DHARAMSHALA, February 28: The U.S government has noted that repression in Tibet throughout 2013 was “severe”, a week after president Barack Obama met the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama at the White House. The US State Department on Thursday released its annual ‘Country Reports on Human Rights Practices’ for the year 2013 which, as mandated by the congress in 2002, carried a separate section on Tibet.
The US government, like many other nations including India, accepts Tibet being a part of China but supports dialogue between Beijing and the representatives of the Dalai Lama. The US government refers to Tibet as “Tibetan areas” in its latest report on human rights.
One of the areas of focus in this report is China’s handling of family members, friends, relatives and associates of those who have resorted to self immolation as a means of protest. The report says nearly 90 Tibetans have been convicted, including one sentenced to death, with alleged links to self immolation protests in Qinghai and Gansu provinces alone.
The report claims that Tibetans have suffered widespread crackdown imposed by Chinese policies that accelerated during Xi Jinping’s first year as the President of China. It also decried the inaccessibility of Tibetan areas under Chinese rule saying American diplomats were denied access “multiple” times, including to Tibetan areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region where permission was not officially required. The report also said officials of the Tibet Autonomous Region stopped processing permits for foreign tourists to the region from February 25 for a month-long period around “sensitive” anniversaries such as the March 10 Tibetan national uprising day.
The Washington based Tibet advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet says the report sheds a needed light on “a dark situation.” Todd Stein, Director of Government Relations at the International Campaign for Tibet, said, “The Department’s report shows the harsh reality in Tibet that Chinese authorities are so desperately trying, and failing, to cover up.”
