-Report filed by Office of Tibet, Brasil-

Santiago, Chile –  On 21 August, Tsewang Phuntso, Representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to the Latin American Region, gave a formal briefing on the current human rights situation to the members of the Commission of Foreign Relations of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile.

The briefing was attended by the Chairman of the Commission of Foreign Relations Deputy Vlado Mirosevic Verdugo, Deputy Luis Rocaful Lopez, Deputy Jaime Naranjo Ortiz, Deputy Manuel Matta Aragay, Deputy Issa Kort Garrica, and Deputy Pablo Vidal Rojas.

Apart from the members of the Commission, the briefing was also attended by the staffers of the above deputies and staff members of the Commission of the Foreign Relations. Altogether, around 20 people attended the formal briefing.

In his briefing, Representative Tsewang Phuntso highlighted worsening of the human rights situation in Tibet in general since the year 2008, when the Tibetan plateau witnessed widespread protests by the Tibetan people against the continued repression of the Tibetan people by the Chinese authorities.

He informed the members of the Commission of Foreign Relations that not only the Chinese government seriously suppressed any kind of political dissension by the Tibetan people, they have also seriously restricted the freedom of expression in the field of culture and language preservation, the protection of ecology, the protection of traditional lifestyle of the Tibetan nomads, and the preservation and promotion of the freedom of religion of the Tibetan people.

Representative Tsewang Phuntso also highlighted the restrictions being imposed by the Chinese authorities on the movement of the Tibetan people whether it is within the Tibetan areas in China or Tibetan people’s travel outside Tibet and China.

Since the restrictions and repressions have become totally unbearable, he informed the members of the Commission that the Tibetan people inside Tibet were compelled to resort to self-immolation to protest against the Chinese authorities’ repression of the Tibetan people and to call for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet and to call for the protection of Tibetan people’s rights to preserve its own culture and identity including language. Since February 2009, 151 Tibetans (young and old, monks and nuns, educated and ordinary people, rural and urban dwellers) have undertaken self-immolation and of which 129 succumbed to the immolation, he said.

Representative Tsewang Phuntso also informed the members of Commission of Foreign Relations that the Chinese authorities have lately used a quasi-legal framework to criminalise the self-immolation by giving serious punishment to those who survived the self-immolation and by collectively punishing the self-immolators’ relatives and other associates through detention without trial, disappearance, and long prison sentences.

Despite all the unbearable repressions and suppressions in Tibet, he informed the members of the Commission of Foreign Relations that the Tibetan people under the guidance of His Holiness the Dalai Lama are seeking for a negotiated solution to the issue of Tibet and therefore, adopted a Middle Way Approach to resolve the issue. We are not seeking for complete separation of Tibet from China or independence of Tibet, but a genuine and meaningful autonomy within the framework of the Chinese constitution, provided the Chinese authorities guarantee the Tibetan people’s rights to preserve and promote its own unique cultural heritage, religion and identity including the language, he emphasised.

The members of the Commission of the Foreign Relations asked several questions which Representative Tsewang Phuntso responded. During the discussion, interestingly, Deputy Jaime Naranjo Ortiz who was a former Vice President of the Chilean Senate when His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Chile in 2006 narrated his own experience how aggressively the Chinese Embassy put pressure on Chile and on him personally at that time not to receive His Holiness to the Congress. He assured that, despite China’s unstoppable pressure, Chile will protect its own integrity and will always cherish its reverence and respect to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and look for a future visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Chile.

The proceedings of the briefing were recorded and noted in the record of the Chambers of the Deputies of Chile.

Representative Tsewang Phuntso thanked the Commission members for giving the opportunity to brief them on the current situation inside and offered a Khatag symbolising the gratitude for their attention on the human rights situation in Tibet.