By Phurbu Thinley
Central Tibetan Administration instructs all Tibetans to put off all protests in front of PRC Embassies until May end.
Dharamsala, May 19: Under the aegis of the Tibetan Solidarity Committee, its regional Dharamsala committee today organized a mass prayer at the Main Tibetan Temple (Tsuglagkhang) for the victims of last week’s earthquake in China’s South Western Sichuan province and Tibetan victims of the Chinese government’s violent crackdown since March this year. The special prayer was led by monks of the Namgyal Monastery.
The latest report by China’s central state news agency says more than 32,000 people have been confirmed dead following a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that rocked several areas in Sichuan Province in the afternoon of May 12. The report also said the death toll was expected to climb up higher in the following days. There are other reports that speculate that the final death toll will surpass the government estimate of 50-thousand.
“Central Tibetan Administration and all Tibetan people in exile convey their heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims of Sichuan earthquake and stands in solidarity with the Chinese people in this hour of grief and sadness,” Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile Mr Karma Choephel said at the prayer meet this morning.
The devastating earthquake proved disastrous for China at a time when it was struggling to contain growing unrest in Tibet before the 2008 Olympics begins in Beijing in few months.
Protests against Chinese rule in Tibet broke out in the capital Lhasa on March 10 and subsequently spread to other vast Tibetans areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Chinese government responded swiftly with violent crackdown deploying thousands of military troops and tanks.
Tibetan Government-in-Exile, based in Dharamsala, says as many as 203 Tibetans have been killed and about 1,000 injured in the Chinese crackdown. It also says several more being arrested and held under detention “continue to suffer daily hardships and torture at the hands of the Chinese authorities”.
Tibetans have been offering occasional mass prayers and candle light vigils for the victims of two distinctively separate tragedies. They, however, point out that the Chinese government’s policy of dealing with the two situations has been fundamentally discriminative and called on China to immediately stop all repressive measures in Tibet.
“People’s Republic of China’s policy dealings with the recent two incidents of widespread Tibetan protests and the devastating earthquake in neighbouring Sichuan province is fundamentally distinct,” says the statement released by the Solidarity committee on May 17.
“…it is also imperative that the Government of People’s Republic of China immediately halt all repressive measures in Tibet respecting the lives and sentiments of the Tibetan people and adopt a realistic approach by recognizing and reviewing the past mistakes of its policies on Tibet,” the statement said.
The statement pointed out that while the “catastrophic earthquake” in Sichuan “drew immediate attention of the highest echelons of the Communist Party government with both Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao visiting the affected areas”, it said “On the contrary, in Tibet, hundreds of Tibetans have lost their lives as a result of the government crackdown on Tibetan protesters”.
The statement also criticizes the Chinese Government’s arbitrary handling of the media coverage of the two tragedies.
“The information about the quake was disseminated without any government restriction and, foreign journalists and reporters were allowed to report freely from the quake affected areas, showing great openness,” it said. “Whereas in Tibet”, during the protests, “it was only the state-sponsored Chinese media that one-sidedly reported about the incidents,” committee’s statement pointed out.
The largely hit areas by the May 12 quake include Tibetan-inhabited Lungu county (Ch: Wen Chuang), Tashi Ling county (Ch: Lixian), Sungchu county (Ch: Song Pan), Trochu county (Ch: Xiao Jing) and Maowen county (Ch: Mao Wen) under Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Sichuan Province.
Mr Karma Choephel said the committee was facing difficulty to ascertain if there were any Tibetan victims of earthquake and the exact scale of its destruction.
Saying there is “reason to doubt whether PRC has effectively carried out relief efforts without leaving out Tibetans” Speaker Karma Choephel said, “In this hour of tragedy, we hope and appeal to the Central Government of the People’s Republic of China to deliver timely rescue and relief to all the affected areas, without any distinction of people and place.”
He said the “Special prayers” were being held “in memory of those killed and injured” in the deadly quake “irrespective of Chinese and Tibetans, if any, victims”. “We are not against Chinese people” he said adding “they have also been constant victims of Chinese Communist Government’s wrong and oppressive policies”.
Mr Choephel said the Tibetans Solidarity Committee, in a show of solidarity with Chinese people, had also “instructed all Tibetans to put off all protests in front of PRC Embassies until May end”.
Mr Choephel said the prayers would also embrace other victims of disasters, including the victims of Cyclone Nargis that struck in Myanmar on May 3 leaving death toll of over 100,000 and the bomb blasts in the Indian city of Jaipur that claimed 70 lives.
