ITSN News Digest: 20 March 2009

Posted Sat, 03/21/2009 - 14:24 by Jigme

IN TIBET:

China’s Brutality in Tibet Exposed (Tibet.net)
Tibetan Government in Exile received footage of Chinese security personnel beating Tibetans in the aftermath of protest last year. Another footage shows wounds suffered by a Tibetan as result of the inhuman torture inside the prison.
http://www.tibet.net/en/index.php?id=759&articletype=flash&rmenuid=morenews
Footage can be viewed below:
(Warning: The content may be graphic to some people)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiZL9zvQ3Sc

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103 Lutsang monks arrive home, 6 still held (Phayul)
Out the 109 monks of Lutsang monastery earlier arrested for carrying out peaceful protest march from Lamo Yongzin Phodrang (spelled as pronounced)to the Mangra county government headquarters on the first day of the Tibetan new year (Losar) 103 were released today, reported Voice of Tibet radio service. 6 monks are still held in custody, the VOT reported, citing a source in Drepung monastery in south India.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=24240&article=103+Lutsang+mon...

SINO - TIBET

Contact with China not broken: Tibetan PM (Phayul)
The exile government’s first directly elected Prime Minister has said that his government's contact with China on Tibet’s future is not at a dead end.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=24238&article=Contact+with+Ch...

IN EXILE

Monk's campaign for Tibetan freedom (EDP24)
Former Political Prisoner Palden Gyatso visited Norwich on Wednesday night to attend a screening at Cinema City of Fire Under The Snow, a film about his extraordinary and inspirational life.
http://new.edp24.co.uk/content/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=...
Related:
MEP meets Tibetan political prisoner in Edinburgh (stv.tv)
Labour MEP Catherine Stihler is set to meet long-time campaigner Palden Gyatso, who was imprisoned for 33 years in Tibet for his peaceful political activism.
http://news.stv.tv/home/83408-mep-meets-tibetan-political-prisoner-in-ed...

Longing to ride the next train to Lhasa (The Sydney Morning)
On the 50th anniversary of his exile from Tibet, the Dalai Lama talks to Ivan Broadhead.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/longing-to-ride-the-next-train-to-lhasa-2009...

CHINA

Uneasy Anniversary (News Week)
China's nationalistic tendencies surge back to the surface
March has been a particularly busy month for Chinese diplomats around the world. From Sacramento to Dublin, Hong Kong to Paris, Chinese officials have been working diligently to blunt activists' efforts to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan revolt that resulted in the Dalai Lama's flight to India.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/190129

PROPAGANDA

Tibetan intangible cultural heritage exhibition unveiled in Macao (Xinhua)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/20/content_11043993.htm

Spanish scholar contradicts allegation over religious freedom in Tibet (Xinhua)
A Spanish scholar published Thursday an article contradicting the Dalai Lama clique's allegation that Tibet "lacks freedom of belief.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/20/content_11043586.htm

New York council member: Americans need to have balanced information on Tibet (Xinhua)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/20/content_11043319.htm

Tibet a far better place thanks to CPC reforms (Xinhua)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/20/content_11038336.htm

Dalai Lama family owned 6,000 serfs (Xinhua)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/20/content_11038099.htm

Living Buddha: Religious freedom respected (China Daily)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/20/content_7598127.htm

Foreign media eye Tibet´s changes in Beijing (Chinadaily)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/20/content_7600220.htm

Op-Ed:

Halls of Shame: How China Invaded California and Took Over Our Legislature (Phayul)
By John Isom, Dechen Tsering, and Giovanni Vassallo
Most people did not notice, but on Monday China's communist leadership invaded California, landing in Sacramento like a precision SWAT team. Their mission? Influence enough of our elected officials to kill a resolution in the California State Assembly.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=24239&article=Halls+of+Shame%...

Dalai Lama, a secessionist in disguise (People’s Daily)
Dalai Lama, the self-claimed “savior of Tibet” and the spokesman of all Tibetan people, once again played the opinion card to separate Tibet from China as central government set the bottom-line policy for the region
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90780/91342/6618962.html

China's Post-Dalai Lama Endgame (Asia Sentinel)
http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1781&I...

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END

2009-03-20

News Archives

Facts about Tibet

Tibet lies at the centre of Asia, with an area of 2.5 million square kilometres (approximately 1 million square miles).

Despite over 50 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet, the Tibetan people refuse to be conquered and subjugated by China.

The Tibetan Plateau is the highest and biggest plateau in the world, so Tibet is referred to as “the roof of the world”.

For Tibetans, the term Tibet means the 3 provinces of U'Tsang, Kham and Amdo, the area traditionally known as Tibet before China's invasion.

The English word Tibet is derived from the Arabic word Tubbat. This word is in turn derived via Persian from the Turkic word Tobad, meaning ‘the heights’.

Tibet was occupied by China in 1949, and the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959.

Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have died as a direct result of Chinese occupation since 1949.

There are six million Tibetans in Tibet and roughly 150,000 Tibetans in exile in India and other countries.

Tibetans consider the Dalai Lama to be the temporal as well as spiritual leader of Tibet.

Thousands of Tibetans cross the mighty Himalaya on foot every year into exile, risking death, injuries and arrest.

Most Tibetans are Buddhist, but there are Muslims, Christians and practitioners of Bon, the indigenous religion of Tibet.

In 1948 Tibetan government representatives traveled to the US, UK and France on Tibetan government issued passports.

The exiled Tibetan people elected their first Prime Minister in 2000

In 2008, Tibetans took part in more than 130 separate peaceful protests against the Chinese government across the Tibetan Plateau.

Displaying a photograph of the Dalai Lama in Tibet can result in arrest.

In 1995 the Chinese government abducted the 6 year old Panchen Lama, one of Tibet's most important spiritual leaders. He is still missing.

The longest epic poem in the world is the story of a legendary Tibetan king, Gesar of Ling.

The Tibetan Plateau is the Earth's "Third Pole," providing life-sustaining waters for and regulating weather across south and east Asia.

March 10 is Tibetan National Uprising day. It marks the massive uprising in Tibet in 1959 that led to the escape of the Dalai Lama into exile.

Yak is a Tibetan term for the male of the species. Its female counterpart is called Dri.

Tibetans are denied many of the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including the right to self- determination, freedom of speech and religion.

Untll 1949 Tibet had its own government that managed its own domestic and foreign affairs; Tibet had its own national flag and its own currency.

According to Amnesty International more than 1,000 Tibetans were unaccounted for after the protests of 2008.

In the Tibetan Lunar Calendar, the year 2009 corresponds to the year 2136, the Year of the Earth Ox.

Prior to the uprisings of 2008, the last major protests by Tibetans against China's occupation of Tibet took place in 1989, when martial law was declared.

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