B.RAMAN
As in previous years, the Tibetans are not
celebrating their New Year’s Day this year too which falls this month.
2.Tibetans in the Tibetan Autonomous Region
(TAR),Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan as well as the Tibetan diaspora
abroad, including in India, are observing their New Year’s Day as a day of
mourning and prayers in memory of 99 Tibetans who have so far committed
self-immolation ( 80 of them fatal) in the Tibetan areas of China to demand
their freedom and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Lhasa.
3.Their hopes that the advent of a new Chinese leadership
headed by Mr.Xi Jinping could mark a relaxation of the suppression in the
Tibetan areas and a willingness to address the grievances of the Tibetans have
been belied so far.
4.Since Xi took over as the Party General Secretary
from Mr.Hu Jintao in November last year, the Party has shown no inclination to
re-consider its policies of suppression and forcible integration of the
Tibetans which has driven many young Tibetan monks and others to take the
desperate step of self-immolation to draw the attention of the international
community to their plight.
5.Instead of recognizing the continuing
self-immolations as an expression of desperation and anguish, the Chinese have
been projecting them as part of a conspiracy against Beijing mounted by His
Holiness and the Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) and other external organizations such
as the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.
6.Instead of sympathising with the relatives and
friends of those who committed self-immolation, they have been rounding them up
and prosecuting them on a charge of instigating the self-immolations. Eight of
them have already been sentenced after sham trials to various terms of
imprisonment, including one of suspended death sentence.
7. In the face of this wave of suppression to put
down the self-immolations, the Tibetans in India observed five days of
solidarity with the Tibetan struggle for freedom. They observed a day of
prayers on February 1 at New Delhi that was attended by about 1000 people
including many Indian opposition leaders.
8.Lobsang Sangay, Prime Minister of the Tibetan
government-in-exile, has said the convictions were unfortunate because “repression is the
cause” of the self-immolations.
9.Sangay said
it was unfortunate that the Chinese government had resorted to “sham” trials
that had “no basis or legal process.”
10.He said he
had asked Tibetans around the world not to celebrate the Lunar New Year this
month out of respect for those who have died from the self-immolations.
11.“As a form of condolences and solidarity to all
those Tibetans inside Tibet … I have asked Tibetans not to celebrate, not to
organize any festivals, but to wear traditional dress and go to monasteries and
pray for all those who have died and continue to suffer in Tibet,” he said.
12.It was gratifying
to note the greater public interest in the Tibetan cause in New Delhi this
year, but it has to spread to other parts of India, which are hardly aware of
the continuing tragedy in Tibet.( 9-2-13)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. Twitter : @SORBONNE75 )
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