Tibetan Communist Cadres asked to Recall their Children Studying in Exile

Wednesday, 16 July 2008, 10:09 a.m.

Dharamshala: According to
reports posted 10 July on the official website, China’s Tibet
Information Centre, 13 Tibetan Party members under Lhasa City were
expelled from the Communist Party for their involvement in the “March
14 riot” and their failure to uphold the three themes under the renewed
“patriotic education” campaign.

Under the three themes, the renewed “patriotic education” campaign
aims to ‘educate’ the masses about ‘opposing splittism’, ‘protecting
stability’ and ‘backing development’, by holding meetings, inviting
experts to give speeches, teaching and discussing the contents of the
‘patriotic education’ campaign, holding denunciation session of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama and screening propaganda shows.

The “Tibet Autonomous Region” (“TAR”) Communist Party’s
Discipline Inspection Commission (Ch: Jie Wei) and “TAR” Government
Discipline Committee (Ch: Jian cha ting) have issued Monday two months’
ultimatum to the Tibetan Communist Party members and government
employees to recall their children studying in exile schools, a rights
group based in Dharamshala reported.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said that the
new regulation was aimed to target Tibetan party members and government
employees whose children are studying in the exiled educational
institutions run by the “Dalai Clique”.

“Those party members and government employees who conceal
information on or fail to recall their children studying in exile
educational institutions run by the Dalai Clique within the stipulated
deadline shall be expelled from the Party and fired from their
government job,” noted the regulation.

Terming it as “political regulation”, the regulation
categorically mentioned that the Party members and government employees
are not allowed to send their children to educational institutions in
exile and doing so will goes against the Party rules and government
policies and will be punished accordingly.

The Tibetans were asked to voluntarily surrender and explain
before the concerned government department or the Party for leniency
without penalty, after recalling their children.

The new regulations said “the Dalai Clique has over the years
cited free scholarship, boarding and food facilities to the young
children in order to entice them to leave Tibet for schools and
monasteries in exile. The young who are the future seeds were targeted
by the Dalai clique by enticing with facilities in the exile schools
and monasteries in order to challenge the party and the government.”

In 1994 a policy was instituted demanding that parents recall
their children from India lest they be demoted or expelled from their
jobs, and their children lose their rights to residence permits if they
did not return to Tibet within a specified time. And many parents
recalled their children studying in exile schools and many ended up
terminating their education.

Following the recent series of protests across the Tibetan
plateau, at the beginning of April, the Chinese authorities launched a
renewed “Patriotic education” campaign covering almost every section of
Tibetan communities with more rigor and intensity.

The campaign not only target the monastic institutions but also
government employees, security forces, farmers, nomads, private
entrepreneur, educational institutions and Party cadres. The ethnic
Tibetan Party cadres and government employees in particular come under
scanner with test of individual loyalty to the party, one’s stand on
the “separatist” forces, family background and way of thinking were
thoroughly judged.

On 21 April, Dorjee Tsering, Lhasa City Mayor, said the
“Patriotic education” campaign will be a standard litmus test for the
party cadres and will be set as a standard barometer for testing one’s
loyalty to the Party.

Expressing concern over the new regulation, the rights group
said the Chinese authorities should immediately withdraw this new
regulation and respect the ethnic Tibetan government employees and
party members rights.