As Self-Immolations Near 100, Some Tibetans Ask, Is It Worth It?

A crowd of Tibetans came here to India’s capital last week, bearing flags and political banners and a bittersweet admixture of hope and despair. A grim countdown was under way: The number of Tibetans who have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule in Tibet had reached 99, one short of an anguished milestone.

Tibetan monks shout slogans as they take part in a rally during a four-day gathering billed as the Tibetan People’s Solidarity Campaign.

Yet as that milestone hung over the estimated 5,000 Tibetans who gathered in a small stadium, so did an uncertainty about whether the rest of the world was paying attention at all. In speeches, Tibetan leaders described the self-immolations as the desperate acts of a people left with no other way to draw global attention to Chinese policies in Tibet.

“What is forcing these self-immolations?” Lobsang Sangay, prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile, asked in an interview. “There is no freedom of speech. There is no form of political protest allowed in Tibet.”

The New York Times

Two Tibetan cousins set themselves on fire in China

Two Tibetan cousins set fire to themselves in their village to protest Chinese rule, bringing the total number of self-immolations this week to seven, the highest since the protests began last year, a rights group said on Saturday.

The London-based group Free Tibet said cousins Tsepo, 20, and Tenzin, 25, called for independence for Tibet as they set themselves on fire on Thursday in front of a government building in their village in Biru county north of Lhasa, Tibet's main city.

Tsepo reportedly died and Tenzin's condition was unknown after he was taken away by authorities, Free Tibet said.

Dozens of ethnic Tibetans have set themselves on fire in heavily Tibetan regions since March 2011 to protest what activists say is Beijing's heavy-handed rule in the region. Many have called for the return of the Dalai Lama, their exiled spiritual leader.

The Guardian

Woeser under house arrest, Barred from collecting Award

Tsering Woeser, the award-winning Tibetan writer and blogger has been barred from collecting an award from the Netherlands Embassy in Beijing and issued a month-long house arrest order.
Writing on her social networking page, Woeser said she was invited to receive her 2011 Prince Claus Award at a dinner reception at the Netherlands Embassy but on the eve of the private felicitation ceremony, officials from the Beijing Public Security Bureau arrived at her doorstep and issued orders barring her from visiting the Embassy.
“They (State Security police) said I could not go to the Netherlands Embassy tomorrow. They also said: for the month of March I would not be able to go out. If I wanted to go out it would have to be with them following along,” Woeser wrote.



Calling the 44-year old, a “courageous Tibetan writer,” the Prince Claus Fund while announcing the award last September had noted the “unique perspectives” that Woeser offers “on the complexities of Tibet today.”
According to Woeser, the Chairman of the Fund was scheduled to personally present the award but he was refused a visa to visit China. Moreover, the Netherlands Embassy was also warned by officials in Beijing against honouring Woeser. “But the Netherlands Embassy stated that it was still going to award me the prize, but at a fairly private ceremony in the embassy residence,” Woeser wrote.

phayul.com

China detains 300 Tibetan monks after self-immolation incident

Security forces have detained about 300 Tibetan monks from a monastery in southwestern China for a month amid a crackdown sparked by a monk's self-immolation, according to two exiled Tibetans and a prominent writer, citing sources there.

Tension in Aba prefecture, a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan province, have risen to their highest levels since protests turned violent in March 2008, ahead of the Beijing Olympics, and were put down by police and paramilitary units.

The monks from Aba's Kirti monastery, home to about 2,500 monks, were taken into custody on 21 April on military trucks, according to two exiled monks and a writer, who said their information was based on separate accounts from witnesses who live in Aba.

The detentions come as China's ruling Communist party celebrates 60 years since the "peaceful liberation" of Tibet, and underscores the government's struggle to win the hearts and minds of Tibetan people across the country.

More on the Guardian and Free Tibet

Tibetans Fear a Broader Crackdown

Mr. Samdrup, 42, frail and gaunt after six months in police custody, was marched into a courtroom to face accusations of “tomb robbing,” a charge that had been originally dropped 12 years ago by the police.

His real crime, say friends and relatives, was trying to save his brothers from labor camp and torture — their punishment for accusing a local police chief of hunting protected animals in a Tibetan nature preserve.

Exile groups and rights advocates say the prosecution of Mr. Samdrup and his brothers is part of a broader assault on prominent Tibetans around China, a campaign that has sent a chill through a community that once thought itself immune to the heavy hand of Beijing.

Their cases might have gone unnoticed outside Tibet if it were not for the stature of Mr. Samdrup, a darling of the official media whose organization has won grants from Ford Motor, Friends of the Earth and a foundation run by the film star Jet Li.

Full story at  NYTimes.com

Blood on Tiananmen Square

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Dalai Lama: China Has Created 'Hell on Earth' in Tibet

China has overseen a "brutal crackdown" in Tibet since protests shook the Himalayan region last year, part of decades of Chinese oppression that have driven Tibetan culture to the verge of extinction, the Dalai Lama said Tuesday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader made the comments in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent him into exile.

"Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear, and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them," the Dalai Lama said in this Indian hill town, where he and the self-proclaimed government-in-exile have been based since shortly after fleeing their homeland.

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