By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, FEB. 23: The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the only Tibetan – run rights group, today launched one of the most comprehensive reports on the situation inside Tibet in the past year. The annual report released in three languages (Tibetan, English and Chinese) breaks down the multi faceted and “egregious human rights violations” and was reported out of the extremely scrutinized side of the Himalayas in 2016.
Director of TCHRD Tsering Tsomo said that the atmosphere over the Tibetan plateau under continued repression of the Chinese government represented the whole of Tibet as “a giant open prison” where basic human rights are criminalized, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances common place and rampant environmental destruction under guise of development, unwary of global pressure or precedence.
In broad strokes, the report highlights tightened controls over the right to freedom of expression and opinion, privacy, religion, and assembly, also focusing on the substantial barriers faced by Tibetans in accessing the Chinese justice system due to China’s politicized and emasculated judiciary.
The fate and future of Tibet’s environment remains a pressing issue in light of China’s continued practice of using Tibetan land and resources primarily for resource extraction and economic exploitation while forcing local Tibetans to lead impoverished and wasted lives, dependent on government handouts, on the margins of Chinese economic boom, TCHRD stated.
Besides the obvious human rights violations seen over the last few decades, more perfected and vehemently implemented over the years, the highlights of the year in passing, in terms of new avenues of scrutiny was the encroachment upon the right to privacy. Specifically, internet and online platforms emerge as a tool for violation for Tibetans. Blogs, micro-messaging apps particularly WeChat was highly monitored and censored. “Banned songs, photos of Dalai Lama on cell phones in some area of TAR is punished with two weeks detention or two years imprisonment if the suspect has no guanxi (official connections),” the report read.
Also travel bans during the Kalachakra in Jan. 2017 presided by exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama in contrast to two Kalachakras (Shigatse and Machu)overseen by Chinese government appointed Gyaltsen Norbu also referred to as the “fake Panchen” were symptomatic of lack of religious freedom and bolstered propaganda exercises, respectively, the 2016 TCHRD report mentioned.
The drop in report of incidences and also delayed information from inside Tibet does not reflect the actual reform in either policy or implementation rather the intensified scrutiny and restrictions meted against Tibetans and that self censorship transpired from constant surveillance and control, the Director further said.
TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) remains to be more heavily controlled than eastern Tibetan regions of Sichuan and Qinghai from where the bulk of information about the situation inside Tibet leak.
In numbers, 2016 saw three self immolations inside Tibet and one in exile (India). 36 new detentions were reported adding to over 5000 Tibetans who are currently languishing in Chinese prisons around Tibet. The figures could be higher due to “communication clampdown” and “stringent information blockade”, the report stated.
