ICT Rapporten
Dangerous Crossings
Two new ICT reports document the dangers for Tibetans in Nepal due to the Chinese government's focus on Tibetan issues in its relations with the Nepalese government, and shifting internal politics in Nepal.
As a result, the Nepalese government has adopted a hard line against expressions of the Tibetan identity in Nepal, despite strong cultural and religious ties among the Himalayan peoples that have existed for centuries. Long-staying Tibetan refugees in Kathmandu and in settlements close to the Tibet-Nepal border are increasingly demoralized -- and fearful -- as the Nepalese government relinquishes its historic and sovereign interests in response to incentivized political pressure from Beijing and its sympathizers.
A Great Mountain Burned by Fire
March 10, 2009, marked the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising in Lhasa that led to the Dalai Lama’s escape from Tibet, and the first anniversary of an unprecedented wave of overwhelmingly peaceful protests that swept across the Tibetan plateau, to be met by a violent crackdown.
Since March 10, 2008, the Chinese government has engaged in a comprehensive cover-up of the torture, disappearances and killings that have taken place across Tibet combined with a propaganda offensive against the exiled Tibetan leader, Nobel Peace Laureate the Dalai Lama.
Tracking the Steel Dragon
The world's highest railroad across the Tibetan plateau to Lhasa (completed in July 2006) is the most high-profile symbol of Beijing's ambitious plans to develop the western regions of the People's Republic of China (PRC). As an indispensable element of Beijing's 'transportation revolution', the aim of its construction is to expand the influence and consolidate the control of the Chinese Communist Party, which regards this as crucial to China's successful rise in the 21st century.
A report by the International Campaign for Tibet, Tracking the Steel Dragon, details the strategic significance to China of the extension of its national rail network into central Tibet, which Beijing describes as 'the southwestern frontier of the motherland', and the projected expansion of the line within Tibetan areas of the PRC and to Nepal. The Chinese government has recently acknowledged the military applications for the railway for the first time.
The Communist Party as Living Buddha
The boy recognised by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama, one of Tibet's most important religious leaders, marked his 18th birthday and coming of age on April 25, 2007, after more than a decade in Chinese custody.
The Panchen Lama's plight has come to symbolize the crisis facing the survival of Tibet's religious culture. ICT’s report documents a trend of tightening control over religious practice and scholarship in Tibet.
Tibet at a Turning Point
In spring 2008, a tidal wave of mainly peaceful protests against the Chinese government swept across Tibet. Tibetans risked their lives to demonstrate that their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, and not the Chinese state, represents their interests. This uprising is a result of more than half a century of Communist Party misrule and revealed the breakdown of Beijing’s Tibet policy at a time when China sought to convey an image of harmony in the buildup to the Olympics.
Hu Jintao's leadership appeared to have found itself with no other means than force and intimidation to restore control, and imposed a brutal crackdown that owes more to the political extremism and paranoia of the Maoist era than to a 21st century would-be superpower. China dramatically tightened security in Tibet and announced new "anti-terror" plans in order to prevent any possible embarrassment to the ruling Communist Party before a worldwide audience during the Olympics.
