Tibet and China-Tibet-Fact Finding Mission Report-1960-Eng
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[ M P P Z^tLr’ Ui\rJjLlsdsL’Yl Oi^ ‘ -'■-- I^C"' • ’--O-. t -£ ','~ ? ■ *•«..;;%--I - • • •-.-**- • -:"*-•*• '~;2^' -: .£&i<.Z•*, •„r, ’•’•.. •. ji. 1 : ■'■;\K<i>:'" •’....'. -u -iv ' ‘j;x. “It may happen that here in the centre o f Tibet the religion and the secular administration will be similarly attacked from without and within, and the holders o f the Faith, the glorious Rebirths, will be broken down and left without a'name. As regards the monasteries and the priesthood, their lands and properties will be destroyed. The officers o f State, ecclesiastical and lay, will find their lands seized and their other property confiscated, and they themselves made to serve their enemies or wander about the country as beggars do. All beings will be sunk in hardship and fear, and the nights will drag on slowly in suffering ,! —from the Political Testameot of the thirteenth Dalai Lama (d. 1933). Sir Charles Bell, Portrait o f the Dalai Lama (1946), p. 380. CONTENTS • F orew ord by the Secretary-General of the International Com mission of Jurists ............................................................... VII Explanatory notes A bbreviations............................................... ....................... xi Notes on the principal persons m en tioned ....................... xi Notes on Tibetan words and customs referred to . xu Note on Chinese sources q u o t e d ....................................... xiu REPORT TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION OF JURISTS BY THE LEGAL INQUIRY COMMITTEE ON TIBET R eport by the Committee to the Secretary-General................. 3 Introduction . ^ ................................................. 7 Chapter One T he Evidence relating to Genocidb Introduction........................................................................... 10 The intent to destroy Buddhism in Tibet: 1. Chinese statements from Chinese sources .... 14 2. Chinese acts and statements from Tibetan sources . 23 (a) Evidence of a systematic design to destroy religious belief........................................... 23 (b) The intention by killing to destroy a religious group ........................................................... 41 (c) Destruction by inflicting grievous bodily or mental harm ................................................ 48 (d) Inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about physical destruction ................ 49 (e) Measures designed to prevent births . 49 (f) The forcible transfer of children to another group ........................................................... 51 Appendix to the Evidence Relating to Genocide ................ 59 Chapter Two H uman R i^ t s and Progress Introd u w on ........................................................................... 65 The approach to huiniri rights ...... ... 81 Tibetan allegations of violations of human rights ; . 81 Chinese allegations against Tibetans of violating human rights .................................................................................. 133 Chapter Three The Status of T ib et ............................................................... 139 The authority of the Tibetah Government in internal affairs 143 The authority of the Tibetan Government in foreign affairs 149 Chapter Four The A greement on measures for the peaceful liberation o f T ib e t................................... ...................*......................... 167 Alleged violations of the Seventeen-Point Agreement by the Chinese People’s R epublic....................................... 167 Alleged violations of the Seventeen-Point Agreement by the Tibetan Government ............................................... 208 Text of the Agreement............................................... ... 215 Appendices Appendix I Statements made by Tibetan refugees ......... 221 A ppendix II Statements by the Dalai Lama and officials to the Legal Inquiry Committee........................................................... 288 Document No. 1: Report of the interview with His Holi ness the Dalai Lama, on August 29, 1959, at Mussoorie 288 Document No. 2: Written answers by the Dalai Lama in response to questions....................................................... 294 Document No. 3: Oral answers by the Dalai Lama to questions put by the Legal Inquiry Committee at Mus soorie, India, on November 14, 1959 ............................ 298 Document No. 4: Statement by the K ash ag .................... 307 Document No. 5: Statement of the Dalai Lama to the Legal Inquiry Committee at Mussoorie, India, on November 14, 1959 ........................................................... 309 Document No. 6: Memorandum submitted to the Inter national Commission of Jurists by Mr. T. Shakabpa . 314 'N . A p p e n d i x I I I ! ! ,v; Official Documents Document No. 1: The attitude of the British Government to Chinese claims in 1 9 1 2............................................... 318 Document No. 2 : Efforts to establish a supply route to China through Tibet. Attitude of the United States towards status of T ib e t ................................................... 319 Document No. 3: Convention between Great Britain and Tibet — Signed at Lhasa, September 7,1904 ................... 327 Document No. 4: Convention between Great Britain and Tibet — 1 9 1 4................................................................... 330 Document No. 5: Anglo-Tibetan Trade Regulations — 1914 . .................... ...................... ............................ 334 A ppendix IV Application to enter Tibet Document No. 1: Letter by the Chairman to the Ambas sador to India of the Chinese People’s Republic . 338 Document No. 2: Note on the reply by the Chinese Am bassador ........................................................................... 340 FOREWORD It is now almost ten years since the forces o f the Chinese People's Republic entered Tibet with the declared purpose' o f “liberating ” that country from imperialism. Organized Tibetan military resistance was swiftly crushed in 1950, and after unsuccessfully appealing to the United Nations, the Tibetan Government agreed in 1951 to Chinese occupation. During the nine years that have followed Tibet has seen the Khamba uprising o f 1956 and afterwards, the Lhasa uprising of March 1959, and the continued resistance thereafter, and even now in western parts o f Tibet armed resistance to the Chinese continues. One year ago the International Commission o f Jurists published a preliminary report on Tibet entitled The Question of Tibet and the Rule of Law. In that report prima facie conclusions were drawn on the Chinese rule in Tibet since 1951 and on the question whether the events in Tibet were an international matter. In view o f the gravity of the violations o f human rights o f which evidence appeared, and especially in view o f the evidence o f genocide, it was decided to invite a number o f well-known jurists—judges, professors and practitioners o f high standing—to form an independent committee charged with the task o f investigating events in Tibet in a detached and judicial manner and reporting to the Commission on the jield o f its inquiry. The report to which this is a Foreword is the unanimous report of that Committeet the report sets out the Committee's findings together with a detailed review o f the facts and evidence upon which those findings are based. This report is bv the Lezal Inquiry Committee and is not the report o f the international Commission. TheT^ommission is deeply grateful'' tothe members~cflffie~ConmUiiee, all busy men at their professions in their respective parts o f Asia, Africa and Europe; they have devoted much time and energy to the arduous task o f carrying out, for no material reward, a painstaking and searching inquiry on Tibet. The Committee's findings constitute a detailed condemnation of Chinese rule in Tibet and they confirm the prima facie conclusions made in the preliminary report by the Commission. But they cannot and do not purport to be a complete account o f all the significant events which have taken place. There is no doubt that in the course of their inquiry the Cor ittee considered a number o f facts which are relevant also to other me ters but they felt it proper to' refrain from expressing an opinion on such matters 'at were outside their terms o f reference. Whether the attack on Tibet's territory by the armed forces o f the Chinese People's Republic was an act o f agression is a particularly important question o f this nature. So, too, is the complex o f legal and political problems arising from India's frontier dispute with China over the Tibetan border with India. In order to avoid entering into political controversy and invidious selection of additional topics the Committee preferred to adhere strictly to the scope o f the preliminary inquiry by the International Commission. The terms o f reference were interpreted so as to avoid,political issues and were restricted, as in that preliminary inquiry, to considering the record o f the Chinese People's Republic in Tibet and to whether the question o f Tibet is a purely domestic affair on the most restrictive interpretation o f the Charter o f the United Nations. In view o f the economic and social rights proclaimed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Committee ex amined the Chinese claim to have brought social human rights, including economic and political emancipation, to an oppressed people who knew no human rights. The general lack o f knowledge of pre-1951 conditions in Tibet has led to an unusual dependence