Wednesday, November 28, 2012

The Tibetan Rebellious Bandits


On November 26, VOA reported 'Mass Tibetan Student Protest in Chabcha':
Over a thousand students in Chabcha county in Tsolho prefecture took to the streets Monday morning around 6 am to call for equality of nationalities, freedom of language, investigation of present situations and respect for truth. The protest by Chabcha Tibetan Medical School students lasted for about two hours before Chinese personnel used severe force to break the peaceful demonstration, injuring many students. The school is under complete lock-down and severe restriction. Today's mass student protest is known to have triggered by distribution of sheets by Chinese authorities that denounced the self-immolations as foolish separatist actions, questioning the meaning of such actions.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala gave more details:
Thousands of Tibetan students protest China’s political education
Thousands of Tibetan students at Sorig Lobling medical school in Chabcha (Ch: Gonghe) protested against the distribution of a ten-point political questionnaire and accompanying “patriotic education” sessions that contained disparaging remarks against the Tibetan spiritual leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
On 26 November, at around 9 am (local time), the protest erupted after the ten-point questionnaires were distributed among the students at the medical school in Chabcha town of Serchen County in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
The questionnaire required students to fill up answers to ten questions such as “What is the nature of self-immolation?” and "What are the consequences of illegal demonstrations and gatherings?"
The questionnaire also asked, “Will bilingual education system weaken the language and letters of nationalities?” or whether there was “a conflict between protection of traditional system and modern development?” Students were also required to answer such trap questions as “Under whose leadership the equality of nationalities became a reality?”
While explaining the contents of the questionnaire, students were given lectures, which included offensive remarks and baseless allegations against the so-called “Dalai splittist clique.”
The protest began as students called for “equality of nationalities”, “language freedom”, “respect for truth”, and the “establishment of a new government”, sources told TCHRD quoting local Tibetans in the area.
The local armed police, arriving after two hours of the protest, clashed with the students and engaged in indiscriminate beatings. About 20 are injured, among them four are in serious condition. The injured are being treated at the prefectural hospital.
TCHRD has also received unconfirmed reports of police using guns to quell the protest. With communication channels to Chabcha now blocked, there is no way to verify this information. However, sources confirm that police threw tear gas shell to disperse the crowds of protesters.
At the time of reporting, armed police and military forces have surrounded the school. Parents of the children and other Tibetans are unable to contact the school about the safety and condition of their children.
Where is China heading?
Can repression, always more repression, solve the problem?
This reminds me the reaction to the uprising of the Tibetan people in March 1959. The Tibetan 'masses' wanted to protect the Dalai Lama who had been invited to attend a cultural performance in the PLA's cantonment without being accompanied by his regiment of bodyguards.
The Lhaseans protested.
March 12, 1959, Lhasa
A few days later, Xinhua published this text on the 'Tibetan rebellious bandits':
Communiqué on the Revolt (New China News Agency)
Peking, March 28, 1959
Violating the will of the Tibetan people and betraying the motherland, the Tibetan Local Government and the upper-strata reactionary clique colluded with imperialism assembled rebellious bandits and launched armed attacks against the PLA Garrison in Lhasa during the night of March 19. Acting on orders to put the rebellion down, the valiant units of the PLA stationed in Tibet completely smashed the rebellious bandits in the city of Lhasa on the 22nd. Now the units of the PLA, assisted by patriotic people of all sections, both religions and secular, are mopping up the rebellious bandits in other places, in Tibet.
In order to safeguard the unification of the motherland and national unity, Premier Chou En-lai of the State Council issued an order on March 28 which, in addition to ordering the Tibetan Military Area Command of the People's Liberation Army to stamp out the rebellion
thoroughly, proclaimed that from that day the Tibetan Local Government which had instigated the rebellion was to be dissolved and the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous Region should exercise the functions and powers of the Tibetan Local Government.
The armed rebellion of the Tibetan Local' Government and the reactionary clique of the upper-strata in Lhasa began on March 10. The Dalai Lama had originally planned to attend a theatrical performance in the auditorium of the Tibetan Military Area Command of the People's Liberation, Army on March 10. The proposal was put forth by the Dalai Lama personality more than one month earlier and the date of March 10 was fixed by the Dalai Lama himself. On that day, however, the rebellious Tibetan clique spread wild rumours alleging that the army units of the Tibetan Military Area Command would detain the Dalai Lama and, using this rumour as a pretext, staged an armed rebellion, put the Dalai Lama under duress, raised such reactionary slogans as "Drive away the Han people" and
"Independence for Tibet" and, at the same time, killed Kanchung Soanamchiatso, a Tibetan official of the Preparatory Committee for the Tibet Autonomous. Region who opposed the rebellion, and wounded Sampo Tsewong-Rentzen, the Tibetan Deputy Commander of the Tibetan Military Area Command and others. The armed rebels at the same time surrounded the headquarters of the Tibetan Military Area Command of the People's Liberation Army and the offices of the Central Government agencies in Lhasa...
Xi Jinping's China needs to live in the 21st century.
Suppression of freedom and repression does not belong to this century.
In any case, it has not worked during the 20th.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Nice and Informative Article