| Invasion and Refugees | | | | practical change in this policy. Without an adequate |
| - China's invasion by 40,000 troops in 1950 was an | | | | command of Chinese, Tibetans find it difficult to get |
| act of unprovoked aggression. There is no generally | | | | work in the state sector. |
| accepted legal basis for China's claim of sovereignty. | | | | - Secondary school children are taught all classes in |
| - Ten years later 100,000 Tibetans fled with the Dalai | | | | Chinese. Although English is a requirement for most |
| Lama, Tibet's spiritual and temporal ruler. | | | | university courses, Tibetan school children cannot |
| - In 1993 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees | | | | learn English unless they forfeit study of their own |
| handled 3,700 Tibetan cases. | | | | language. Many children are sent away to China for |
| - To avoid detection many refugees, who are poorly | | | | education, usually for a period of seven years. |
| clothed, are forced to use the 19,000 ft. Nangpa-La | | | | - Since 1994, the Chinese have strengthened their |
| pass below Everest. The Nepalese authorities | | | | drive to re-educate young Tibetans about their |
| continue to turn refugees over to the Chinese. | | | | cultural past at all levels of Tibetan education. They |
| Chinese Administration of Tibet | | | | use a distorted history programme which omits |
| - By the 17-Point Agreement of 1951 China undertook | | | | reference to an independent Tibet. |
| not to interfere with Tibet's existing system of | | | | - At school, no unrehearsed discussion of Tibetan |
| government and society, but never kept these | | | | cultural, religious and social issues is allowed. Party |
| promises in eastern Tibet and in 1959 reneged on the | | | | positions must actively be upheld. Chinese culture is |
| treaty altogether. | | | | emphatically promoted. |
| - China has renamed two out of Tibet's three | | | | Religious Intolerance |
| provinces as parts of the Chinese provinces of | | | | - Religious practice was forcibly suppressed until 1979, |
| Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan, and renamed the | | | | and up to 6,000 monasteries and shrines were |
| remaining province of U'Tsang as Tibet Autonomous | | | | destroyed. |
| Region (TAR). | | | | - The 1982 Constitution of the People's Republic of |
| - There is no evidence to support China's claim that | | | | China guarantees freedom of religious belief, but |
| TAR is autonomous: all local legislation is subject to | | | | China seeks to restrict the numbers of monks and |
| approval of the central government in Beijing; all local | | | | nuns entering monasteries. The restrictions prevent |
| government is subject to the regional party, which in | | | | children under 18 from joining monasteries. |
| Tibet has never been run by a Tibetan. Much | | | | - After serving arbitrary sentences imposed for |
| enforcement of Chinese law is ad hoc and subject to | | | | pro-independence activities, nuns and monks released |
| local interpretation due to wording being deliberately | | | | from prison are frequently banned from rejoining |
| ambiguous. | | | | their nunneries. |
| The Human Cost | | | | - New guidelines drawn up in 1994 instigated a policy |
| - Reprisals for the 1959 National Uprising alone | | | | of renewed religious suppression and attempts to |
| involved the elimination of 87,000 Tibetans by the | | | | discredit the religious authority of the Dalai Lama. |
| Chinese count, according to a Radio Lhasa broadcast | | | | - In 1995 the Chinese authorities rejected the child |
| of 1 October 1960. Tibetan exiles claim that 430,000 | | | | recognised by the Dalai Lama as the rebirth of the |
| died during the Uprising and the subsequent 15 years | | | | Panchen Lama, and installed their own candidate. |
| of guerrilla warfare. | | | | Chinese Immigrants Flood Tibet |
| - Some 1.2 million Tibetans are estimated to have | | | | - Beijing has admitted a policy of deliberately |
| been killed by the Chinese since 1950. | | | | encouraging Chinese to settle on a long-term basis in |
| - The International Commission of Jurists concluded in | | | | Tibet. |
| its reports, 1959 and 1960, that there was a prima | | | | - The influx of Chinese nationals has destabilised the |
| facie case of genocide committed by the Chinese | | | | economy. Forced agricultural modernisations led to |
| upon the Tibetan nation. These reports deal with | | | | extensive crop failures and Tibet's first recorded |
| events before the Cultural Revolution. Chinese Justice: | | | | famine (1960-1962), in which 340,000 Tibetans died. |
| Protest and Prisons | | | | Tibetan farms and grazing lands have been |
| - Exile sources estimate that up to 260,000 people | | | | confiscated and incorporated into collectivised and |
| died in prisons and labour camps between 1950 and | | | | communal farms. |
| 1984. | | | | - Resettlement of Chinese migrants has placed |
| - Unarmed demonstrators have been shot without | | | | Tibetans in the minority in many areas, including |
| warning by Chinese police on five occasions between | | | | Lhasa, causing chronic unemployment among |
| 1987 and 1989. Amnesty International believes that | | | | Tibetans. |
| "at least 200 civilians" were killed by the security | | | | - Official figures put the number of non-Tibetans in |
| forces during demonstrations in this period. There are | | | | the TAR at 79,000. Independent research puts the |
| also reports of detainees being summarily executed. | | | | figure at 250,000 to 300,000, and for the whole of |
| - Some 3,000 people are believed to have been | | | | Tibet 5 to 5.5 million Chinese to 4.5 million Tibetans. In |
| detained for political offences since September 1987, | | | | Kham and Amdo the Chinese outnumber Tibetans |
| many of them for writing letters, distributing leaflets | | | | many times over. |
| or talking to foreigners about the Tibetans' right to | | | | Economic Development Plans |
| independence. | | | | - Beijing wants to see 10% economic growth per |
| - The number of political detainees in Lhasa's main | | | | year from the Tibetan region. New wealth is being |
| prison, Drapchi, is reported to have doubled between | | | | channelled into Chinese hands as shown by the 1994 |
| 1990 and 1994. The vast majority of political inmates | | | | announcement of a railway for Tibet. The rail project |
| are monks or nuns. A political prisoner in Tibet can | | | | will speed both the influx of Chinese migrants as well |
| now expect an average sentence of 6.5 years. | | | | as the extraction of Tibet's mineral reserves. |
| - Over 230 Tibetans were detained for political | | | | - According to the TAR Economic Planning |
| offences in 1995, a 50% increase on 1994, bringing | | | | Commission's plan, the main thrust of China's |
| the total in custody to over 600. | | | | economic activities in Tibet in the 1990s will be 'the |
| - Detailed accounts show that the Chinese conducted | | | | exploitation of mineral resources'. Mining and other |
| a campaign of torture against Tibetan dissidents in | | | | mineral extraction is the largest economic activity in |
| prison from March 1989 to May 1990. However, | | | | both U'Tsang and Amdo. |
| beatings and torture are still regularly used against | | | | - Chinese traders are favoured by lower tax |
| political detainees and prisoners today. Such prisoners | | | | assessments and the dominant position of Chinese in |
| are held in sub-standard conditions, given insufficient | | | | government administration. Chinese officials are paid |
| food, forbidden to speak, frequently held | | | | various bonuses for working in Tibet. |
| incommunicado and denied proper medical treatment. | | | | - China is pushing to incorporate Tibet into its new |
| - Beatings and torture with electric shock batons are | | | | market economy by boosting agricultural output. |
| common; prisoners have died from such treatment. | | | | Traditional barley farming, suited to the climate, is |
| In 1992, Palden Gyatso, a monk who had been | | | | diminishing as new crops are introduced (sometimes |
| tortured by the Chinese for over 30 years, bribed | | | | with foreign aid backing). |
| prison guards to hand over implements of torture. | | | | The Environment and the Military |
| The weapons, smuggled out of Tibet, were displayed | | | | - Estimates of deforestation vary, but most reckon |
| in the west in 1994 and 1995. | | | | that at least half Tibet's natural forest cover has |
| - Despite China having ratified a number of UN | | | | gone since the Chinese occupation. An extensive |
| conventions, including those relating to torture, | | | | road-building programme has been opening up the |
| women, children and racial discrimination, the Chinese | | | | previously inaccessible areas of forest. Tourists have |
| authorities have been repeatedly violating these | | | | seen up to 60 trucks per hour loaded with timber |
| conventions in China and Tibet. | | | | leaving Tibet - proof of deforestation on a large |
| - Nearly all prisoners arrested for political protest are | | | | scale, in contravention of UN Resolution 1803 (XVII) |
| beaten extensively at the time of arrest and initial | | | | 1962, which establishes the right of peoples to |
| detention. Serious physical maltreatment has also | | | | permanent sovereignty over their natural resources. |
| been recorded in a significant proportion of cases. In | | | | - The Indian Government reports that three nuclear |
| the period 1994-1995, three nuns died shortly after | | | | missile sites, and an estimated 300,000 troops are |
| release from custody as a result of ill-treatment and | | | | stationed on Tibetan territory. |
| torture in detention. | | | | - Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the Chinese |
| - The Chinese have refused to allow independent | | | | operated a large nuclear weapons research centre at |
| observers to attend so-called public trials. Prison | | | | the Ninth academy in Haibai prefecture, Qinghai |
| sentences are regularly decided before the trial. | | | | province. |
| Fewer than 2% of cases in China are won by the | | | | - China has admitted to dumping nuclear waste on |
| defence. | | | | the Tibetan plateau. There is a 20 km2 dump for |
| Control of Education | | | | radioactive pollutants near Lake Kokonor, the largest |
| - Chinese replaced Tibetan as the official language. | | | | lake on the Tibetan plateau. |
| Despite official pronouncements, there has been no | | | | |