News and Urgent Alerts

Posted Tue, 12/09/2008 - 11:39 by superuser

Police Fire on Mine Protesters (RFA)

August 26 | At least four Tibetans may have been killed in a standoff with police over a planned mine expansion.

Police in China’s southwestern Sichuan province have responded with lethal force to a group of Tibetans protesting the expansion of a gold mining operation they say is harming the environment, according to Tibetan sources.

At least four people were killed when police officers opened fire on a crowd outside the Palyul (in Chinese, Baiyu) county government offices in Sichuan’s Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous prefecture, sources said.

US calls for substantive talks 'without precondition' on Tibet (Phayul)

Image: White House

August 28 | In its annual report on "Tibet Negotiations" submitted to the Congress earlier this month, the Obama administration has demanded “substantive” dialogue “without preconditions” between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Beijing to resolve the long-standing Tibet issue.

In the 11-page report, the US government reiterated its call on China to respect the unique religious, linguistic and cultural heritage of the Tibetan people, and their human rights, and civil liberties.

One More Tibetan Intellectual Arrested (TCHRD)

August 23 | Kalsang Tsultrim, remembered for his widely distributed video testimonial in 2009, was recently arrested on 7 July 2010 at Dzoge County in Sichuan Province. Though enquiries have been made by family members, no response or reasons have been given by the officials for his arrest. But his arrest is not unexpected. Kalsang, better known by his pseudonym Gyitsang Takmig, has been suspected of committing political error and has been on the move for at least a year to remain safe from the authorities. Read More ...

Deathtoll from Drugchu mudslide reaches 1435 (Phayul)

Dharamsala, August 23 - The death toll from the mudslides in Drugchu County had reached 1,435 Sunday with 330 still missing, Chinese state run media reported. The county government ordered locals to stop searching for the dead to prevent disease outbreaks, Xinhua said.

>> Tibet landslide death toll rises to 1,117, with 627 still missing (Phayul)

>> Drugchu landslides, a manmade disaster? (Phayul)

Obama’s Timidity on Tibet (WSJ)

OPINION ASIA | By - Ellen Bork
AUGUST 19 | Over the past few years, Beijing's repressive policies have increasingly alienated Tibetans. One indication was the March 2008 uprising and riots across Tibet. Yet Beijing responded not by moderating its policies but by intensifying repression—launching a "patriotic education" campaign and targeting members of the educated elite, many of whom have long gotten along with, and even flourished within, the communist system. Among these are the writer Tragyal, long associated with the state publishing house, who awaits trial on charges of "splittism," and Dorje Tashi, a businessman and hotel owner, who received a life sentence in June for allegedly collaborating with human-rights groups abroad. READ MORE ...

China Tightens Grip on Tibet's Business Class (Times)

By Austin Ramzy
August 18 | Weeks after a prominent Tibetan arts dealer was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges his supporters say were trumped up after he crossed powerful local officials, a second Tibetan businessman has been sentenced to life in jail. Dorje Tashi, a property developer and owner of the Yak Hotel in Lhasa, was convicted of funding overseas Tibetan groups, including the office of the Dalai Lama, according to Urgen Tenzin, executive director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, an India-based NGO. Dorje Tashi had been arrested in the spring of 2008 following deadly unrest in the Tibetan capital and was sentenced in June, although details of his case have still not been officially released. READ MORE ..

Online Profile of Tibetan Businessman Dorje Tashi, Sentenced to Life Imprisonment (HHPE)

photo: tibetcul

August 14 | High Peaks Pure Earth has been following the case of high-profile Tibetan businessman Dorje Tashi. According to international media reports, Dorje Tashi was sentenced to life imprisonment on June 26, 2010, after a three-day trial by the Lhasa Municipality Intermediate People's Court.

An indication of Dorje Tashi's high-profile status is his inclusion in the "People" section of the most popular Tibetan website TibetCul, in the category listing prominent contemporary Tibetans in Tibet. He is listed under the sub-category titled "Business Elite" and shares a place in the sub-category alongside ten other Tibetans in the business community, including Karma Samdrup, recently sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Jailed Tibetan businessman Dorjee Tashi studied in India (Phayul)
Tibetan businessman gets life in prison (AP)

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Facts about Tibet

Tibet lies at the centre of Asia, with an area of 2.5 million square kilometres (approximately 1 million square miles).

Despite over 50 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Tibetan people refuse to be conquered and subjugated by China.

The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and biggest plateau in the world, so Tibet is referred to as “the roof of the world”.

For Tibetans, the term Tibet means the 3 provinces of U'Tsang, Kham and Amdo, the area traditionally known as Tibet before China's invasion.

The English word Tibet is derived from the Arabic word Tubbat. This word is in turn derived via Persian from the Turkic word Tobad, meaning ‘the heights’.

Tibet was occupied by China in 1949, and the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959.

Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have died as a direct result of Chinese occupation since 1949.

There are six million Tibetans in Tibet and roughly 150,000 Tibetans in exile in India and other countries.

Tibetans consider the Dalai Lama to be the temporal as well as spiritual leader of Tibet.

Thousands of Tibetans cross the mighty Himalaya on foot every year into exile, risking death, injuries and arrest.

Most Tibetans are Buddhist, but there are Muslims, Christians and practitioners of Bon, the indigenous religion of Tibet.

In 1948 Tibetan government representatives traveled to the US, UK and France on Tibetan government issued passports.

The exiled Tibetan people elected their first Prime Minister in 2000

In 2008, Tibetans took part in more than 130 separate peaceful protests against the Chinese government across the Tibetan Plateau.

Displaying a photograph of the Dalai Lama in Tibet can result in arrest.

In 1995 the Chinese government abducted the 6 year old Panchen Lama, one of Tibet's most important spiritual leaders. He is still missing.

The longest epic poem in the world is the story of a legendary Tibetan king, Gesar of Ling.

The Tibetan Plateau is the Earth's "Third Pole," providing life-sustaining waters for and regulating weather across south and east Asia.

March 10 is Tibetan National Uprising day. It marks the massive uprising in Tibet in 1959 that led to the escape of the Dalai Lama into exile.

Yak is a Tibetan term for the male of the species. Its female counterpart is called Dri.

Tibetans are denied many of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to self- determination, freedom of speech and religion.

Untll 1949 Tibet had its own government that managed its own domestic and foreign affairs; Tibet had its own national flag and its own currency.

According to Amnesty International more than 1,000 Tibetans were unaccounted for after the protests of 2008.

In the Tibetan Lunar Calendar, the year 2009 corresponds to the year 2136, the Year of the Earth Ox.

Prior to the uprisings of 2008, the last major protests by Tibetans against China's occupation of Tibet took place in 1989, when martial law was declared.