There is currently a meeting of Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala, India, to discuss the future of their movement.
In March several Han Chinese were killed by violent Tibetan protesters in Lhasa. As the ‘western’ media misrepresented the issue, I wrote a small piece on the history of the Tibet conflict:
After he won control over most of China Mao Tse Tung in 1950 reasserted Chinese rule over Tibet, but allowed the local religious aristocracy and government to carry on.
Then most of the Tibetan people were still working as serfs for the big land owners. These were the thousands of monasteries controlled by various lama lineages, feudal religious ruler clans. Despite the peaceful image of Buddhism the various lamas and monasteries regularly fought over territory and economic benefits.
…
During the 1950s the Chinese implemented land reform and secular
schooling in Tibet. The lamas fought against the loss of their
economic, social and political power by sending their monks into the
streets. With the active help of the CIA
the lamas had some success against the communists, but the movement was
crushed when in 1959 the Chinese again occupied the capital and the
seat of the Dalai Lama, Lhasa. Financed by the CIA, the Dalai Lama fled to India to set up an exile government.
The people behind the uprising in March were trained in ‘color revolution’ techniques and are financed with million dollar grands from the U.S. government.
Under international public relation pressure due to the Olympics and to avoid further strife, the Chinese government agreed to more negotiation with the Tibetan exiles. It asked them to write down their demands.
The exiles did so and a memorandum was presented to the Chinese officials. The demands therein were rejected as going much too far. The public relation fight about these demands and their rejection is now made in English language.
The exiles’ MEMORANDUM ON GENUINE AUTONOMY FOR THE TIBETAN PEOPLE is quite expansive. It assures that the
demands therein can be fulfilled within the current Chinese laws and
constitution – if those are bend and some changes are applied (emph.
added):
To a very considerable extent Tibetan needs can be met within the constitutional principles on autonomy, as we understand them.
On several points, the Constitution gives significant discretionary
powers to state organs in the decision-making and on the operation of
the system of autonomy. These discretionary powers can be exercised to
facilitate genuine autonomy for Tibetans in ways that would
respond to the uniqueness of the Tibetan situation. In implementing
these principles, legislation relevant to autonomy may consequently need to be reviewed or amended to respond to the specific characteristics and needs of the Tibetan nationality.
The Chinese will not change their constitution and laws to appease the
Tibetan elite that fled in the 1960s. It would open a can of worms
for them as other minorities would come up with similar demands.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua’s Tibet writer is one Yi Duo. He today published
a ‘signed article’, which can be read as the official Chinese
refutation of the Dalai Lama’s memorandum.
Yi Duo writes that the demands in the memorandum are not, as
claimed, supported by the Chinese constitution, but are contrary to it
as the Dalai Lama demands the ‘genuine autonomy’ of a lose federal
state while China has a non-federal, unitary constitutional system.
There are already many provisions for autonomous regions within
China’s laws, Yi Duo says, and many such regions are already
established, including an autonomous Tibet region. There is no need to
expand the system.
In his (official Chinese) reading these are the issues the exiles’ memorandum includes:
- Demand for an independent, uncontrolled "right of legislation"
- Seeking for a "Greater Tibet" Without any Historic, Realistic and Legal Basis
- Trying to create isolation among ethnic groups
- Trying to stop promotion and use of Putonghua [the unified Mandarin language]
- Strongly opposing government’s management of religious affairs in line with laws
- Completely ignoring fact that Tibet is always part of China
- Claiming "Tibet government-in-exile" as representative of Tibetan people
Yi Duo ends:
The door of the central government for the Dalai
Lama to return to the patriotic stance has always been open and will
remain open in the future. However, the door for "Tibet independence,"
"half independence" or "covert independence" has never been open, nor
will it be open in the future.
After the rejection
of his demands, the Dalai Lama called for a meeting of all exile groups
in Dharamsala in India and, as McClatchy reports, it’s debate by day, party by night.
The meeting is supposed to debate how to go on with the struggle. The
Dalai Lama so far represented a peaceful political struggle. He still has
support but there are some harsh voices that call for terrorism against
China:
[Lhasang
Tsering, a former head of the Tibetan Youth Congress,] said he hoped
that Tibetan exiles would return to a policy of demanding independence
and using, if necessary, a campaign "to target their industries, their
power supply and communications inside China through acts of sabotage."
The Tibetan Youth Congress was one of the U.S trained groups behind the violence in Lhasa in March.
The exile meeting may decide to reduce the demands and find a
compromise to return to their homeland or it may decide to struggle on peacefully.
But some of the groups involved are likely to part way with that and will create more bloody riots or other violent acts as soon as the
recent meeting is over.
I therefore expect and increase in terrorist incidents within China.
—
Official Chinese government Tibet site: China Tibet Information Center
The Tibetan exile page: Central Tibetan Administration