The Tibet-Intergroup

Deforestation, Degradation, Depopulation – Tibet’s environmental problems

For hundreds of years, Tibet’s unique ecosystem with its fertile grasslands, breathtaking glaciers, lakes and rivers as well as its immense riches in minerals and other natural resources, has been home to the local nomadic population.

But this wonderful landscape, often called “rooftop of the world” for its altitude, and its indigenous people are facing increasing threats in recent decades:

Influenced by global climate change and local environmental pollution, Tibet’s glaciers are melting fast. More than ten Asian countries depend on their water supply. China’s excessive exploitation of local resources, minerals and in particular a sustained denuding of Tibetan forests leads to the erosion of entire hill-areas, destructive floods and the displacement of the indigenous population. 

To call attention to this injustice, the “Tibet Intergroup” of the European Parliament (TIG) arranged a conference on environmental issues in Tibet on19 June 2013. Under the auspices of the Members of the European Parliament, Satu Hassi, Lidia Joanna Geringer de Oedenberg and Thomas Mann, members of the TIG and their assistants as well as representatives of the “International Campaign for Tibet” (ICT), the “Unpresented Nations and Peoples Organization” (UNPO) and the “Office of Tibet in Brussels” participated in this meeting.

In an impressive and striking presentation, Tenzin Norbu, the Chairman of the “Environment and Development Desk of the Central Tibetan Administration”, informed on alarming developments and their terrible consequences. A fascinating documentary updated the audience about the unacceptable situation of indigenous nomads. They are banished from their homes and often deported to various refugee camps as a result of China’s policy of exploitation.

There is an evident connection between the exploitation and pollution of the environment and the various violations of human rights by Chinese administrations in Tibet.

The Members of the European Parliament are not going to stop to focus on this issue and organize more conferences in the near future. We will do everything possible to support this country and its population to fight for their rights!

European Parliament Hosts Seminar on Self-Immolations in Tibet

BRUSSELS: Two MEPs, Mr Edward McMillan-Scott, Vice-President of the European Parliament responsible for human rights and Democracy and Ms Kristiina Ojuland hosted the second annual seminar on Tibet entitled “Tibet in Flames : the unfolding personal and collective tragedy of the Tibetan people” highlighting the spate of self-immolations in the European Parliament today...

Link to article on tibet.net

 

Tibet: Conference on genuine autonomy reflects the European Parliament’s support

More than 300 participants from the EU Institutions, national parliaments, NGOs and the world of science joined the Tibet Conference in the European Parliament yesterday: “I was very pleased to be the keynote speaker of the Tibet Intergroup Conference on Genuine Autonomy in the European Parliament particularly as this coincides with my first visit to Brussels since assuming office in the Central Tibetan Administration as of August 2011. As I stated in my address, we Tibetans have been investing in democracy and non-violence for the last 50 years”, said Dr Lobsang Sangay, the newly-elected Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government in Exile…

Read press release

Inauguration von Lobsang Sangay

Schon im Vorfeld der Inauguration wurden am 6. August 2011 Treffen mit Kollegen aus dem indischen Parlament organisiert. Dabei wurde die Situation der tibetischen Flüchtlinge in Nordindien, die Grenzstreitigkeiten mit China über die so genannten  „disputed areas“ aber auch die geplanten Infrastrukturprojekte Chinas an der indischen Grenze und deren Pläne, einen Zufluss des Brahmaputra Richtung Norden umzuleiten, angesprochen.

 

Aug 6, 2011 Saturday
 
1400 – 1500   Mr. Baghat Singh Koshairy, Former Chief Minister of the State of Uttarkhand and Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha)
 
1500 – 1600   Mr. Yashwant Sinha, Former foreign minister and Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. Convenor of All Party Parliamentary Forum for Tibet.
 
1600 – 1700   Mr. Ajit Singh, President of Lok Dal & Member of Parliament and Mr. Jayant Chaudhary, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.  Members of All Party Parliamentary Forum for Tibet.
 
1700 – 1800   Mr. Takam Sanjoy, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. Member of International Network of Parliamentarians for Tibet (INPaT), Member of All India Parliamentary Forum for Tibet.
 
1800 - 1900   Mr. C. M Chang, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha. Member of All India Parliamentary Forum for Tibet.

 

Die Einschätzungen der indischen Kollegen zur innenpolitischen Lage in China waren sehr kritisch. Aus der Sicht von Abgeordneten Chang wären eine internationale Verankerung und ein internationaler Schutz einer echten Autonomie für die Tibeter in China ein gangbarer Weg. Eine solche echte Autonomie müsse aber erst verwirklicht werden.

Die Inauguration von Dr Lobsang Sangay wird in einem sehr feierlichen Akt am 8. August 2011 vollzogen, der von einer riesigen Zuschauermenge verfolgt wird. Der Übergang zu einem demokratischen System mit gewählten Repräsentanten wird als einzig Ziel führende Strategie gesehen. In tiefem Respekt vor dem Dalai Lama wird sein Abschied aus seiner bisherigen Rolle wahrgenommen, die Anwesenden betonen aber immer wieder, dass sie sich dem Weg der Gewaltlosigkeit weiterhin verpflichtet fühlen.

Der neu gewählte Kalon Tripa betont in seiner Rede ebenfalls das Prinzip der Gewaltlosigkeit und spricht die dramatische Situation in Tibet selbst an. In seiner neuen Funktion will er Transparenz und Bildung als Kernelemente seiner Politik realisieren.  Er formuliert auch eine klare Absage an Chinas Haltung, dass die Hoffnung auf eine gute Lösung des Tibet-Konflikt schon aufgegeben werden würde.

The visit of the Dalai Lama to Germany, May 2008

His Holiness the Dalai Lama spent five days in Germany (May 16th-20th)

He lectured about subjects such as:

• "Religion - Peace Maker or War Maker" and
• "Human Rights as a duty" 

1. Bochum (Westphalia)

• He was invited by the Lord Major
• He signed the golden book
• 5.000 supporters listened to his speech

2. Bamberg (Bavaria)

• 5.000 celebrated him in the basketball-stadium

3. Nürnberg (Bavaria)

• Last Sunday enthusiastic 7.000 people were in the arena

Press Conference with Ms. Kate Saunders, Communications Director of ICT and Gyaltsen Dolkar, political prisoner

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Ms Saunders spoke about the increasing number of demonstrations by Tibetans and monks across the Tibetan plateau, and the continuing repression by the Chinese government authorities. The demonstrations are always peaceful (with one sole exception when there was some violence towards Chinese). The demonstrators call out for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. ICT has monitored 98 demonstrations and it is clear that the Tibetans want to communicate their feelings and send a message to the world.

4000 people have been detained in Lhassa and Gang Tsu and 400 were released.
Many of the detained people have been transported elsewhere in Tibet. Many had no shoes and all had been badly beaten before they were loaded on to trains out of Lhassa. Many older Tibetans remember the same thing happening in the 1950s, and most people thus transported never came back.

A family in Lhassa carrying out religious rituals following the loss of a small child were all shot from behind, and witnesses threatened if they dared to complain.

There is a major crackdown and it is difficult to obtain details of the number of dead and wounded by the Chinese authorities.

Ms Saunders introduced Gyaltsen Dolkar, who spent 12 years in Drapchi prison in Lhassa and spoke of her experiences there. She was 19 and a nun in 1990 when she was arrested for taking part in a demonstration to ask for religious freedom and human rights in Tibet. All those who took part in the demonstration were sentenced to between 3 and 7 years detention. During her time in prison she was subjected to brutal interrogation and tortured by electrical instruments, hung from a tree and beaten, to the point of losing consciousness. On another occasion, her arms were crossed behind her back, she was strung up from a wooden beam and beaten all over her body, kicked, and hit with a belt on her head. She still has mental and physical scars from these experiences.

Thanks to international pressure, she was liberated before the end of her sentence, but in 1993 was sentenced again for having recorded songs in prison expressing suffering and conditions in prison. At a trial before a court, she was sentenced to four years imprisonment, but later, without a trial, she was given an extra eight years.

Many people are sent to “re-education camps”, and people are sentenced without trial. There are many “disappearances”.

Gyaltsen Dolkar expressed the hope that all countries supporting human rights will exert the maximum pressure on China so that all political prisoners can be liberated as soon as possible. She added that in speaking of China, the ordinary people are not aware of what is going on in Tibet or even in their own country.

Thomas Mann thanked Gyaltsen for her talk and said that the EU should be more determined and condemn the repression in China and Tibet. His Holiness the Dalai Lama should again be invited to address the European Parliament.

His Holines the Dalai Lama and Gandhi

His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently inaugurated the Satyagraha Centenary International Conference on "Globalization of the Gandhian Way: Sociology, Politics and Science of Satyagraha" organised by Jawaharlal Nehru University. The seven-day conference was partly held in Bithiharwa, the village where Gandhi trained satyagrahis on Indian soil. Gandhi said that the root of every Violence or Conflict is Untruth and that the only permanent solution of Conflict is Truth. Consequently, to resolve conflicts he conceived of a novel technique that he called Satyagraha. Literally it means Satya (Truth) With Agraha (Firmness) or, the Unwavering Search for the Truth. And since the only way of getting to Truth is by Non-Violence (or Love), it follows that Satyagraha implies an Unwavering Search for the Truth using Non-Violence

The programme started with the offering to His Holiness of a poster of the Burmese Nobel Laureate Aung San Su Kyi by a Burmese Satyghari.

The Dalai Lama said that he admired Gandhi's political struggle, and the importance of dialogue in resolving issuses as violence creates more violence. He expressed his pleasure in young people taking interest in Gandhian philosophy.

European Parliamentarian Conference on Tibet, 7th/8th November 2007, Brussels

Wednesday 7th November

19.OO  Cocktail Reception, Concert Noble, 82 rue d'Arlon, 1000 Brussels

Thursday 8th November

08.OO  Arrival and Registration in the European Parliament, Etrance ASP (Alterio Spinelli Building)

09.30 - 11.00    Welcome and opening speeches in Conference Room ASP 3E2, 3rd floor of the E-bloc of the ASP, Translation: FR, DE, EN, ES

09.30 - 09.40   Thomas Mann MEP, President of the Tibet Intergroup

09.40 - 10.10   Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament

10.10 - 10.25   Dolma Gyari, Speker Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile

10.25 - 10.40   Kelsang Gyaltsen, Envoy of His Holiness for EU, Member of the Sino-Tibetan Dialogue

10.40 - 11.00   Presidents and Vice-Presidents of the Political Groups in EP

11.00 - 12.45   Workshop 1: "The environmental pollution in Tibet an China"

11.00 - 12.00   Presentations

Moderation: Eva Lichtenberger MEP, Vice-President of the Tibet Intergroup

Speakers:

• Isabel Hilton (UK), columnist for British newspapers, author of "The Search of the Panchen Lama", editor of a website devoted to climat change and environment
• Penpa Tsering, Member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, Dirctor of the Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre

12.00 - 12.45   Discussion

12.45 - 13.15   Persentation of the Website of the EP Tibet Intergroup

13.15 - 15.00   Lunchbreak with Self-Catering (Lunch in the EP Staff Canteen is possible after 13.30). Expenses are not refunded by the Tibet Intergroup.

15.00 - 17.30   Workshop 2: "The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing" in Conference Room in the Paul-Henri Spaak Building, PHS 3C050, on the 3rd floor of the C-part of the PHS Building, on the oposite of the Plenary, Translation: FR, DE, EN, ES

15.00 - 15.30   Presentation of the Olympics Campaign "Bring Tibet to the 2008 Games" by the NOC Tibet

15.30 - 16.45   Persentations

Moderation: Thomas Mann MEP, President of the Tibet Intergroup

Speakers:

• Pal Schmitt MEP, former olympic gold winner in fencing, IOC Member
• Peter Stastny MEP, participant of 4 Olympic Games (Winter). He received the highest Olympic Award - the Olympic Order
• Jean-Paul Marthoz, belgium columnist, former international press-director for Human Rights Watch, Editiorial Director of the Review "Enjeux Internationaux"
• Dieter Baumann, famous German athlete (1 500 m and 5 000 m distance), Olympic Medallist, gold winner of 5 000 m at the 1992 Summer Olympics, silver in Seoul 1988, successful at Wolrd an European Championships
• Vincent Metten, EU-Policy Director, International Campaign for Tibet (Brussels Office)

16.45 - 17.30   Discussion (including resolution)

17.30                Celebration of the Sand Mandala

Tibet Conference comes up with a Roadmap for Peace in Tibet

Brussels, 14 May - The three-day 5th International Conference of Tibet Support Groups came to an end with a concise action plan covering four areas of concern: political support for negotiations, human rights, environment & development and the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. "The action plan will galvanise the worldwide Tibet movement with new energy and enthusiasm", said Tempa Tsering, the Kalon for the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration.

The closing ceremony was addressed by Dr. h.c. Rolf Berndt, the Executive Chairman of the Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung and by Mr. Sonam Phuntsok Monkhar, the Tibetan Member of Parlament elected from Europe. In his address Mr. Monkhar thanked the participants for the energy and enthusiasm they put into the conference.

The message of Betty Williams was read out. In her message, the Noble Laureate said, "Stand proud and strong, Tibetan people, for right not might is on your side. And when the governments of the so-called democratic and free world decide not to kowtow to the bullying of China's tyrannical leadership, Tibet and the people His Holiness loves so dearly may have their dream come true; the dream of a free, prosperous and peaceful Tibet."

In his vote of thanks Mr. Tempa Tsering said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is fond of saying that in political terms the Tibet Support Groups around the world are the fourth refuge of the Tibetan people. He said that whenever the Tibetans pray they take refuge in the Buddha, the Sangha-the community of monks, and the Dharma-the teachings of the Buddha. Because of Tibet's sad political situation, the international community has thus become our fourth refuge.

The Fifth International Converence of Tibet Support Groups (TSGs) concluded today in Brussels. The international Tibet is a unique coalition of dedicated organizations and individuals who pool in their talent together to improve the human rights situation and to resolve the issue of Tibet. This time the converence brought 300 participants from 145 Tibet Support Groups and 36 Tibetan Associations from about 56 countries. The conclave alsor brought 12 Chinese supporters of the non-violent struggle of the Tibetan people.

This international gathering was convened by the Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration in collaboration with Friedrich-Nauman-Stiftung, Germany, and co-hosted by the Belgian Inter-Parliamentary Group for Tibet.

The first Tibet Support Groups conference was held in Dharamsala in 1990, the second in Bonn in 1996, the third in Berlin in 2000 and the fourth Tibet Support Groups conference was held in Prague in 2003 and was inaugurated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the presence of Vaclav Havel, the former President of Czech Republic.

Fith International Conference of Tibet support Groups

Brussels, 11-14 May 2007 - Dalai Lama cancels after Chinese pressure

In a statement to be publicly released later Wednesday, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said he decided not to attend a gathering of Tibetan groups in Brussels on Friday to save Belgium any trouble. The statement did not specify the pressure China exerted.

"The Belgian government shared with me their predicament on account of pressure from the People's Republic of China," the Dalai Lama's statement said. "Having considered the situation, I have decided not to visit Brussels this time." Beijing has for years mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign against the Dalai Lama, seeking to deny international legitimacy to the Nobel Peace Prize winner and undermine his enduring popularity in Chinese-controlled Tibet.

Like many European countries, Belgium is actively seeking ways to boost trade with the world's fastest-growing large economy, and Crown Prince Philippe is expected to head a 300-member trade delegation to Beijing next week. Belgium's ambassador to Beijing, Bernard Pierre, declined to confirm that Brussels had come under Chinese pressure and referred inquiries to the Belgian Foreign Ministry.

"It is indefensible that Belgium, a founding member of the European Union, should acquiesce to China in its attempts to silence the Dalai Lama, one of the world's greatest men of Peace," Mary Beth Markey of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said.