Tibet Special Assembly Affirms His Holiness, the Dalai Lama's Middle Way

Let's keep our thoughts focused on clarity and truth for the Tibetan cause. The future will support an honest assessment of the issues, and rangzen will prevail!

Tibet Government-in-Exile Breaks Off Talks With China (Update2)

By James Rupert

Nov. 22 (Bloomberg) -- The Tibetan government-in-exile, headed by the Dalai Lama, decided to break off stalled negotiations with China over Tibet’s future, leaders of the exile parliament said today.

Dolma Gyari

The exile government, based in northern India, “will not send envoys for further contacts” with China after eight rounds of talks failed to produce results, said Dolma Gyari, the deputy speaker of the legislature.

Future policy in the Tibetan campaign for greater autonomy from China will be determined by the Dalai Lama and will always be nonviolent, she and other parliament leaders said in the town of Dharamsala.

The Tibetan exiles’ declaration of no confidence in China as a negotiating partner “probably reflects an increasing erosion of faith among Tibetans inside China as well,” said Robbie Barnett, a professor of Tibetan studies at Columbia University in New York. “That will represent a major political challenge for the Chinese government,” he said.

The decision to end talks was made by a “special general meeting” of more than 500 delegates summoned by the Dalai Lama, 73, after China rejected his proposal for “genuine autonomy” in the latest set of talks this month in Beijing.

The meeting endorsed the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” policy toward China, which specifies a nonviolent campaign to win autonomy under the Chinese constitution for Tibet, rather than independence.

Karma Choephel

Self-Determination, Autonomy

Gyari and parliament speaker Karma Choephel summarized the decisions for journalists after the close of the week-long meeting, and declined to answer questions.

The meeting reflected growing frustration among Tibetans with their inability to loosen China’s 47-year-long rule of their Central Asian mountain homeland.

“Quite a number” of delegates said Tibetans should sharpen their demand to include self-determination, rather than autonomy, if China does not respond to their aspirations “in the near future,” Choephel said.

A call for self-determination would effectively demand full independence, say Tibetan activists such as Tenzin Tsundue, 33, a delegate to the meeting. “The demand for autonomy is a policy, but eventually, Tibet must become independent.”

[...] The exile Tibetan authorities say more than 200 people died in the [March 2008] protests and the subsequent crackdown by Chinese soldiers and police. The crackdown continues eight months later, with more than 100 people having been sentenced to prison, said Tashi Choephel, a researcher with the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

“I have to accept failure, things are not improving in Tibet,” the Dalai Lama told journalists on Nov. 3. Since last year, that sense of failure has spread in the Tibetan exile community, spawning a Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement that calls for “direct action to end China’s illegal and brutal occupation of our country.”

To contact the reporter on this story: James Rupert in Islamabad at jrupert3@bloomberg.net.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601091&sid=aoyBNv5NLCVk&refer=india

Journalist Disappeared While Investigating Nun's Murder

Tsering Tsomo was bound, beaten and tossed from a truck for posting pictures of the Dalai Lama. The journalist trying to report it disappears. Can we really afford to not be outraged by this? Please let friends and loved ones know that this could be the future of American news. China owns us. We must wake up to help those who cannot help themselves. The good deed will benefit US as well.
Tibetan TV Journalist Arrested, Nun Dead
Phayul[Thursday, September 18, 2008 00:03]
Phayul Bureau report
New Delhi, September 17 – A Tibetan journalist was arrested around midnight on September 11, reports Voice of Tibet radio service. Voice of Tibet reported that Rangjhung who was working for the Sertha television station as a news reporter and a newscaster was picked up from his home in Amdo Golok. The whereabouts and the exact reason for his arrest are unknown at the moment.
Sertha Tsuiltrim Woser, a member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, told the radio service that Rangjhung is an employee at the Sertha Television station, and was responsible for gathering news and reading news for the TV. Tsuiltrim further said that it is not clear where the Tibetan journalist is detained. “I heard that the officials who arrested him were not local but from the Kardze Prefecture or Sichuan. No one knows where he has been held at the moment”, Tsultrim told the VOT.
Rangjhung is 25 years old, and worked as a teacher for a year before becoming a TV journalist. He is man of many talents, says Tsuiltrim. “He composed 2 books, and also wrote a book of lyrics”.
With China putting a tight lid on the flow of information from inside Tibet, news have emerged from Tibet that one nun died of beatings and 2 others were sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment in June. Geshe Monlam Tharchin, a member of the TPIE told the VOT that on 8 June, a Tibetan nun named Tsering from Samtenling Nunnery in Draggo county pasted posters and distributed leaflets calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. The nuns of Samtenling Nunnery marched towards the town to stage protests in support with Tsering but were stopped on the way by the Chinese security officials. The radio service reported that the Chinese soldiers stopped the nuns and tortured them.

Tsering Tsomo

One nun named Guru was hit on the head with iron baton. Her hands tied, she was thrown from a moving vehicle which caused her head to hit the hard surface of the ground. [my bold] She was taken to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries. “The Chinese authorities told her family that she committed suicide but her family later found out that the cause of her death was not suicide but head injury.” Monlam also said that 2 other nuns, Tsering Tso, 27 and her sister Ugen Lhamo, 32, were sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22819&article=Tibetan+TV+Journalist+Arrested%2c+Nun+Dead
On June 6 the Tibet Center for Human Rights and Dignity reported this about the initial incident: http://www.tchrd.org/press/2008/pr20080609.html