_________________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: 00/01/31 Compiled by Tseten Samdup
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Monday, January 31, 2000
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Contents:
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1. Buddhist's Escape From Tibet, by Car, Horse and Plane (NYT)
2. European Parliament Supports Resolution Against China at UN (ICT)
3. European Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in China
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1. Buddhist's Escape From Tibet, by Car, Horse and Plane (NYT)
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By BARBARA CROSSETTE
The New York Times, January 31, 2000
The young Buddhist leader who fled from his monastery in Chinese-controlled
Tibet last month was driven by monks to a rugged border area with Nepal and
then rode unnoticed on horseback before flying on to India, according to
accounts of his flight only now emerging from Buddhists in Nepal, India and
the West.
The 14-year-old monk -- Ugyen Trinley Dorje, the 17th Karmapa of the Karma
Kagyu order, one of Tibetan Buddhism's four main schools -- has not spoken
of his journey publicly for fear of endangering more people at his Tibetan
base, the Tsurphu monastery, north of Lhasa, Tibetan exiles say.
Those who tracked the Karmapa's journey through Nepal said that to avoid
attention he never had more than half a dozen people around him.
Much of his path through Nepal crossed the former Buddhist kingdom of
Mustang, a territory almost entirely isolated from the world until the last
decade, when limited numbers of trekkers and adventure tourists began to be
admitted. But Tibetan Buddhist monks and some traders have always
crisscrossed the border between Mustang and Tibet.
The Karmapa is now in seclusion at a monastery in north India, near the
headquarters of the Dalai Lama, the leader of another sect, the Gelugpa,
but a figure recognized by almost all Tibetan Buddhists as the political as
well as religious head of the Tibetan exile movement and the Tibetan people
in general.
The Karmapa is the only major Tibetan lama recognized as a reincarnation of
his lineage by both the Dalai Lama and the Chinese government, and his
flight from Tibet was considered a blow to the Chinese.
Buddhists in India say that Indian intelligence agents have interviewed the
Karmapa at length, while a Chinese intelligence team has been quizzing
people in Nepal. China's relations with Nepal have long been a concern to
India, and both China and India are anxious to know if the other was in any
way implicated in the escape, Tibetan exiles say. There are questions about
how the Karmapa was able to evade Indian immigration controls when he flew
in from the Nepali resort town of Pokhara.
The Tibetan Information Network in London said that recent reports from
Tibet indicate that at least two monks at Tsurphu monastery have been
detained since the Karmapa's departure. Tibetans in Nepal said that two
police officers assigned to monitor the monastery were also arrested. The
Karmapa's Kagyu order has the largest following in the West, where
Buddhists have donated large sums of money to restore Tsurphu and other
Kagyu monasteries. The 16th Karmapa accompanied the Dalai Lama into exile
from Tibet in 1959 and died in Chicago in 1981.
The dramatic story of the Karmpapa's flight that exiles have now pieced
together, supported by Tibetans in Nepal, begins at Tsurphu on Dec. 28. The
Karmapa is reported to have left the monastery in a car with two other
monks, both experienced drivers. For two days, they apparently drove more
or less nonstop to the Nepali border in the Mustang region, where they
switched to horses. There are no roads in Mustang.
It is not clear where the group actually crossed the border into Nepal on
Dec. 30, because Tibetans say that the Chinese had fortified police
checkpoints between Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and Dram, the only legal
crossing point into Nepal in the Mustang area, and the party must have
taken an evasive route known to Tibetans.
From the border, through the old royal Mustang capital of Lo Manthang, the
Karmapa's group, by then numbering six people, rode on horseback to the
nearest airport, possibly at Jomsen, which connects to Pokhara, in a
Himalayan valley about 125 miles west of Katmandu, Nepal's capital. By some
accounts, they rode directly to Pokhara, but trekkers familiar with the
area question whether that much territory could have been covered on
horseback between Dec. 30 and Jan. 2.
The Karmapa and a few followers apparently avoided Katmandu by taking a
flight from Pokhara to an airport in northern India on Jan. 3, and then
either flew or drove to New Delhi -- accounts diverge on this point. All
agree, however, that the Karmapa left New Delhi by taxi on the evening of
Jan. 4 and arrived unannounced at the Dalai Lama's headquarters at
Dharmsala early on Jan. 5.
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2. European Parliament Supports Resolution Against China at UN (ICT)
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JANUARY 28, 2000
ICT Europe
The International Campaign for Tibet applauds the European Parliament's
decision to pass a resolution on China's deteriorating human rights
practices.
"This vote shows how much the mood in Europe is swinging towards a new,
realistic approach of dealing with China", says Tsering Jampa, director of
ICT Europe.
It remains to be seen how much effort European Parliament members put into
the coming months to get the Council of Ministers to uphold their concerns,
said Tsering Jampa.
The European Parliament resolution, passed on January 20, urged the Chinese
government to respond to international calls for improvement in the human
rights situation and to guarantee freedom of political and religious
freedom in China, in particular in Macau and Tibet.
The European Parliament called on the Council of Ministers to join efforts
with the US to co-sponsor the resolution in Geneva at the UN Human Rights
Commission.
The fact that the resolution is passed with a broad support from various
political parties is a strong signal that bilateral dialogue with Beijing
on human rights issues is not sufficient and must be accompanied by
multilateral pressure, says Tsering Jampa.
This resolution is a very positive start to the debates that national
parliaments in Europe will have on China's human rights practices.
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3. European Parliament resolution on the human rights situation in China
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Human rights: China
B5-0050, 0064, 0079 and 0083/2000
The European Parliament
... having regard to article 11(1) of the Treaty on European Union and
Article 177 of the EC Treaty, which establish the promotion of human rights
as an objective of the CFSP,
... having regard to its resolution of 12 June 1997 on a long-term policy for
China-Europe relations* and its resolution of 8 October 1998 on the
European Union and Hong-Kong: beyond 1997**,
... having regard to its previous resolutions on the violations of human and
minority rights and religious freedom in China,
... having regard to the conclusions of the EU-China Summit held in Beijing
on 21 December 1999,
A. whereas the human rights situation in China has continued to deteriorate
with an increasingly high number of executions, further suppression of
organised political dissent, intensification of controls on unregistered
churches and interference in the process of appointment of Roman Catholic
bishops, the official banning of the Falun Gong movement and harassment of
ethnic minority groups, especially Tibetans, Mongolians and Uiguhrs,
B. whereas China has made no progress in ratifying the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights nor the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
C. whereas, with regard to Hong Kong, the undertakings relating to freedom
of expression, political freedom and the rule of law, given by China in the
Hong Kong Basic Law and the handover of power, are being infringed, for
instance through the request of the NPC Standing Committee to reinterpret
parts of the Basic Law after the judgement of the Hong Kong Court of Final
Appeal,
D. whereas the flight of Tibet's Karmapa Lama to Dharmshala is indicative
of religious repression,
E. whereas Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Bangguo and Vice-Minister Long Yonghtu
will visit Brussels on 25 January 2000 to discuss China's accession to the
WTO with EU representatives,
F. whereas the 56th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights is
scheduled for 20 March 2000 in Geneva,
1. Urges the Chinese Government to respond to international calls for
improvement in the human rights situation and to guarantee democracy,
freedom of expression, freedom of the media and political and religious
freedom in China, in particular in Hong Kong and Macao, as well as in
Tibet;
2. Calls on the Commission, the Council and the Member States to continue
to exert pressure on China to improve her human rights record in accordance
with international standards and to make clear to the Chinese Government
that progress in EU-China relations, including China's WTO accession, is
linked to such an improvement;
3. Urges the Commission, the Council and the Member States to raise
specifically the issue of religious persecution, since there is an
increasing trend towards violations of freedom of religion;
4. Calls on the Council to join efforts with the USA and co-sponsor a
resolution on China at the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights
Commission and to work actively, through high-level diplomatic lobbying, to
encourage the other members in the Human Rights Commission to do likewise,
while discouraging countries represented in Geneva from voting for a
no-action motion on China, which would prevent the Human Rights Commission
from even discussing the situation in that country;
5. Urges the Chinese Government to ratify the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights;
6. Calls on the Council to inform Parliament and its Committee on Foreign
Affairs on the strategy pursued and the results obtained by the EU at the
UN Human Rights Commission;
7. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the
Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States, the
Member countries of the UN Human Rights Commission and the Government of
the People's Republic of China.
* OJ C 200, 30,6.1997, p. 158.
** OJ C 328, 26.10.1998, p. 186.
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