and security officers bundled them away, witnesses said at the time.”This is not a fair trial,” they called out. “We cannot accept this decision.”

Jailed for sending photos Court officials in the Chengdu High Court initially did not respond to requests to lodge an appeal, the source said.”However when they put up a joint appeal of Tibetans in the Lithang area addressed to Beijing and to the provincial authorities, the court officials paid more attention,” the source said.The relatives had received an official receipt of the appeal, which meant the court was obliged to hear the case and the appellants could also seek the services of a lawyer, the source added.Ronggyal Adrak was arrested and charged with subversion after calling for the return of the Dalai Lama at a meeting Aug. 1 in

Lithang county during the annual horseracing festival.Ronggyal Adrak is a member of the Yonru nomadic group, which lives in the largely Tibetan regions of Sichuan, on high grasslands near the Himalayan plateau.The Aug. 1 incident and detention prompted a surge of nomads into police and government office compounds, prompting the police to threaten to shoot when tensions were at their height. Authorities managed to negotiate an uneasy truce, but thousands of troops converged on Lithang as a result and local Tibetan Communist Party officials were replaced with Han Chinese.The judge told Ronggyal Adrak in October that his crimes were “very severe” and said he was responsible for causing the mass protests that followed, during which hundreds of nomads surged into government and police compounds demanding his release.The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and is regarded by China as a dangerous figure seeking independence for his homeland, although he says he wants only autonomy and for Chinese repression of Tibetans to end.China has ruled the Dalai Lama out of Tibet’s future and has recently launched major political campaigns in Tibetan areas of Sichuan and among Tibetan cadres in Tibet to get people to renounce him.China has ruled Tibet since 1951, after sending in troops a year earlier to “liberate” the devoutly Buddhist region.Original reporting in Kham dialect by RFA’s Tibetan service. Director: Jigme Ngapo. Translated and edited by Karma Dorjee. Written and produced in English by Luisetta Mudie and Sarah Jackson-Han.

The Tibet Post

NGOs denounce Chinese Olympic controls Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have condemned the increase in controls on civilians and the media by the Chinese authorities ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.

Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders and the World Organisation Against Torture have called for more pressure to be exerted on China to improve civil liberties, especially by the Lausanne-based International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Manon Schick from the Swiss branch of Amnesty International said the Beijing Olympics ought to be an opportunity for a genuine human rights improvement in China.

But at a news conference in Geneva on Monday she said the Chinese authorities had instead cracked down even more.

Amnesty said it condemned the forced displacement of residents from their homes for the Olympics event, punishments for petty crimes, a renewed increase in the number of websites being shut down, the “cleansing” of the Chinese capital by locking people up without a trial and endless house arrest.

Eric Sottas from the Geneva-based World Organisation Against Torture said: “As a general rule progress has been very slow, but the authorities are sensitive to their image.”

Press freedom?

Reporters without Borders says 33 journalists and 55 cyber-dissidents – opponents of the authorities who disseminate information online – are currently imprisoned in China.

The organisation says the law on foreign journalists that was adopted a year ago has not been respected, especially regarding free movement.

It also denounced the Chinese

authorities’ desire to file all journalists wanting to cover the Olympics, with the possibility that requests for accreditation could be refused.

“We are disappointed by the lack of involvement shown by the International Olympic Committee,” said Michael Roy, head of the Swiss branch of Reporters without Borders.

In an open letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge, Robert Ménard, the head of Reporters without Borders, said “the IOC’s silence was enabling all the blunders”.

“The IOC has not made one single public statement showing its concern for the lack of freedom of expression which will damage the media’s work and the transparency that is necessary for the Olympic games,” he wrote, criticising “a historic failure in the history of the Olympic movement”.

Boycott Reporters Without Borders is advocating a boycott of the 2008 games in Beijing, citing its abridgment of press and personal freedoms and the positive effects of earlier Olympic boycotts.

The US-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow was part of a package of actions to protest against the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. At least 64 countries boycotted the Games.

In a largely tit-for-tat response, 14 nations missed the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles due to a Soviet-led boycott. Iran was the only country to boycott both Moscow and Los Angeles. swissinfo with agencies

Antony gives clean chit to China

AK Antony

Josy Joseph Sunday, December 02, 2007 03:54 IST NEW DELHI: On a visit to the IndoChina border, defence minister AK Antony today insisted that the Chinese military has not destroyed any Indian Army outposts along the disputed border. “No such incident took place in the Indian territory.”

He was reacting to reports that the People’s Liberation Army troops destroyed some Army posts overlooking the Chumbi Valley, a tri-section along the Sikkim border dividing India, China and Bhutan in early November. An Army source said technically the destroyed post may not have been within India.

The defence minister also said that there was no evidence to show that

Chinese Army personnel may have damaged a Buddhist temple in Tawang a few weeks ago. The issue was raised in Parliament by a Member of Parliament from Arunachal Pradesh Nabum Rebia.

“There was damage to the temple but we do not have any evidence to suggest that it was done by the Chinese troops,” Antony said.

However, the defence minister admitted that there were problems due to an unresolved border dispute, and said the effort was to find a lasting solution to the issue through negotiations.

The minister also highlighted the fact that strategically important northeastern states have been neglected in infrastructure development, while China has built up world-class facilities on their side.

Even as the defence minister tried to play down the issues, Army sources told DNA that there has been “qualitative drop” in the tender peace along the disputed border.

Early this year, the Indian Army had moved almost a Brigade of soldiers into Tawang Valley after the Chinese carried out aggressive patrolling into the disputed areas.

“The troops have gone back from Tawang,” sources said.