By TASHI WANGYAL
My name is Tashi Wangyal and I have been approached by a reporter from NTDTV on the Humen Right Day, 10th Dec 2004, to participate in a conference with the overseas Chinese in Stockholm to discuss theb Reign of Communist Party of China and to tell about the situation in Tibet. I am representing Tibetan Community in Sweden and we ar about 45 persons living in Sweden. The other panel members have already extensively described through their own experience from within the country regarding how the Communist Party of China treats its own people, including the use of the death penalty, the treatment of dissidents, lack of freedom of religion, the use of arbitrary detention and torture, freedom of expression. Situation in Tibet has a distinct character of preventing Tibetans as a people from asserting their own identity and culture. The violations are a result of policies of racial and cultural discrimination and religious intolerance. The Govt of PRC continues its ongoing campaign to transform Tibetan Buddhism into a doctrine that promotes patriotism towards the Chinese govt. Monks and nuns continue to be brutally tortured to this day. The practice of Buddhist religion by monks and nuns is considered punishable by the authorities in Tibet whose officials would visit the religious institutions & monasteries regularly and they would in turn forcefully conduct patriotric education sessions in the monasteries & denouncement of Buddhism, otherwise threatening to demolish the monasteries. Police informants inside the monasteries are a fact of life that has to be tolerated. Simple acts like possession of a picture of the Dalai Lama or uttering a word of Human Rights would immediately lead to punishment by prison sentence of many years and very often the prison term is prolonged further by many more years without any valid reason. Torture of prisoner is more or less a part of the system in prison. Forced sterilization and abortion of Tibetan women in parts of Tibet through strict and systematic organised manner continues to be common to this date. By denying Tibetan women their reproductive rights, Chinese govt further marginalizes the ethic Tibetans in Tibet. There are times when the level of violation is so high, when the consequences for the victims are so great, and when the political will to tackle the problems, alone or in cooperation, is so manifestly absent, that we have to sometimes rely on collective pressure through organisations and international community, like UN & EU as the means left by which to protect and promote those human rights which constitute the freedom, justice and peace to which we all aspire. The classic case is that of Thupten Delek Rimpoche, a prominent Tibetan religious teacher, whose influence in the local community & activity in preserving Tibetan culture and religion led him to be the target of Chinese authorities. He and 3 other monks were arrested on april 2002, during a raid at night time on Jamyang Choekorling Monastery in Ngachu County, in Tibet Autonomous Prefecture. After months of solitary detention the monks were sentenced to death & executed on 26 January 2003 while Thupten Delek Rimpoche was sentenced to death with 2 years suspension for alleged involvement in bomb explosion. Despite growing international concerns, it is feared that Tenzin Delek Rinpoche will soon be executed. A Tibetan nun, Phuntsok Nyidron, was arrested on the 14th Oct 1989 at the age of 16 years, and after sustained international campaign on her behalf, she was released on 26th Feb, 2004 from Drapchi Prison on medical parole – one year before the completion of her 17 years of prison sentence. Through the effort of many years of sustained international campaign Tanak Jigme Sangpo was released on medical parole after completion of 32 years in prison, 9 years before completion of his 41 years prison sentence that would otherwise end on 2011. Nawang Sangdrol another Tibetan nun was detained for the first time at 9 year age in 1987 and has served since then total of 14 years in prison.
Because of sustained international campaign through various organisations, she was released on medical parole on 17th Oct, 2002. Her prison term is otherwise to complete in 2013. We call upon the Chinese govt to release other thousands of Tibetan prisoners who are serving long prison terms on trivial grounds. The Chinese govt has been trying to compromise the issue of human rights with the international community by releasing a few high profile prisoners a month or so before a visit by international dignitaries and the commencement of annual UN Commission on Human Rights. Thus far Chinese authorities has found this policy effective in deflecting international criticism at the UN and in bilateral dialogues. China is a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. For the past more than four decades of Chinese govt rule in Tibet, Tibetans have been deprived of seeking an education based on its culture, language and religion. We are deeply concerned about the status of religious education being provided to the young Panchen Lama of Tibet, who has been in detention by Chinese govt since May 1995. He was then only 6 years old. As one of the most revered spiritual teachers in Tibet, the young Panchen Lama is now at a crucial age when his traditional and religious education should be ensured. This, of course, cannot be guaranteed when his entire upbringing is orchestrated by the Chinese communist authorities. We remain deeply concerned about the continued detention of the Panchen Lama and urge the Chinese govt to allow the Committee on the Rights of the Child to visit him, so as to ascertain his well-being. As China continues to emerge as an active player in the international arena, as the Chinese govt refines its diplomacy to become one of the worlds great powers, the free world must remind itself that it also has a responsibility to ensure that Chinese govt respects the human rights, of not only the Tibetans, Christians, the followers of Falong Gong but of its own people within its territory. The Chinese govt may have become smarter and more sophisticated -but it has not necessarily become kinder or gentler to its own people.
