Tibet riots orchestrated?

Here is a post from the Canada Tibet Committee. The title alone struck my interest so I thought I'd post the article in it's entirety and let you come up with your own opinions. I'll do some research and follow up with another post if there is anything more to this.

 

"London, UK -- Britain's GCHQ, the government communications agency
that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed
the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People's
Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that
have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

GCHQ analysts believe the decision was deliberately calculated by the
Beijing leadership to provide an excuse to stamp out the simmering
unrest in the region, which is already attracting unwelcome world
attention in the run-up to the Olympic Games this summer.

For weeks there has been growing resentment in Lhasa, Tibet's
capital, against minor actions taken by the Chinese authorities.

Increasingly, monks have led acts of civil disobedience, demanding
the right to perform traditional incense burning rituals. With their
demands go cries for the return of the Dalai Lama, the 14th to hold
the high spiritual office.

Committed to teaching the tenets of his moral authority - peace and
compassion - the Dalai Lama was 14 when the PLA invaded Tibet in 1950
and he was forced to flee to India from where he has run a relentless
campaign against the harshness of Chinese rule.

But critics have objected to his attraction to film stars. Newspaper
magnate Rupert Murdoch has called him: "A very political monk in Gucci shoes."

Discovering that his supporters inside Tibet and China would become
even more active in the months approaching the Olympic Games this
summer, British intelligence officers in Beijing learned the ruling
regime would seek an excuse to move and crush the present unrest.

That fear was publicly expressed by the Dalai Lama. GCHQ's
satellites, geo-positioned in space, were tasked to closely monitor
the situation.

The doughnut-shaped complex, near Cheltenham racecourse, is set in
the pleasant Cotswolds in the west of England. Seven thousand
employees include the best electronic experts and analysts in the
world. Between them they speak more than 150 languages. At their
disposal are 10,000 computers, many of which have been specially
built for their work.

The images they downloaded from the satellites provided confirmation
the Chinese used agent provocateurs to start riots, which gave the
PLA the excuse to move on Lhasa to kill and wound over the past week."

*buddhistchannel.tv

(This post is from an independent writer. The opinions and views
expressed herein are those of the author and are not endorsed by
APakistanNews.Com.) 

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Sources: http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/4412
             http://www.apakistannews.com/tibet-riots-orchestrated-86324

Tibet documentary wins best Human Rights film award

By Phurbu Thinley
Phayul

                               Ngawang Choephel was arrested in August 1995 by Chinese authorities for videotaping  Tibetan children and elders singing and dancing their traditional songs



Dharamsala, October 13: A 30-minute documentary film on a harrowing tale of political persecution in Tibet has won award for the best Human Rights Film at a film festival in Taos, New Mexico, US.

The film Missing in Tibet, grabbed the ‘Best Human Rights Film’ award at the Eighth Annual Taos Mountain Film Festival that ended Sunday.

This film is about Nwawang Choephel, a Tibetan-born exile, who, on December 26, 1996, was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Chinese authorities.

While living in the States, Ngawang was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study and record the ethnomusicology of his Tibetan homeland at prestigious Middlebury College in Vermont. His research took him to Tibet to document and preserve traditional music and dance.

In the midst of this research the Chinese authorities arrested him. His only ‘crime’ being he videotaped Tibetan children and elders singing and dancing their traditional songs. He was released in February 2002, after six years in prison.

Interweaving his life story with actual footage shot before his incarceration the film, narrated by Goldie Hawn and Peter Coyote recounts a harrowing tale of political persecution.

Created in 1996 by Robin Garthwait, Missing in Tibet won the Jury Award, Telluride Mountain Film Festival, 1997 and Best Short Subject Cultural Awareness, International Humanitarian Awards, 1998.

The film has been aired on PBS stations in Boston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Denver, San Jose, Buffalo, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Columbia, SC, and also broadcasted nationally in Australia and Hungary.

Taos Mountain Film Festival, as the name suggests, is a film festival for mountaineers, mountain lovers and mountain characters. The Spine at TMFF is Tibet. About a quarter of the festival's 40 films are related to the struggle of Tibet's people and/or their spiritual leader.

COMPASSION IN EXILE, LEAVING FEAR BEHIND, DALAI LAMA: A PORTRAIT IN THE FIRST, LEAVING FEAR BEHIND, PATH TO MOUNT KAILASH, WHY ARE WE SILENT?, THE FATE OF THE LHAPAS and TIBET, CRY OF THE SNOW LION are horde of other Tibet films featured at this year’s Taos Mountain Film Festival held from October 9 to 12.

 Source: http://www.tibet.ca/en/newsroom/wtn/4300

Tibet activists set ablaze "China's Ravan"

By Phurbu Thinley Phayul.com




 Dharamsala, October 9 

Tibetan activists paraded a demonized
effigy, bearing photos of Chinese President Hu Jintao and Zhang
Qingli, the current Chinese Communist Party Secretary to Tibet,
before setting it on fire here today.

They called the effigy "China's Ravan" and their act a symbolic
celebration of the concluding day of Dussehra.

Dussehra is celebrated by Hindus as victory of "Good over evil" in
which a Hindu mythological demon King Ravana is put on fire to mark
end of evil's reign.

Members of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), India, today labeled Hu
Jintao, who imposed Martial Law in Lhasa on March 8, 1989 following
series of demonstrations by Tibetans during his tenure as the Chinese
Communist Party Secretary to Tibet, as "China's Ravan".

During the reign of the Martial decree, which lasted for 13 months,
Tibetan demonstrators were brutally suppressed resulting in deaths.
Aftermath the brutal suppression, several detainees were subjected to
prolonged sadistic and horrifying treatments as later reported by the
UN Special Rapporteur on Torture.

The activist also placed photos of Zhang Qingli,who was in the
spotlight during the 2008 Tibetan unrest for his heavy handedness in
dealing with the demonstrators.

Known for his tough policies in ethnic regions, Zhang is seen as a
man responsible for China's hardening stance in dealing with Tibetan
people in recent times. He accelerated campaigns against Tibetan
culture and religion, brought in more settlers and stepped up the
commercial exploitation of Tibet's huge reserves of raw materials.

This sharp-tongued communist party secretary is despised by Tibetans
for his scathing and defamatory verbal attacks on the revered Tibetan
leader, the Dalai Lama. He is the man who called the Dalai Lama "a
wolf in monk's clothes, a devil with a human face".

The effigy, bearing photos of the two Chinese Communist leaders, was
paraded through McLeod Ganj before it was set on fire near the town's
main square.

The activists believe burning the demonized effigy 'China's Ravan' on
final Dussehra festival signifies bringing to an end a symbol of evil.

On Thursday, Hindus celebrated the final day of Dussehra by setting
statue of Ravan on fire signifying the triumph of good over evil.

McLeod Ganj, a suburb also referred to as the Upper Dharamsala, is
the seat of the Dalai Lama led Tibetan Government-in-Exile. 


Source: 
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22954&article=Tibet+activists+set+ablaze+%E2%80%9CChina%E2%80%99s+Ravan%E2%80%9D&t=1&c=1 

Photo: Tenzin Dasel/Phayul

DIIR submits report on ‘torture against Tibetan people’ to the UN

tibet.net Tuesday, September 30 2008 @ 02:39 pm BST

Geneva: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), through its Tibet Bureau based in Geneva, submitted a report on “ the continuing use of torture against the Tibetan people” to “the United Nations Committee Against Torture on Violations by the People’s Republic of China Against The People of Tibet”, on 29 September.

The report details narrative of events from 2000 to 2008, presenting evidence of torture used against Tibetan people under the political and religious repression imposed by the Chinese government in Tibet.

It presents a detailed account of the Chinese government’s violations of the convention against torture by attributing those with ‘evidence of torture in connection with recent protests in Tibet’, ‘torture as a common practice in Tibet even before the March demonstration’, ‘failure of China’s legal system to ban the use of torture’, ‘absence of independent judiciary’ and the ‘Chinese authorities threat of disciplinary action against lawyers’.

The report, which evaluates China’s compliance with the convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment (torture convention) with respect to Tibet, said, “China continues to engage in widespread and systematic violations of the torture conventions against the Tibetan people.”

China has also failed to make genuine progress in the areas of concern noted by this committee in its ‘1996 and 2000 Concluding Observations’, which is supported by the recent findings of the Special Rapporteur on Torture, following his mission to China, noted the report.

The report asked the committee to examine China’s compliance with the Torture Convention taking into consideration the significant events in Tibet since 2000.

It said significant measures were implemented to curtail and repress the free practice of religion in Tibet, to deny the Tibetan people any meaningful right of free expression, and to marginalize Tibetans through a concerted effort to support the influx of Chinese settlers.

These measures have been enforced through police intimidation, arbitrary arrest and detention, and torture used to punish and terrorise the Tibetan communities. Indeed, across a broad array of economic, social and political rights, the Chinese government has failed the Tibetan people, the report added.

The report is critical of the increasing repression and economic marginalisation of Tibetans, which culminated in a sustained and widespread series of protests – almost all peaceful – throughout Tibet beginning on 10 March 2008.

Chinese authorities responded by detaining thousands of Tibetans, many of whom were treated with extreme brutality both while being detained and during their detention, shooting and killing unarmed protesters, locking monks and nuns inside their monasteries, imposing a heavy police and military presence in all cities and most towns of any significant size as well as remote nomad encampments, severely restricting travel within Tibet, and instituting “patriotic education” campaigns within the monasteries, the reported noted.

The Central Tibetan Administration urges the United Nations Committee Against Torture to scrutinize China’s compliance with the Torture Convention with particular attention to Tibet.

It also requests the committee to address the continuing use of torture against the Tibetan people and submit recommendations for its consideration in order to end the use of torture in Tibet.  

Article from: http://www.tibetcustom.com
Source: http://www.tibetcustom.com/article.php/20080930143949987

China 'spying on Skype messages'

China has been monitoring and censoring messages sent through the internet service Skype, researchers say.

 

Citizen Lab, a Canadian research group, says it found a database containing thousands of politically sensitive words which had been blocked by China.

The publically available database also displayed personal data on subscribers.

Skype said it had always been open about the filtering of data by Chinese partners, but that it was concerned by breaches in the security of the site.

Citizen Lab researchers, based at the University of Toronto, said they discovered a huge surveillance system which had picked up and stored messages sent through the online telephone and text messaging service.

The database held more than 150,000 messages which included words such as "democracy" and "Tibet" and phrases relating to the banned spiritual movement, Falun Gong.

"These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are stored on insecure publicly accessible web servers," said Citizen Lab's report, entitled "Breaching Trust".

They said that by using one username, it was possible to identify all the people who had sent messages to or received them from the original user.

'Meeting laws'

Skype is operated in China as Tom-Skype, a joint venture involving the American auction site, eBay and Chinese company TOM-Online.

Citizen Lab said it was "clear" that Tom was "engaging in extensive surveillance with seemingly little regard for the security and privacy of Skype users".

They asked to what extent Tom Online and Skype were co-operating with the Chinese government in monitoring communications.

But Skype president Josh Silverman said China's monitoring was "common knowledge" and that Tom Online, had "established procedures to meet local laws and regulations".

"These regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed offensive by the Chinese authorities," he said.

Mr Silverman said that it had been Tom Online's policy to block certain messages and then delete them and he would be investigating why the policy had changed to allow the company to upload and store those messages.

Although internet use is high in China, the authorities have long prevented citizens from accessing websites which are considered politically sensitive.

Western internet companies such as Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have been criticised by human-rights groups for adhering to China's strict regulations. 

Article from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7649761.stm

Rescuers search Tibet rubble after quake kills 10

By AUDRA ANG The Associated Press Writer

BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers rushed tents, food and water to villagers in Tibet on Tuesday after an earthquake and scores of aftershocks rattled the capital and surrounding areas, killing at least 10 people and collapsing hundreds of houses.

State media said soldiers and rescue dogs were searching through rubble for people in Yangyi, the hardest-hit village in Dangxiong County, where the magnitude 6.6 quake struck late Monday afternoon.

The official Xinhua News Agency said nine people were killed in Yangyi. The 10th death was a high school student killed in a stampede in Shan'nan Prefecture, about 120 miles (200 kilometers) southwest of Dangxiong, during a quake evacuation, Xinhua said.

Nineteen people were injured in Yangyi, many with bone fractures, Xinhua said. They were mostly women, children and the elderly because the men were away harvesting and foraging for winter, it said.

About 171 homes were destroyed. Photos on the central government's Web site show piles of concrete — all that remained of collapsed houses — and the exposed roots of trees ripped from the ground.

"Almost all the buildings have collapsed in Yangyi," said Yi Xi, an employee of the Geda Township government, which oversees the village. "I went there earlier and did not see a single one still standing."

"Our efforts are focused on providing them food and shelter," she said in a telephone interview.

Tenzin Chodrak, who escaped because he was putting extra hay into the sheepfold when the quake struck and his home collapsed, told Xinhua his nephew was killed and his mother was injured.

"I can't believe it," Nyima, a Tibetan herder who lost her 2-year-old daughter, was quoted as saying by Xinhua as she wept.

According to the news agency, at least 700 rescuers were working Tuesday, with soldiers putting up more tents hoping to accommodate all the villagers by dusk. Health workers were doing medical checkups and sanitizing the area to prevent epidemics, it said.

Dangxiong County is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) west of the capital city of Lhasa, more than 1,600 miles (2,600 kilometers) from Beijing.

Many families stayed in tents Monday night because they were afraid their homes would fall down. The regional seismological bureau registered 188 aftershocks by 7 a.m. Tuesday (2300 GMT Monday), Xinhua said, including one above magnitude 6.0.

Authorities said Lhasa airport and the Qinghai-Tibet railway — which stretches from western Qinghai province to Tibet — were still operating. Chinese media reports said none of Lhasa's landmarks, such as the Potala Palace and Jokhang Temple, appeared to be damaged.

But schools in the capital were closed Tuesday for safety reasons, Xinhua said. Shops and hotels in Dangxiong County reached by telephone said they were open and business was normal.

China's far west is fairly earthquake-prone. On Sunday, a magnitude-5.7 earthquake shook the Xinjiang region, which borders Tibet, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, which also suffered a 6.6-magnitude quake hours later. At least 60 people were killed when a village collapsed.

A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on May 12 devastated parts of Sichuan province, just east of Tibet, killing 70,000 people and leaving 5 million homeless.

China says Tibet has been part of its territory for centuries but many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially independent for most of that time. On March 14, monk-led protests against Chinese rule turned violent in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, and ethnic Chinese residents were attacked.

The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, said Tuesday that he was "deeply saddened by the loss of life and property as a result of the earthquake."

"Our prayers go out to those who have lost their lives in this tragedy and offer condolences to their families and those affected," he said in a statement issued by his government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India.

Article from the Associated Press