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TIBET at a TURNING POINT the Spring Uprising and China’S New Crackdown

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TIBET at a TURNING POINT the Spring Uprising and China’S New Crackdown TIBET AT A TURNING POINT The Spring Uprising and China’s New Crackdown A report by the International Campaign for Tibet Washington, DC l Amsterdam l Berlin l Brussels August 6, 2008 TIBET AT A TURNING POINT The Spring Uprising and China’s New Crackdown A report by the International Campaign for Tibet Washington, DC l Amsterdam l Berlin l Brussels www.savetibet.org CONTENTS Summary . 2 Tibet at a turning point . 5 Protests in Tibet since March 10, 2008 . 15 Peaceful protests and the riot of 3/14 in Lhasa . 41 An ‘arduous struggle’: Protests in Kardze since March 10 . 65 Ngaba protests: ‘I recognise the Party’s great kindness’ . 73 Machu: Major protest leads to crackdown in town and nomad areas beyond . 81 Labrang: ‘Like the setting sun over the peak of a mountain’ . 85 ‘Smashing the Splittist Clique’: An analysis of leadership involved in the crackdown . 93 Detentions and disappearances in Tibet since March 2008: A new list of political prisoners . 119 New official attack on Tibetan Buddhism and monks in Kham . 137 ICT recommendations on Tibet . 141 Poetry and song . 145 1 TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN SUMMARY ince March 10 , a tidal wave of mainly peaceful protests against the Chinese government has swept across Tibet. Tibetans have risked their lives to demon - Sstrate that their exiled leader the Dalai Lama represents their interests, and not the Chinese state. This uprising is a result of more than half a century of Communist Party misrule and reveals the breakdown of Beijing’s Tibet policy at a time when China seeks to convey an image of harmony in the buildup to the Olympics. Hu Jintao’s leadership appears to have found itself with no other means than force and intimidation to restore control, and has imposed a brutal crackdown that owes more to the political extremism and paranoia of the Maoist era than to a 21st century would-be superpower. China has dramatically tightened security in Tibet and announced new ‘anti-terror’ plans in order to prevent any possible embarrassment to the ruling Communist Party before a worldwide audience during the Olympics. In order to hide its repression in Tibet, Beijing has sealed off virtually the entire plateau despite promising increasing openness in the buildup to the Olympics and imposed a news blackout. This report includes evidence gathered at great risk of: • The ‘disappearance’ and detention of hundreds of Tibetans, including monks, nuns and schoolchildren, who are treated with extreme brutality in custody; • Unarmed peaceful protestors who have been shot dead, and names of those who have died following torture in prison or as a result of suicide due to despair over the crackdown or being made to denounce the Dalai Lama; • More than 125 protests across the Tibetan plateau — the overwhelming majorit y non-violent; • Sweeping new measures to purge monasteries of monks and ban worship in the wake of the protests, revealing a systematic new attack on Tibetan Buddhism led by Chinese leader Hu Jintao that is reminiscent of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution; • An insight into the Chinese leaders presiding over the current crackdown. 2 INTERNATIONAL CA MPAIGN FOR TIBET The International Campaign for Tibet is calling for world leaders attending the Olympics to publicly express concern in Beijing about the crackdown in Tibet and the suppression of freedoms that led to the spring uprising. The Chinese leadership must also be pressed for a full accounting of the more than one thousand Tibetans whose status following the spring demonstrations in Tibet is unknown. President Hu, whose rise to power is linked to his role as former Party boss in Tibet, was involved in drafting the hardline policies that led to Tibet’s spring uprising. In order to resolve the deepening crisis now, President Hu must be urged to engage directly with the Dalai Lama — recognized by the world as the pre-eminent representative of the Tibetan people — on Tibet’s future. 3 TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN A clip from a video depicting Tibetan nomads as they raise the banned Tibetan flag in place of a Chinese flag in Amchok Bora in far eastern Tibet. The footage, filmed by a Canadian TV crew, can be viewed on YouTube. 4 INTERNATIONAL CA MPAIGN FOR TIBET TIBET AT A TURNING POINT PRIL , 2008, T IBET . A group of Tibetan nomads on horseback gallop along a rough track towards a small town; a monk is seen shaking his fist in the air, Acrying: “We want the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet!” The crowd around him roars its support. The blurred image shifts, and we see the Tibetans tearing down a red Chinese flag, and raising the banned Tibetan snow lion flag. The bold protest by the nomads and monks of Amchok Bora in far eastern Tibet, which can be seen on YouTube unless you live in China, is one of the defining im - ages of a tidal wave of protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau since hundreds of monks took to the streets in Lhasa on March 10. It is the most significant uprising against Chinese rule in almost 50 years, and it has untold political significance for China and Tibet. Since March, one or more instances of protest have been reported in each of at least 52 county-level locations in Tibetan areas of China, as well as in Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan), Lanzhou (the capital of Gansu), and Beijing, where Tibetan students held a silent vigil for those killed in the crackdown. ICT has monitored more than 125 protests across the plateau, and this is likely to be a conservative estimate — a mini - mal number of reliably reported incidents of dissent. The overwhelming majority of the protests have been non-violent, while the crackdown has been brutal. Unarmed Tibetan protestors have been shot dead by security forces while others have died as a result of beatings in custody. Several monks and nuns have committed sui - cide, and thousands of Tibetans have been detained, with extreme brutality a routine feature of their detention. Some Tibetans are profoundly psychologically disturbed upon release, with others unable to walk or speak, or with broken or dislocated limbs. Hundreds remain in custody, although a definitive number of prisoners cannot be given due to the security crackdown and China’s efforts to silence Tibetans and block information flow. A prisoner list included with this report names 263 prisoners believed to be in custody following the protests that began March 10, the 49th anniversary of the Lhasa Uprising in 1959, which led to the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet nearly half a century ago. 1 It is believed that at least 100 Tibetans were killed in Lhasa and nearby areas during the crackdown from March 14 onwards, while at least 40 Tibetans were shot dead or 5 TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN died as a result of the repression of dissent in other Tibetan areas. Some of the names of those who died, either by being shot, tortured, or committing suicide, are provided with this report. The names of all of those who died are not known due to the harsh repression in Tibet and attempts by the Chinese authorities to impose an informa - tion blackout. Wherever possible, the authorities attempted to hide evidence of the killings by taking bodies away from families, or removing them from the scene of the deaths. The names given in this report are only available thanks to the courage and de - termination of Tibetans in communicating with the outside world at tremendous risk to their own safety. In order to hide its violent repression in Tibet, particularly as it seeks to project an image of stability and unity in the build-up to the Olympics, China has sealed off vir - tually the entire plateau — despite promising increasing openness prior to the Games in August. Although the Tibet Autonomous Region [TAR] opened up to foreign tour groups on June 25, according to an announcement in the official media, tourism is not in any way back to normal, despite official reports. It is still highly restricted and monasteries are still closed. 2 The scale of these protests across the entire Tibetan plateau far exceeds the three years of pro-independence demonstrations in Lhasa and beyond in the late 1980s, culmi - nating in the imposition of martial law by the then Party Secretary of the TAR, Hu Jintao, now Party chief and President of China. The protests from 1987 –89 were also taking place following a period of relative political liberalization after the Cultural Revolution, compared to today’s protests, which happened in an atmosphere of already intense political repression. This report includes vivid eyewitness detail from inside Tibet of the uprising and its suppression as well as providing the first analysis of the scale and scope of the protests against Chinese rule. According to numerous reports received by ICT, Tibetans fear the crackdown could worsen still further after the Olympics, once the global focus is no longer on China. They are concerned — and in some cases, have been warned by Chi - nese security personnel — that more reprisals may follow the Olympics, with people who are now being monitored being taken into custody later. While demonstrators in the late 1980s were primarily monks and some nuns, al - though many protests were joined by laypeople too, unrest since the spring has in - volved farmers, nomads, university students, school children, laborers, and intellectuals as well as monks and nuns, expressing a unified nationalistic sentiment and a wish for the Dalai Lama to return home.
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