2008 UPRISING IN TIBET CHRONOLOGY AND ANALYSIS CONTENTS (Full contents here) Foreword List of Abbreviations 2008 Tibet Uprising: A Chronology 2008 Tibet Uprising: An Analysis Introduction Facts and Figures State Response to the Protests Reaction of the International Community Reaction of the Chinese People Causes Behind 2008 Tibet Uprising: Flawed Tibet Policies? Political and Cultural Protests in Tibet: 1950-1996 Conclusion Appendices Maps Glossary of Counties in Tibet 2008 UPRISING IN TIBET CHRONOLOGY AND ANALYSIS UN, EU & Human Rights Desk Department of Information and International Relations Central Tibetan Administration Dharamsala - 176215, HP, INDIA 2010 2008 UPRISING IN TIBET: CHRONOLOGY AND ANALYSIS © 2008, Department of Information and International Relations, CTA First Edition, 1000 copies ISBN: 978-93-80091-15-0 Acknowledgements: Norzin Dolma Editorial Consultants Jane Perkins (Chronology section) JoAnn Dionne (Analysis section) Other Contributions (Chronology section) Gabrielle Lafitte, Rebecca Nowark, Kunsang Dorje, Tsomo, Dhela, Pela, Freeman, Josh, Jean Cover photo courtesy Agence France-Presse (AFP) Published by: UN, EU & Human Rights Desk Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Gangchen Kyishong Dharamsala - 176215, HP, INDIA Phone: +91-1892-222457,222510 Fax: +91-1892-224957 Email: [email protected] Website: www.tibet.net; www.tibet.com Printed at: Narthang Press DIIR, CTA Gangchen Kyishong Dharamsala - 176215, HP, INDIA ... for those who lost their lives, for those jailed, disappeared and injured for the sake of freedom, peace and justice in Tibet. TIBET UPRISING 2008: Protest Areas (= Counties) in “Tibet Autonomous Region” and Chinese-designated “Tibetan Autononmous Prefectures” in Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan. CONTENTS Foreword IX List of Abbreviations X 2008 Tibet Uprising: A Chronology 1 2008 Tibet Uprising: An Analysis 163 Introduction 165 Facts and Figures 167 Protest Death Arrest Sentence State Response to the Protests 171 Crackdown Information Clampdown and Media Blackout Propaganda and Nationalism Anti-Dalai Lama Campaign “Patriotic Re-education” Campaign Reaction of the International Community 181 United Nations Heads of Government Congress, Senates and Parliaments Scholars, Nobel Laureates and Influential Personalities Reaction of the Chinese People 185 Causes Behind 2008 Tibet Uprising: Flawed Tibet Policies? 189 Lack of Real Autonomy and Political Power China’s Development and Socio-Economic Marginalization of Tibetans Education as Assimilation Persecution of Tibetan Buddhism and Culture Political and Cultural Protests in Tibet: 1950-1996 205 1950s : Annexation of Tibet 1959: Revolt and Exile 1966-1976: Cultural Revolution The Late 1980s: Cultural Renaissance and Martial Law 1990s: “Grasping with Both Hands” Conclusion 211 Appendices I: List of Known Protests During 2008 Tibet Uprising 214 II: List of Known Tibetans Killed Under China’s Crackdown since March 2008 221 III: List of Known Tibetans Sentenced since March 2008 225 IV: List of Known Arrests in 2008 236 Maps I - Protest Areas in Tibet Autonomous Region and Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures 242 II - Protest Areas in U-tsang, One of the Three Traditional Regions of Tibet 243 III - Protest Areas in Kham, One of the Three Traditional Regions of Tibet 244 IV - Protest Areas in Amdo, One of the Three Traditional Regions of Tibet 245 Glossary of Counties in Tibet 247 Foreword This report on the 2008 protests that swept Tibet is the most comprehensive and detailed yet published. We hope there will be more. This report is made up of two parts. The first and the larger portion chronicles all the instances of protests that we know of, the circumstances which threw up individual protests, the reaction of the local Chinese authorities, the number of people killed, wounded, jailed or who simply disappeared. The second part consists of an analysis of the protests and why these protests persist. The report traces their origins to the wounds inflicted on the Tibetan people in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s when they rose up in arms to defend their country, their way of life and their religion from a superior and decidedly hostile and expansionist force. The facts and figures that constitute this report are based on several source. The primary source is eye-witness accounts. As the protests took place or when they were crushed, Tibetans throughout Tibet called their relatives in the outside world or in case of monks and nuns their branch monasteries or nunneries in exile to inform them of the events and through them the wider world. Video images were also transmitted to the outside world. These accounts were checked and cross-checked with better informed sources. This report is also based on the wealth of information published by the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Tibet Watch, the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet, the London-based Tibet Information Net, Human Rights Watch, Radio Free Asia, Phayul and the blow-by-blow accounts given by Woeser, Tibet’s tireless blogger, mainly operating out of Beijing but also making field trips to Tibet to obtain first-hand accounts, when she was able to throw off her vigilant minders. We have two reasons for publishing this report. The first reason is to leave an account of this episode in Tibetan history for future generations. We owe it to those hundreds of Tibetans who were killed by indiscriminate state violence that their sacrifice for the survival of their culture and spiritual heritage should not have to wait for another 50 years to emerge. We are encouraged to do this because China denies its state violence on the protestors. There is a long history in China of official denial of major violations, not only in Tibet in 2008, where officials admit to only a few killed by state violence. The Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 continues to be denied officially. Likewise, the extraordinary famine in Tibet and China in 1959, 1960 and 1961 that claimed 30-40 million lives never happened, according to official China, even though the truth of this man-made catastrophe is finally coming out, thanks to scholarly work. The most important reason for the compilation of this report of the 2008 Tibet-wide protests is to leave a record of the Tibetan people’s devotion to their culture and the faith in His Holiness the Dalai Lama, despite almost 60 years of intrusive and sometimes oppressive interference by the People’s Republic of China on how the Tibetan people should lead their individual and collective lives. The overwhelming message of all these protests was: let us be Tibetan, do not force us to be what deeply transgresses our innermost values. As one Tibetan cadre blogged from Tibet, “Oh, it’s so hard to be a person but even harder to be a Tibetan, and harder still to be a Buddhist Tibetan”. Kalon Kelsang Yangkyi Takla, Minister, Department of Information and International Relations Central Tibetan Administration Dharamsala, H.P - 176215 18 October 2010 IX List of Abbreviations AI Amnesty International CECC Congressional Executive Commission on China CTA Central Tibetan Administration DAFJ Dhomey Alliance for Freedom and Justice FTC Free Tibet Campaign HRW Human Rights Watch ICT International Campaign for Tibet LEN Lhasa Evening News PAP People’s Armed Police PLA People’s Liberation Army PRC People’s Republic of China PSB Public Security Bureau RFA Radio Free Asia TAP Tibet Autonomous Prefecture TAR Tibet Autonomous Region TC Trehor Committee TCHRD Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy TIN TibetInfoNet TJC Tibet Justice Centre TSC Tibetan Solidarity Committee TW Tibet Watch UFWD United Front Work Department VOT Voice of Tibet X 1 CHRONOLOGY 2008 UPRISING IN TIBET CHRONOLOGY 2008 UPRISING IN TIBET 2 3 CHRONOLOGY TIBET SITUATION IN 2007: A BRIEF OVERVIEW If one were to review the Tibet situation in 2007 and in the early months of 2008, it becomes clear that the historic uprising in Tibet in 2008 were inevitable. The PRC authorities embarked on an aggressive attack on Tibetan religion and culture in all forms and manners, and in all parts of Tibet. In May 2007, the PRC authorities in Lhasa forbade students in Ramoche and Lubhug areas from observing Saga Dawa (the fourth holy month in Tibetan Buddhist calendar). The students were threatened with expulsion if they were found visiting monasteries, circumabulating religious sites or wearing amulet threads during that month.1 In 2007, Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) forcibly demolished two statues of Guru Padmasambhava— one at Samye Monastery in mid-May 2 and another at Drachen in Ngari Prefecture in September.3 On 18 July 2007, the monks of Nalanda Thekchen Jangchubling Choeling Monastery were prohibited from carrying out reception ceremonyfor Trulku Tenzin Delek’s portrait during inauguration of a newly built assembly hall. This intervention resulted in a massive protest by the Tibetans4 In mid-August 2007, a new religious measure was announced that provided for “official control in the selection, installation and education of reincarnated lamas”.5 Called as an “important move to institutionalise the management of reincarnation” by the Chinese authorities, it reveals their intention to vet, legitimise and conform the core belief system of Tibetans to the diktats and needs of the communist system.6 Prior to the US Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony for His Holiness the Dalai Lama in October 2007, Chinese authorities beefed up security measures in Lhasa.