_________________WTN-L World Tibet Network News _________________

Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee

Editorial Board: Brian Given, Conrad Richter, Nima Dorjee,

Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup

WTN Editors: wtn-editors@tibet.ca

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ISSUE ID: 00/01/24 Compiled by Tseten Samdup

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Monday, January 24, 2000

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Contents:

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1. Tibetan Group Wants India To Allow Monk To Stay (AP)

2. China jamming Voice of Tibets short wave radio broadcasts (VOT)

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1. Tibetan Group Wants India To Allow Monk To Stay (AP)

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NEW DELHI, Jan 24 (AP)--A group of 37 Tibetan organizations has urged the

Indian government to allow an influential 14-year-old monk to remain in

India.

The 17th Karmapa arrived in India early this month after fleeing Tibet.

"We sent a written request to the Indian government two weeks ago, but

there has been no response so far," Kunzang Sherab, president of the Joint

Action Committee, Sikkim, told reporters in New Delhi.

"We now plan to meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to pursue our

request," said Sherab at the end of a prayer meeting, attended by more than

100 followers.

The group said the Karmapa should be allowed to live in the Rumtek

monastery in the northeastern state of Sikkim, where his predecessor

established the seat of the Karma Kagyu sect after he left Tibet in 1959.

The Indian Express reported that the Dalai Lama, in a letter to Vajpayee

supporting a request by the Karmapa to stay, said the teen-ager was a

person of immense spiritual significance and he should be allowed to go

through traditional training by religious teachers in India. There was no

confirmation of the report.

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2. China jamming Voice of Tibets short wave radio broadcasts (VOT)

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24 January 2000

The Foundation Voice of Tibet, Oslo - Norway

The Peoples Republic of China started jamming/blocking all the Voice of

Tibet short wave radio broadcasts on Wednesday 12th January by putting

Chinese produced programmes and noice on top of VOTs frequency. VOT

immediately moved to new frequencies, but on Sunday 23rd January the

Chinese authorities decided to move after VOT to block also the

transmissions on the new frequencies. Referring to a professional monitorer

close to the target area providing the following monitoring report today:

"No doubt about it, today. The chinese are fiercely/heavily jamming VOTs

transmissions so heavy that I can't hear VOT at all right from 1215 itself.

Then the other frequencies has also the Chinese on top of VOT and VOT is

badly interfered with."

VOT started on December 10 1999, in addition to its previous 30 mins.

Tibetan language service, a 15 mins. daily service in Mandarin language.

This service is also updated on Intenet (Real Audio) at www.vot.org The

Chinese efforts to block Voice of Tibets service is a very serious breach

of international law and agreements and gives all the wrong signals just a

week after celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the UNs Human Rights

declaration. Referring to article 19:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right

includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive

and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of

frontiers." Voice of Tibet is now seeking international support to stop the

Chinese attempts to prevent the Tibetans in Tibet to get access to unbiased

information, including the International Telecommunications Unions (ITU)

main office in Geneva. Also last time Chinese authorities jammed VOTs

programmes a complaint was forwarded to ITU, who responded that "China do

not care about our opinion anyway". By jamming VOTs Mandarin language

broadcasts the Chinese authorities try and block its own citisens from

access to unbiased news and information.

In 1996 the Chinese authorities blocked VOTs programmes by putting an

Australian-produced programme called "Easy FM" on VOTs frequency. The

Australian Tibet Council protested to the Australian company cooperating

with Radio China International to produce the "Easy FM" programme, and also

following up the issue to the broadcasting authorities in Beijing. In 1998

the Chinese decided to use a programme produced in cooperation with Radio

Canada International (RCI) to block Voice of Tibets transmissions. After

RCI demanded that this practise should stop, the Chinese has not used

foreign language programmes in its efforts to block VOTs transmissions.

VOT will now contact international Human Rights and Freedom of Speech

organisations to request for their support in stopping the Chinese

authorities continuing to breach international law and agreements.

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