_________________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: 00/01/27 Compiled by Tseten Samdup
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Thursday, January 27, 2000
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Contents:
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1. Teenage lama 'unlikely to return to Tibet' (ITN)
2. The Secret Report Of Tibet's 10th Panchen Lama Available Online For The
First Time (TIN)
3. Inspired to action by gentle Tibetans (SMH)
4. Media watchdog accuses China of jamming of Voice of Tibet (AFP)
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1. Teenage lama 'unlikely to return to Tibet' (ITN)
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(ITN Online) Jan 26, 2000
The teenage Tibetan Buddhist lama who fled to India is unlikely to return
to Tibet after he collects a sacred black crown and musical instruments -
the stated mission of his trip.
The Karmapa is the only Tibetan lama upon whom the Dalai Lama and Chinese
authorities have agreed and his departure is considered an embarrassment
for Beijing.
Hong Kong-based magazine Asiaweek reported details of the Karmapa's
meticulously planned eight-day flight across the snowy Himalayans to India
in its February 4 issue, including the opinion of exiles that he is
unlikely to return to Chinese-controlled Tibet.
Before leaving on December 28, the 14-year-old leader of the Karma Kagyu
sect of Buddhism told Chinese security officers in Tibet that he was going
on a religious retreat and would only see his tutor and cook, the magazine
quoted unidentified Tibetan exiles as saying.
On the night of his escape, two of his guards were on leave and most monks
in the monastery were watching television.
The Karmapa jumped from his bedroom window and was driven, along with his
sister and a number of monks, along the route the Dalai Lama took on
horseback when he fled Tibet in 1959, the magazine reported.
He got out of the vehicle before reaching security checkpoints, circled
around the barriers, and joined his group on the other side.
The Karmapa and the other monks began to walk when the road became
impassable near Nepal.
Crossing into Nepal after about 12 hours, they took a bus to the northern
Indian town of Gorakhpur and then a train and taxi to Dharamsala, where the
Dalai Lama's government-in-exile is based, the magazine said.
The Karmapa arrived in India with blistered feet and scraped hands on
January 4.
The Dalai Lama appears not to have known about the Karmapa's trip until he
arrived in Dharamsala, Asiaweek said.
The Karmapa is the only Tibetan lama upon whom the Dalai Lama and Chinese
authorities have agreed and his departure is considered an embarrassment
for Beijing.
Welcome to ITN Online, Britain's leading multimedia news site. If you are a
first time visitor you will find up to the minute coverage of breaking
sports stories and today's other news stories from ITN's reporters in
Britain and around the world: click here. Also visit Desktop News to
receive your own personalised news and video to your email address at the
time you want.
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2. The Secret Report Of Tibet's 10th Panchen Lama Available Online For The
First Time (TIN)
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A confidential report produced by the 10th Panchen Lama, condemned by Mao
Zedong and kept a closely-guarded secret in China for 34 years goes online
for the first time in both English and Chinese on 28 January 2000.
The report, known as the 70,000 Character Petition and probably the most
important text in modern Tibetan history, is being made available free of
charge on http://www.tibetinfo.net, the website of the London-based Tibet
Information Network (TIN). The Petition is being published online to mark
the 11th anniversary of the death of the 10th Panchen Lama.
When the Petition was sent to Mao Zedong in 1962, the Panchen Lama was the
most senior religious leader remaining in Tibet and titular head of the
Tibetan Government. Mao denounced the Petition as "a poisoned arrow shot at
the party" and its author as a "reactionary feudal overlord". Two years
later the Panchen Lama was condemned without trial as an enemy of the
people, and spent most of the following 14 years in prison or under house
arrest.
Believed to be the most extensive internal criticism of Chinese Communist
policies ever submitted to the leadership, the 70,000 Character Petition
remained secret for 34 years, seen only by those in inner Party circles in
China. It documents the mass arrests, excessive punishment and executions
of Tibetans that followed the 1959 Uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule,
and the starvation in Eastern Tibet that resulted from policies implemented
as part of Mao's Great Leap Forward at the end of the 1950s.
In 1996 a copy of the Petition reached the Tibet Information Network and
TIN's founder-director Robbie Barnett had it translated into English. TIN
published the text in both English and Chinese as "A Poisoned Arrow" in
January 1998.
Prior to the publication of his Petition the 10th Panchen Lama had often
been portrayed as a Chinese puppet, co-operating with the Chinese
authorities rather than going into exile. This "patriotic" image was
encouraged by both Beijing and the government in Lhasa. Less than a year
ago he was described in a speech by a top Tibetan official as "a
long-tested friend" who was "in support of the CCP leadership at every
historical stage from Tibet's revolution, building, to reform and opening
up". His 1962 Petition, together with speeches he made in 1987 and 1989,
give the lie to these claims. He is now seen as having done the best he
could, under very difficult circumstances, to safeguard the interests of
Tibetans.
"The late Panchen Lama's Petition is as relevant today as ever," says TIN's
current director, Richard Oppenheimer, "particularly in the light of the
arrival in India earlier this month of another of Tibet's most senior
religious figures, the 17th Karmapa. He too has been portrayed by Beijing
as being a "patriotic" figure, loyal to the Party. In the case of the late
Panchen Lama, we felt it was important
to make this key document available via the Internet, in Chinese as well as
English, to enable a wider audience to decide for themselves his place in
history."
Notes
1. Sample pages from the Petition of the 10th Panchen Lama are available
now at http://www.tibetinfo.net The full text of the Petition will be
available online, also at www.tibetinfo.net, from 0001hrs (GMT) on Friday
28 January 2000.
2. TIN's original publication, "A Poisoned Arrow", is still available in
book form, including a chronology and additional key historical documents
that are not provided online. To order, please email Tibet Information
Network on tin@tibetinfo.net or fax on +44 (0)20 7814 9015.
3. Tibet Information Network (TIN) is an independent news and research
service that collects and distributes information on what is happening in
Tibet. Based in London, with newsgathering centres in India and Nepal, TIN
monitors political, social, economic, environmental and human rights
conditions in Tibet and publishes the information in the form of news
updates and a range of reports. TIN is a registered charity
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3. Inspired to action by gentle Tibetans (SMH)
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By TONY STEPHENS
Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 26/01/2000
Val Grogan, having concerned herself for years with the problems of the
Dalai Lama and his people of Tibet, is now concerned with His Holiness
Gyalwa Karmapa.
His Holiness, aged 14 and also known as Ugyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th
Karmapa Lama, fled from Tibet into India over the new year.
His escape from the Chinese was the most significant since the defections
in 1959 of the Dalai Lama and the 16th Karmapa Lama, the man from whom the
14-year-old monk is said to be reincarnated.
"His escape will be a great boost to Tibetans in exile," Mrs Grogan said
yesterday, on the eve of her appointment as a Member of the Order of
Australia. Mrs Grogan, of Pymble, is honoured "for service to the
international community, particularly through human rights movements and
overseas aid activities, and through St John Ambulance Australia".
Mrs Grogan first became concerned with the plight of Tibetan refugees on
meeting the 16th Karmapa Lama in Sikkim, now part of India, in 1968.
"This was the turning point in my life," she said. "I saw how the refugees
lived and suffered, with no running water, no medicines, insufficient
clothing in the Himalayan winter and little education. Yet they remained
gracious, gentle and happy. It made such a great impact on me that I have
been involved with refugees ever since."
Mrs Grogan, with the Tibetan Friendship Group and the Australian Tibetan
Society, has worked to provide educational help, cows for milk and
medicines for refugees. The volunteers have also sought to preserve Tibetan
culture.
Mrs Grogan was the first woman chair of any St John Ambulance state council
in Australia and the only Dame of Justice in the Order of St John.
Her service to the international community also includes work with the
Society of the Friends of St George's and Descendants of the Knights of the
Garter and through the Vrindaban Research Institute, which seeks to
preserve endangered manuscripts in Sanskrit, Hindi and other Indian
languages.
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4. Media watchdog accuses China of jamming of Voice of Tibet (AFP)
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HONG KONG, Jan 26 (AFP) - A Paris-based media watchdog has accused the
Chinese authorities of jamming broadcasts by the Oslo-based radio station
Voice of Tibet and filed a protest with Beijing.
Reporters Sans Frontieres, RSF or Reporters Without Borders, said in a
statement received here Wednesday it had protested the jamming to Ding
Guangen, head of the Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department.
RSF said it had also expressed "serious concern about the repeated attacks
by the Chinese authorities on international broadcasters, such as Radio
Free Asia and Voice of America."
It described the moves as "censorship in violation of international
treaties ratified by China, such as the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which guarantees freedom of the press."
RSF said the Chinese authorities on January 12 began broadcasting programs
in Mandarin on the shortwave frequency used by Voice of Tibet.
It said the station changed its frequency but the jamming resumed on
January 23.
RSF added that the Chinese government has been trying to block Voice of
Tibet programs to China and Tibet since 1996.
The latest attempts coincide with the dramatic escape to India this month
of a revered Tibetan boy lama, a move seen as an embarrassment to Beijing,
which insists it allows religious freedom in Tibet.
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