The Secret Tibet (The Forbidden world)

      TIBETAN SOLIDARITY COMMITTEE

Date: 13th April, 2008

For Immediate Release                                                                                   

According to a reliable source, on April 12, 2008, the heads and staff administers of all the monasteries and offices of the 18 different districts in Karze Prefecture of Sichuan Province were called for a meeting in Dartsedo (Ch. Kanting). During this meeting, the incident that occurred on March 26th at Zaser Shul district (Ch. Shi Qu) was discussed. What occurred during March 26th meeting was a Chinese propaganda video of March 14th protest was shown. The video largely depicted Tibetans being violent in their demonstrations with a backdrop of His Holiness orchestrating the demonstrations. The Tibetan monks disagreed with the visuals in the video and appealed the Chinese leadership to engage in a dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

A high monk particularly stated he felt saddened at the sight of killings in the video. However, this monk said he was skeptical and questioned the accuracy of the visual, as there was no scene of armed Chinese police doing their job as calming the violence. The high monk further remarked His Holiness would not instigate nor engage in any act of violence since the Dalai Lama is the manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion. Because the Dalai Lama stands as the epitome of non-violence, many nations have recognized his work through numerous awards. "If His Holiness is a violent element which the Chinese Government labels, then the world wouldn't bestow him so many awards." The monk's mere statement was considered a grave mistake and the Chinese army forced him to accept his statement as false.

At this same meeting on April 12, the Chinese officials announced they would implement new order that all the monasteries will have to hoist a Chinese national flag. Everyone will also be required to stand under a Chinese Flag and agree the Dalai Lama orchestrated the recent protests and the Dalai Lama is a separatist. This announcement provoked the Tibetans to speak out against China even if it led them to their beheading. All the Tibetans monks and lay stated they would not tolerate any taunting of His Holiness and their patience have limits. As a result, the meeting was extended.

In another instance, on the night of 22nd March, a homemade explosive filled in a yak's horn, was thrown nearby the office of Kyabhel Shang located in Gojo Distt, Chamdo Area. But there is no clear evidence of who is behind that incident.  However, on 1st April, four Chinese army vehicles from Amdo arrived at Thang Kya monastery and arrested few monks, namely Rinchen Gyaltsen (28), Gurmey Dhondup (28), and Dorjee Wangyal (31). The Chinese authority not only accused the above four monks of inciting the incident but they also did not allow the monks to go outside by surrounding the entire monastery. On 3rd April, the group of monks not only said they are innocent in the incident and demanded the immediate release of the detained monks and asked for more freedom of speech and religion. Again, the Chinese army arrested more monks namely Tseten (17), Kunga Phuntsok (19), Tsewang Yeshi (20), Tsering Wangdu (17), Wangyal (21), Kunsang Tsering (20). Moreover, the Chinese army put them in a vehicle and publicly accused them of being separatists. Though the Chinese Government does not have a clear evidence of the monks' involvement in the explosive case, but they deliberately publicized that the monks were involved in the incident.

According to another reliable source, few days back, Sangpo, a monk from Nangten School, located in Karze Prefecture of Sichuan Province, in peaceful demonstration at Dhartse Do hoisted a Tibetan National flag. Yet in another incident, a layperson called Lhakpa from Acharusar village located in Minyak (Lhagang Shang), Dartsedo Distt. in Karze Prefecture hoisted a Tibetan national flag and demanded "Freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet" in front of many Chinese armies. Both of them were arrested and their whereabouts are unknown.

In view of the critical situation in Tibet, we appeal the UN and international community of the urgent consideration of our following demands:

1. Immediately dispatch independent fact finding delegations to Tibet
2. Immediately allow free press to cover the whole of Tibet
3. Immediately end the brutal killings in the whole of Tibet
4. Immediately release all arrested and imprisoned Tibetans
5. Extend immediate medical assistance to the injured Tibetans
6. Allow free movement of people and provide access to daily needs

 - Tibetan Solidarity Committee

AFP[Wednesday, April 09, 2008 12:23] 50 min ago.

BEIJING, April 9 — A small group of monks at a major Tibetan Buddhist monastery in northwest China defied authorities and staged a protest in front of foreign reporters on Wednesday, a witness and state media said.

About 15 monks from the Labrang monastery in Gansu province approached the journalists carrying banners and voicing support for exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, said the witness, who was on a government-controlled media tour.

"They said in Chinese, 'We want more freedom, more human rights and we want to see the Dalai Lama'," said Caroline Puel, a journalist with France's Le Point magazine.

The protest lasted about 10 minutes and ended when government officials conducting the tour urged the foreign journalists to leave.

China's official Xinhua news agency also confirmed that a group of monks had "interrupted" the media tour, but gave few other details.

The incident marks the second time that protesting monks upstaged a media tour organised by the government through areas hit by recent Tibetan rioting.

On March 27, monks at the Jokhang temple in Lhasa interrupted a similar tightly-controlled media tour aimed at showing calm had returned to the Tibetan capital.

The Jokhang monks called for the return of the Dalai Lama and denounced official Chinese versions of the Tibetan unrest as "lies".

Anti-Chinese rioting erupted in Lhasa on March 14 and spilled over into Tibetan-populated areas elsewhere in China, such as Gansu.

Labrang monks led a rally of up to 4,000 people at the monastery on March 15, according to the Free Tibet Campaign, and foreign reporters were subsequently barred from the area.

Labrang is one of Tibetan Buddhism's most important monasteries.

Tibetan exiled leaders say more than 150 people have been killed in the Chinese crackdown on the protests. China says it has killed no-one, and blamed Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 20 people.

China has blamed the unrest on a small number of agitators controlled by the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in northern India after a failed uprising in 1959 against Tibetan rule.

China has denied that simmering anger at Beijing's rule played a role in the unrest.