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| FROM THE ROOF OF A TEMPLE, MUNDGOD |
[Written in
retrospect, 11th December, 2012]
Today is the twenty-third anniversary of HH Dali Lama’s award of the Nobel Peace Prize. Today
is also the sixty-fourth anniversary of the United Nations Movement for Peace
and Human Rights.
We are attending a celebratory programme at the Drepung Monastery in the Doegulung Tibetan Settlement in Mundgod, Karnatika, South India. HH Dalai Lama is lauded by various dignitaries who are attending, including a high official from the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharmshala. Conspicuous in the town are the banners with photos of the Tibetans who have recently died in their attempts to being attention to their plight in Tibet.
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| This photo is shown all over the town along with others |
[See the full list of Tibetans who have self-immolated at http://www.freetibet.org/news-media/na/full-list-self-immolations-tibet]
After various tributes from several members on the podium, one minute’s silence is observed and en-masse, thousands in the audience lower their heads in remembrance of the recent spate of self-immolations of Tibetan monks in China.
Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights Navi Pillay has called for the Chinese government to allow the
Tibetans to exercise their fundamental human rights by allowing freedom of
expression. So far, there have been
detentions and disappearances on a large scale.
She has said recently:
I
call on the Government to respect the rights to peaceful assembly and
expression, and to release all individuals detained for merely exercising these
universal rights. [http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43399&Cr=China&Cr1=#.UNkUCW9196Q]
Examples of the excesses of the Chinese
Government is the report of a 17-year old girl who was severely beaten and
sentenced to three-years in prison for distributing flyers calling for freedom
for Tibet. Others have been sentenced
for up to seven-years in prison for writing essays or making films or even
distributing photos of what is happening inside the country.
That thousands of Tibetans are regularly tortured at
the hands of the Chinese Government is not a secret; that 92-Tibetans have so
far poured accelerants over themselves and set themselves on fire, drinking the
liquid, thus making sure that they would die, is a fact; and that despite many countries condemning
the acts of the Chinese Government’s suppression of the Tibetans, their
language and their politics, including most countries in the EU, the refusal of
the UK and the USA to join the protests is conspicuous and deplorable in its
absence. As HH Dali Lama said, there is
a process of cultural genocide in
Tibet in that Tibetans cannot be taught their own language in schools and
replaced by Mandarin and that the carrying of the Tibetan flag is against the
law with severe penalties of up to 12-years in prison. Once in prison, many do
not come out again and if they do, they usually live for only another year due
to the tortures inflicted on them.
Instead or honouring the agreement that Tibet should be
an autonomous state, the Chinese have systematically suppressed the Tibetan
people’s hopes for their own land and culture.
The secrecy of the cruel actions against the Tibetans is evident. Journalists are not allowed into Tibet as
peaceful demonstrations against the authoritarian rule of the Chinese
Government take place on a daily basis.
So far, 350 thousand signatures have been collected and
passed to the UN stating that the release of political prisoners must be a
priority.
There is now a movement to organise an international
day of protest on January
13th, 2013 for 4-days, the main focus
being the Tibetans living in Delhi.
There continues to be false announcements from China that the Indians and
HH Dalai Lama in particular are instigating these protests.
This Christmas, give a thought for the Tibetans and act
against this injustice.
Click here for past posts.
