By Pawan Sharma
Dharamsala, June 15 – Much before the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) here could respond to the Chinese White Paper on Tibet, an unidentified agency reportedly hacked the computers of the CTA and made public the contents of the draft, which was being kept a top official secret. According to an authoritative source in the CTA, the Information and International Relations Department of the CTA which had prepared the draft was stolen from computers through internet about it a week back. And the CTA is suspecting Chinas hand behind this highly objectionable act.
The spokesperson of the CTA, Thubten Samphel when contacted initially stuck to the standard reply that “we are in the process of studying the White Paper.” However, when asked if the draft being prepared by the CTA in response to the White Paper of China was stolen, Thubten Samphel answered in the affirmative.
“Yes it was stolen from our computers through internet. We do not know who did it. We can only make a rough guess that China is behind it,” said Thubten Samphel, who is also a Secretary Department of Information and International Relations of the CTA. As the CTA officials were busy giving final touches to the draft and maintaining a silence over the White Paper, they were in for a surprise in the first week of June when their draft was mailed to a few Tibet Support Groups (TSG) across the world.
“The Tibet Support Groups who had been anxiously waiting for the response of the CTA on the White Paper were surprised when they saw the draft on their web sites. We were shocked too when we learnt about it from certain TSGs who informed us that they had received the draft which was yet to be released in response to Chinas White Paper on Tibet,” said a Tibetan official.
According to the Tibetan officials, the Tibetan Government in-exile had asked the senior officials of the Department of Information and International Relations to prepare a formal response against White Paper on Tibet which China had released on May 23. Before releasing the draft, the Cabinet of the Tibetan Government in-exile had to approve it. However, the draft got leaked much before the Cabinet could discuss it and give a green signal to release it.
The Prime Minister of the exiled government Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, avoided to comment on this issue, asking to contact the official spokesman of the CTA. It was for the third time reportedly in the past few years that important document of the CTA was stolen in this fashion by some vested interests closely monitoring the moves of the CTA.
“In one such case the origin of the hacker was pointed out towards Unan province of China,” said Thubten Samphel.
