DHARAMSHALA: The Central Tibetan Administration today expressed deep concern over the mass influx of Chinese to Tibet, which it said has turned Tibetans into second-class citizens in their own land.

Speaking on the occasion of World Human Rights Day today, Tibetan political leader Dr Lobsang Sangay said: “This day is observed to celebrate the proclamation and adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations in 1948 as the common standard to measure the freedoms to which all peoples and nations should live.”

“Unfortunately, even after 65 years of proclamation there is not much for Tibetans to celebrate given the deteriorating human rights condition in Tibet,” he added.

“China continues to negate the principle of the universality of human rights by violating the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Tibet is still under occupation. It continues to suffer from political repression, economic marginalisation, social discrimination, environmental destruction and cultural assimilation. Worst is the mass Chinese migration to Tibet which has turned Tibetans into second-class citizens in their own homeland,” Sikyong Dr Lobsang Sangay said.

“Living under such a repressive environment, with no space for conventional methods of protest, Tibetans from all walks of life are forced to take drastic measures to express their outrage and despair. Just a week ago, Mr. Kunchok Tsetan, only 30 years old, self-immolated and died. Despite our repeated appeals not to do so, 123 Tibetans have self-immolated in Tibet since 2009. 123 is neither simply a number nor a list of names. They are human beings just like any one of us who will wish to live a complete life, if given a choice. China cannot deny the blatant human rights violations which are the causes for the self-immolations,” he said. (CTA White Paper on Self-Immolations in Tibet)

“Recently in Driru, Nagchu, Tibetans refused to hoist the Chinese national flag. They were shot at and 4 of them were killed. Many were detained. The situation in the area continues to remain tense,” he added.

Sikyong further said: “Instead of seeing His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the solution, he is labeled an arch enemy. Chen Quanguo, the Party Secretary of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), threatened to silence His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s voice and ban his own people inside Tibet from hearing his message. Similarly, the voice of their own Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, is silenced as he is currently imprisoned in China.”

“The deteriorating human rights situation inside Tibet is being criticised and castigated in the US State Department Human Rights Report, Amnesty International Report and Human Rights Watch Report. The Freedom House ranked Tibet among the ‘worst of the worst’ in civil rights and political liberty in its Freedom in the World Report 2013,” he said.

“In the recent United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of China, 12 nations including Japan, Australia, Iceland and Canada expressed their concern over China’s human rights violations. Among others, New Zealand called on China to resume two-way dialogue to resolve the issue of Tibet,” he added.