Don’t Forget Tibet

November 21, 2013;

An interview with exiled Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay.

By Mary Kissel , The Wall Street Journal

China’s Communist Party leadership announced a 60-point reform plan last week which moves the country toward a more open and liberalized economy. But if Beijing’s treatment of Tibet is any indication, constraints on political freedoms won’t be loosened anytime soon.

Exiled Prime Minister Lobsang Sangay visited The Journal’s offices recently to discuss the situation, which has worsened since Tibetans rose up to protest the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Since then, Beijing has sent waves of Han Chinese to effectively colonize the region, cracked down on religious expression, detained supporters of the Dalai Lama, and even “installed CCTV cameras” in small villages, Mr. Sangay says.

More ominously, China has also tightened security along its border with Nepal, a mountainous area which has long served as the primary escape route for Tibetans to Nepal, and ultimately, to Dharmsala, India, the home of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

“Before 2008, 3,000 to 5,000 people fled via Nepal annually,” Mr. Sangay says, but now it’s “less than 1,000.” Chinese security officials even pursue Tibetans Nepal and are training that country’s security officials, Mr. Sangay notes. Repatriated Tibetans face interrogation, imprisonment or torture upon their return.

Tibetans have reacted to the crackdown by self-immolating, a practice Mr. Sangay calls “horrific.” Since February 2009, 123 people have died in this manner, with the latest victim a 20-year-old monk named Tsering Gyal, who passed earlier this month. On his deathbed he expressed support for “the unity of Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet, and said it was his hope that Tibetans can remain united and protect and uphold the Tibetan language,” Radio Free Asia reports.

“In 2008, the majority of the protestors were monks,” Mr. Sangay says, but now protests are “region-wide” and include “lay people” and “students.” He emphasizes that Tibetans want autonomy, not secession, and he remains open to dialogue with China’s leaders, a process that’s been frozen since January 2010. Meanwhile the Dalai Lama continues to call for peaceful protest. Given the circumstances, it’s unclear how long Tibetans will heed that advice.