Dharamshala: The US State Department released its latest Country Reports on Human Right Practices that assesses the human rights situation around the world in 2019. This annual human rights report noted that China’s “repressions of the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, association, and assembly of Tibetans in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas (…) was more severe than in other areas” of China.
The lack of Tibetans in the top positions of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), government, police, and military in the TAR and other Tibetan areas are also highlighted as “Han Chinese CCP members held the overwhelming majority” of those positions in Tibet, says the State Department report. In TAR, the top CCP position of party secretary is continuously held by Han Chinese. In the eight of the nine Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures (TAPs) into which Tibet has been divided after the Chinese occupation, all the party secretaries were Han Chinese except for one TAP in Qinghai. Contrarily, CCP secretaries and governors of ethnic minority autonomous prefectures and regions have to be from that ethnic minority according to Chinese law.
The section on Tibet in the report notes the human rights violations that were reported in the previous year including forced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detention, internet censorship, severe restrictions on religious freedom, freedom of movement and political participation.
The Chinese government continues to arbitrarily detain and disappear Tibetans as with the case of Lodoe Gyatso, who was arrested outside Potala Palace in January 2018, and a Ngaba Kirti Monastery monk Thubpa who was detained in late 2017 whose whereabouts and condition are unknown. The continued enforced disappearance of the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima since 1995 was also mentioned in the report.
Some of the cases of arbitrary detention and arrest such as Wangchen, Lobsang, and Yonten from Kardze Sershul county on April 29, 2019, for praying for the release of the 11th Panchen Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, and Kirti monks Lobsang Thamkhe (Thapke) and Lobsang Dorjee in 2018 were reported. Denial of fair public trial and legal procedures were also recorded with Tibetan language activist Tashi Wangchuk’s case.
The State Department’s report also noted the death of Yeshi Gyatso, 50, on May 1, 2019 following his release from prison due to torture and beatings faced in prison. Yeshi Gyatso was arrested in 2008 for participating in peaceful protests against Chinese policies in Tibet.
As per the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China’s database, as of November 7, there are “273 records of Tibetans known or believed to be detained or imprisoned by PRC authorities in violations of international human rights standards,” adding that this number is believed to be only a small fraction of the actual number of political prisoners in Tibet, says the report.
The report indicates the Tibetan self-immolations that continued in 2019 with the fiery protest by Yonten in Ngaba and the Chinese authorities’ criminalizing of various activities associated with self-immolation in Tibet.
Severe restrictions on freedom of expression, especially internet censorship and surveillance, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of movement (both in-country and foreign travel) of Tibetans in Tibet were also noted in the report.
Reiterating the concerns of threat to the Tibetan language under China’s policies in the recent Human Rights Watch report, the US State Department report also remarked on the Chinese policy which “limited the ability of children to learn Tibetan language and culture by removing Tibetan children from their homes and communities where the Tibetan language is used,” that “has also led to the removal of young monks from monasteries, forcing them instead into government-run schools.”
Racial discriminations against Tibetans in employment, with some employers specifically barring Tibetans and other minorities from applying to job openings, to reports of Tibetans being refused services by taxi drivers, hotels and getting house on rent by Chinese landlords throughout China were documented.
Adversely, major development projects and policies of the Chinese government “disproportionately benefited non-Tibetans and resulted in a considerable influx of Han Chinese persons into the TAR and other Tibetan areas.”
The US State Department’s human rights report, therefore, details the repression and human rights violations suffered by Tibetans under the PRC in 2019.
The full report on Tibet can be viewed here.
– Filed by UN, EU and Human Rights Desk, DIIR