Tibetan Parliament Seeks UN’s Help in Stopping Repression in Tibet[Friday, 15 April 2011, 4:10 p.m.]
DHARAMSHALA:
The Tibetan Parliament in exile has appealed for the United Nations to
intervene in stopping repression imposed by the local Chinese
authorities on the monks of Kirti Monastery and the local Tibetan
population in Ngaba in northeastern Tibet. The Tibetan
Parliament has also sought help from the UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights, Amnesty International London, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights
without Frontiers International and international parliamentarians.“On
behalf of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, I beg to draw your attention to
the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet,” said deputy speaker
Dolma Gyari in a letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
yesterday. The deputy speaker apprised the UN chief that the
monastery in Ngaba has been virtually turned into a prison with heavy
deployment of Chinese military force and barbed wire fencing and
concrete walls around it. The tense situation at Kirti
Monastery arose when on 16 March, Phuntsok, a monk of the monastery,
set himself on fire to protest the massive repression of the widespread
peaceful protests across Tibet in 2008. The Tibetan Parliament
expressed its deep concern about the safety of monks locked up inside
Kirti monastery as the Chinese government has ordered the detention of
those between the age of 18 – 40.Many Tibetans stand guard on
the roads to prevent military trucks from taking away the detained
monks. The police brutally beat the Tibetans and unleashed dogs on them
when they attempted to block the forces from entering the monastery on
12 April, reported Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy based
in Dharmsala. “The security, dignity and the human rights of
over 2,500 monks of Kirti Monastery, one of the most important
monastery, stand critically threatened,” Deputy Speaker Dolma Gyari
said in the letter.Ms Gyari also apprised the UN about the
arrest of Phuntsok’s younger brother Lobsang Tseten and his maternal
uncle Lobsang Tsundue first on 22 March and later on 12 April. The deputy speaker informed the UN that arbitrary arrests and suppression continue in Ngaba. The
Tibetan Parliament has sent to the UN a report compiled by the Tibetan
Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on the prevailing situation of
human rights violations inside Tibet.
