The Tibet-Intergroup

Tibet, Target for Chinese Propaganda

• If there is one promise that the Chinese Communist Party keeps, it is not to tolerate the slightest dispute and to repress without argument.  Those who signed the ambitious Chart 2008 for a democratic China are now paying the cost; more than a hundred have been arrested, harassed or assigned to residence. Others who dare to protest – parents of the children who are ill from melamine contamination, workers not paid for months on end, migrants sent back home with empty hands – are no better off; ancient restrictive measures have been dug up, new ones adapted to technological evolution, and opacity reigns in the case of secret or hidden trials, with the accused dragged out of jails, ghosts that no-one knows of or recognises the existence.  Day-to-day “Guantanamos”, Chinese version.
  
  As for repression, it is doing well since the beginning of the year; sixty arrests were officially announced in Lhassa, “for having spread rumours”.  Unofficial abductions, of which the victims reappear (in the best of cases) much later, far from their homes, severely beaten or tortured.  There are sometimes unexpected liberations – with the “happy” beneficiaries in such a bad state that the prison authorities are afraid that they will die in detention, and prefer to be rid of them before that happens.   Well yes, because when questioned by the United Nations, the official Chinese representatives confirm that “torture does not exist in China, because it is forbidden by law"; without speaking of the programmes carried out manu militari of the settling of nomads or the relocation of entire villages (for example, along the new railway leading to Lhassa); “to civilise them.”
  
  Propaganda is alive and kicking– even the “specialized services” have been re-baptized “publicity”.  There was another promise kept by the regime, which last year launched an enormous campaign destined to make known “the truth about Tibet”.  Following the publication of the “White Paper” last autumn, the official Press Agency announced the publication of a book entitled “Tibet Unveiled”. Oh, because it was “veiled” until now?  Commissioned functionaries and home-made “Tibetologues” are sent on mission in various Western countries to meet well targeted interlocutors; the Press, historians, specialists, and representatives of cultural or charitable organisations, to carefully explain the Chinese version of Tibet, today and yesterday.  The images of March/April 2008 create disorder in the official saga, and it remains urgent to have them forgotten, to delete the memories, as if they had never happened.
  
  But, precisely, these images cannot be deleted. They are even more present as the 50th anniversary of the people’s revolt against the foreign presence in Lhassa in 1959 comes into view; revolt against the beginning of exile, and a half-century is a very long time to bear even more nostalgia for the ancestral soil.  Shortly afterwards, there will be a Great Mass of the Chinese Communist Party in Pekin, confronted with numerous serious challenges presented by a population that is stirring.  Then, in June, remember, it will soon be twenty years after the events of the Tiananmen Square, perhaps not remembered by the collective memory of young people “born afterwards”, but which has crystallized growing hopes like the phoenix and its ashes.
  
  In short, a promising Year of the Earth Buffalo …
  
  
  
  Claude B. Levenson, January 2009

75th MEETING OF THE TIBET INTERGROUP

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Thomas Mann opened the meeting and regretted that the invited guest, Mr Raphaël Liogier, could not attend as his flight had been diverted to Mulhouse because of bad weather conditions and it was too late to get to Strasbourg.

Thomas Mann then referred to the recent pressure from the Commission to suppress Intergroups; there had been a meeting with Intergroup Presidents, and there was unanimity to keep the Intergroups in existence. Efforts were being made to find a compromise. The idea to hold Intergroup meetings on Thursday was unworkable because many MEPs return home on Thursday afternoons. The idea to discuss Intergroup subjects in Committees was also unrealistic, as work is carried out with NGOs and many other people from outside the EP. We should fight for the right to hold Intergroup meetings, with a properly designated room and interpretation.

Edward McMillan Scott said that he was happy to join the Tibet Intergroup. His interest in Tibet sprang from involvement since 1996 with the EU/China Delegation, and he had a strong line on reform in China. He had met His Holiness the Dalai Lama on several occasions, and thought he should have spoken out more vigorously before the plenary session in December, although he did take a stronger line at the Press Conference.

Thomas Mann then spoke of the fasting action in the EP last December. It had been a great success, more than 500 people undertook the day’s fast. There had been numerous reports on the Press and TV media.

Mr.Maaten said that there had been good Press and TV coverage in the Netherlands of the Dalai Lama’s visit and the fasting action. He thought it was a good idea, people do take it seriously, and it should be done more often! It drew attention back to Tibet, after the end of the Olympic Games, and perhaps more importantly, to China itself.

Edward McMillan Scott said there had been a good deal of positive media coverage in the UK, and that there was a feeling of guilt about the abandonment of Tibet by the then UK government in 1949. As for the fasting action, why not do it again? but perhaps by having one meat-free day a week. 7 million people in China eat no meat at all.

Ms Laszlo Topkes said that the situation in Tibet was familiar to the Hungarian minority in Romania, who were also fighting for real autonomy.

Thomas Mann then referred to support for the NTDT (New Tang Dynasty Television). Efforts were being made to support the only free television station in China, which had been shut down by the satellite operator EUTELSAT following pressure from the Chinese authorities. So far there were 330 signatures, but more were needed.

Edward McMillan Scott reminded the meeting that the President could be asked for the deadline for the collection of signatures to be extended if necessary.

Lissy Groener said that members should look at the list of signatures, and try and use their persuasion on those MEPs who had not signed.

Marc Cappato referred to what should be done next. The Chinese authorities were planning a special celebration on 20 March, to mark the “liberation” of Tibet. The EP could also celebrate, for example, a celebration of the anniversary of the uprising in Tina-Men Square. Or, of course, 10 March.

Gabriela reminded the meeting that 10 March was actually during the March plenary session in Strasbourg, and the Intergroup should use the opportunity to take some action.

Thomas Mann then spoke about the Memorandum on Tibetan Issues, prepared by the Tibetan government in exile. He had spoken with Kelsang Gyaltsen who asked him to use opportunities to spread information about the details of the Memorandum. Thomas thought it would be a good idea to hold a Congress later in the year, when information about the Memorandum could be spread. The Memorandum should go on the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Committee, perhaps in March.

Marc Cappato said that the President of the European Parliament should be asked for a Legal Opinion on the Memorandum, to say whether it was about independence or autonomy. There is also the possibility of a Hearing, where one representative of each party would attend (Tibet and China), although it was unlikely that China would accept. The representatives of each side would be asked to explain what happened during the negotiations, in a neutral way. Possible dates for this hearing would be 24 February or 31 March.

Thomas Mann said that the contents of the Memorandum are very interesting, but there should be a shorter version. Translations are being made into German, Spanish, French and Italian.

Marc Cappato intervened to say that he thought a shorter version should be made by the Tibetan government in exile, rather than anyone else.

The debate then turned to the 50th Anniversary of the Invasion of Tibet, 10th March 2009. Apparently the Chinese authorities have decided to celebrate the 20th March as the Anniversary of the “Liberation” of Tibet. This is provocation! It was suggested that the opportunity should be used to hold an Urgency Debate to discuss the present situation.

Lissy Groener said that we should perhaps use the opportunity as a Boomerang effect, to find a way to use that date as a case for remembering the negative side of the Chinese invasion.

Other suggestions included making sure we have an adequate supply of small Tibetan flags to be distributed on 10th March (or even before), organising a physical gathering somewhere in the European Parliament, perhaps before the Vote? It was also suggested that if the Chinese authorities organise their counter-event on 20th March, a delegation should be there, with Tibetan flags.
Or of using the “kata” – white scarves, as a symbol of Tibet.
Questions should be asked in the Urgency Debate, as to what the European Parliament has done to intervene in the matter – in fact, it has done very little. Gabriela suggested as Exhibition on Tibet, and perhaps Tibetan Dances, in the EP building, which would draw people’s attention to the problem. Lissy said that as International Women’s Day fell during that week, we should link the two things and have some kind of exhibition of support for Tibetan women.

Gabriela then spoke about the Nunnery in Dehra Dun, which the Group visited in 2006. Since then, a Temple has been built, also with accommodation for dormitories and schoolrooms. The inauguration will take place on 29 March and Gabriela will attend. It would be very nice if the Intergroup could offer some help, as there is still a lot of work to be carried out in the building. For instance, there is no hot water, and it would very good if the Intergroup could offer some money for solar heating for the hot water supply. The total cost is 5000 Euros, and 2000 Euros has already been collected. It would also be a useful opportunity to try and get some media coverage, before the European elections.

Mr. Tokes told the meeting that His Holiness the Dalai Lama was probably coming to Romania in September. Mention was also made of His Holiness’ visit to Rome in February, when He would receive Honorary Citizenship of the city, a symbolic action. He would also be visiting Baden-Baden this year.

Tibet and the Tibetian: Warm Heart and Cool Head

“The height of insolence!” exclaimed Lech Walesa, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, former Polish President and the founder of the “Solidarity” trade union, when he learnt that Beijing had abruptly and unilaterally decided to postpone the European Union/China Summit foreseen for 1 December in Lyon. The decision was notified four days before the meeting, on the pretext that the Dalai Lama was in Europe at the same time and going to meet Nicolas Sarkozy, at that time President of the European Union … as it happened, in Poland.

The present occupiers of the Forbidden City have to be hypersensitive, or really afraid of this tranquil force, to act in such an extreme fashion! Unless, quite simply, this gesture without precedent, as well as being frankly out of place in its disproportion, reveals a desire up until then more or less camouflaged, to impose their will in the world, as imposed on the Chinese people and on Tibetans. Would they have reacted with such virulence towards the United States, or to Japan, indeed any other country except France, which at that time presided the European Union?

Still, in its own way, this action illustrated how much Tibet and the Dalai Lama remain sensitive points in the perception of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, which nevertheless does not exclude divergences or conflict of the clans within the ultra-restricted group of leaders. Better still, it is precisely this kind of spectacular gesture that keeps the Tibetan question in the foreground, internationalizing the very question that the Chinese leaders want at all costs to pass off as an internal affair, forbidding any action from anyone outside who wants to try and build bridges, even footbridges, between the two parties directly concerned.

It is known that the meetings between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and the Chinese representatives produced no results, the latter having curtly declared that contacts were ended at the beginning of November, only to say a few days later that the door remained open … in order to define the place of the Tibetan hierarchy. It is difficult to take these fancy words seriously, since all Chinese attitudes exude arrogance, even contempt, towards their interlocutors who are required to submit or to resign.

However, there is another concern, over and above the impropriety of the gesture, barely concealed and not to be neglected; aided by the world crisis, expressed in veiled terms, nevertheless comprehensible, by Hu Jintao himself, who declared on 30 November that the economic situation represented a test for his party. And the Chinese President specified: - “a test for our capacity to control a complex situation, a test for the capacity of our party to govern.”
Well, well! Will the Dalai Lama, who does not get offended easily and does not take to heart the indiscretions of others, be a convenient alibi for the Chinese leaders, who wish to avoid being required to provide explanations for adulterated products, toxic additives and other poisoned “kindnesses” injected into the goods that inundate the market? Is it a case of their preventing an occasion to “lose face”? To divert attention from real problems remains one of the favourite specialities of propaganda, above all not lose out on a good opportunity…

On their side, the Tibetans are obliged to keep a cool head. The great consultation of Dharamsala in November provided an opportunity to meet together, to discuss, to re-focus and to help one another – what more could they do in a such a moving context, illustrating so well the famous principle of inter-dependence that is one of the pillars of their faith? Strong lines are nevertheless sketched out for the future; it is for them to choose and develop them, within as well as outside, with the support of those who keep faith in the possibility – the necessity? –of a finally amicable solution, without which the tragic impasse will only be prolonged.

And lead to the repetition of dramas like that of mid-October, when a pupil of a secondary school in Chentsa, in the Tibetan district of Malho in Amdo, (Qinghaï), committed suicide as a protest against the lack of liberty in Tibet. At 17 years old, he threw himself out of a window from the third floor of his school, leaving a note for his parents, his professors and his colleagues explaining that he wanted to draw the attention of the world to the situation of human rights denied to Tibetans. For all that, his brutal death did not make the headlines of the international press …

Shortly afterwards, at the beginning of November, at United Nations headquarters, a delegation of Chinese experts preferred to refute questions, proof and supported testimonies of several NGO and ONU experts concerning in particular the arrests and tortures current in China, and in particular in Tibet, with the pretext that the interdiction of such practices was written into the Constitution of the Chinese Republic … QED! And which will “reassure” those imprisoned for all sorts of reasons – defenders of victims of re-localisation, contaminated blood, AIDS, attacks on liberties and human rights, enforced settlement of nomads, the arbitrariness of power – who stagnate in the numerous prisons, official or not, of the regime.

And to think that there are countries - too rare it is true - where it is enough to organise a vote on democratic principles and respect of the other person, to open the door towards an enlarged autonomy, and in the long term perhaps independence. The people of Greenland demonstrated this in voting massively in favour of this solution on 25 November, so as to remain on good terms with Denmark, who colonised the country three centuries ago. The largest island in the world (as big as Tibet) with 56,000 inhabitants (100 times less than the Tibetans) – well, why not them? The Tibetan National Football Team played a short time ago against the Greenland National Football Team, much to the annoyance of Chinese officials, who took advantage of the situation to protest.
And suppose that non-violence were to be a solution for the future? This question should be asked in the wake of the events in Mumbai and Bangkok.

Claude B. Levenson, December 2008