Tibet News

Faced with the prospect of a Tibetan boycott of celebrations marking the arrival of their Earth-Ox year 2136 on Feb 25 to be followed by possible unrest on the 50th anniversary of their national uprising day on Mar 10, thereby delivering an ignominious blow to its claim that Tibetans were entirely supportive of its rule,

China is going full speed ahead with an economic and demographic policy aimed at gaining full control over Tibet, reported NDTV.com (India) Feb 11, taking part in a Tibet tour organized by China’s State council Information Office for 19 Chinese and foreign journalists, including from the US, Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.

While China keeps saying that tourism in Tibet was fast recovering and the situation there was stable, Reuters, which was a part of a 19-member delegation of journalists from Chinese and foreign media organizations taken on a rare and tightly controlled four-day visit there, said Feb 12 that the ground reality was very different.

Four monks of Shelkar Monastery in Dingri County of Shigatse Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region were sentenced to jail terms of 18 months each after being arrested on Mar 5, 2008 for protesting against the Chinese “patriotic education” campaign, reported the exile Tibetan government’s Tibet.net Feb 12.

Tibet has been hit by a severe drought with little rain recorded throughout the region since Jan’09, except part of Chamdo Prefecture, even as the spring ploughing season approaches, reported China’s online Tibet news service eng.Tibet,.cn Feb 12.

Courts in Tibet Autonomous Region had so far sentenced 76 people involved in the Mar 14 “riot” last year in Lhasa, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Feb 11, citing Nyima Cering, vice chairman of the standing committee of the Tibet regional People's Congress.

Nine monks at Samye Monastery in Lhoka Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region were jailed for 2 to 15-year terms for their involvement in the Mar’08 Tibet uprising protests while one monk committed suicide due to unbearable torture, reported Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), citing “confirmed information”.

Despite Chinese attempts to erase Tibetan memories of the brutal crackdown in the aftermath of the Mar’08 uprising protest, few families seemed to be in the mood to celebrate the upcoming Losar, their New Year, on Feb 25-27, in Rebkong County of Qinghai Province, reported The National (UAE) Feb 11.

Archaeologists of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have discovered a total of 1,616 new cultural relic sites since the third cultural relic survey conducted by them in Apr of 2007, reported China’s official Xinhuanet news agency Feb 11.

The Government of Sichuan Province is to spend 18 billion yuan (about US $2.6 billion) in four years to build 1,409 settlements covering a total area of 10 million square meters in 29 pastoral counties to settled down some 480,000 unsettled or poorly sheltered herdsmen and their families, reported the official Xinhuanet news agency Feb 10.

More Tibetans are set to be displaced, losing their ancestral land, homes and way of life, as China spends 20 billion yuan during its eleventh Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) to build a State Ecological Safe Shelter Zone.

China is drilling a 3.3-km tunnel through the Galung La mountain in Nyingchi Prefecture, which has an average altitude of about 5,000 metres, as a crucial part of building a highway to connect Medog county with Zhamog (Tibetan: Tramo) Town in the same Prefecture, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Feb 8.

Chinese riot police marched through the tense main street of Xiahe (Tibetan: Sagnchu/Labrang) County in Gannan (Tibetan: Kanlho) Prefecture of Gansu Province at regular intervals on Feb 7 morning, while vehicles were stopped and checked at military road blocks about 200 km (120 miles) from Lanzhou, the provincial capital, reported Reuters Feb 7.

In yet another round of crackdown in Tibet, the Lhasa Culture Bureau is working with an Internet inspection team of the Lhasa police station to check all the internet bars in the city before the Tibetan New Year, which falls on Feb 25, reported China’ s official Xinhua.net Feb 5.

Six more Tibetans – four nuns and two laypeople – were sentenced at different times and trials in Jan’09 by the Karze (Chinese: Ganzi) intermediate People’s Court for up to three years in Jan ’09 for involvement in Tibetan protests last year against Chinese rule, reported Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) Feb 5.