COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

Sub-Commission on Prevention of

Discrimination and Protection

of Minorities

Forty-ninth session

Agenda item 10 (a)

FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT: POPULATION DISPLACEMENT

Written statement submitted by the Transnational Radical Party,

a non-governmental

organization in consultative status (category I)

A continuous influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet, that has been going on since Chinese forces invaded Tibet in 1949, has increased in recent years due to the Chinese urbanisation of

Tibet. This deliberate policy of population transfer of forcing

or inducing people to move into or away from a territory, with

the purpose or effect of transforming the demographic composition

or political status of a given territory, is recognised a

violation of human rights.

On August 20, 1996, the 49th session of the UN Committee on

the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) expressed its

concern about official Chinese policies in Tibet. "Concern is

expressed with respect to reports concerning incentives granted

to members of the Han nationality to settle in autonomous areas,

as this may result in substantial changes in the demographic

composition and in the character of the local society of those

areas." It further recommended to the Chinese authorities that

"any policies or practices that may result in a substantial

alteration in the demographic composition of autonomous areas be

reviewed."

Massive population transfer into Tibet has resulted into

discrimination in housing, education, employment and social

services. Because one of the aims of the transfer of Chinese

settlers is to eradicate the Tibetans' distinct racial, cultural

and national identity, it is discriminatory in and of itself.

This has also been recognised by the UN Sub-Commission on

Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities by its

resolution 1993/34 of 25 August 1993 that endorsed the conclusions and recommendations of a preliminary study on the human rights dimension of population transfers (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/17), which found that "population transfer

is, prima facie, unlawful and violates a number of rights affirmed in human rights and humanitarian law for both transferred and receiving populations".

In the progress report (E/CN.4/sub.2/1994/18) submitted to the forty-sixth session of the Sub-Commission Mr. Al-Khasawneh, in one of the conclusions said: "In circumstances when the purpose or method of transfer constitutes genocide, slavery, racial or systematic discrimination and torture, the transfer may qualify as a crime within the meaning of article 19 (part I) of the International Law Commission's draft articles on Stateresponsibility and carry all the consequences for internationally wrongful acts and, in addition, those normally associated with crimes. Within this purview fall acts such as ethnic cleansing, dispersal of minorities or ethnic populations from their homeland within the State, and the implantation of settlers amounting to the denial of self-determination".

The large-scale transfer of Chinese into Tibet violates

humanitarian and human rights law, including treaties which China

itself has ratified. These include the International Convention

on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, signed by China in

1982, and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 49 of the latter

prohibits any occupying power to "deport or transfer parts of its

own civilian population into the territory it occupies". The

application of Article 49 extends for the duration of the

occupation when China exercises the functions of government in

Tibet. Article 47 extends the Convention's protection regardless of the de facto status of Tibet today.

During the last ten years the European Parliament has repeatedly denounced the officially-encouraged population transfer of ethnic Chinese into Tibet and called on Chinese authorities to stop it immediately, condemning the human rights violations in Tibet as well as the invasion and occupation of Tibet by the People's Republic of China in its resolutions of 15 October 1987, 16 March 1989, 15 March 1990, 12 September 1991, 13 February 1992, 15 December 1992, 25 June 1993, 17 September 1993, 13 July 1995 and 14 December 1995. Similar concern and appeal have been expressed in the resolutions of Parliaments of Belgium, Luxembourg and the German Bundestag, approved in the course of 1996.

The Chinese population within the region encompassing what

Tibetans refer to as Tibet (both the Chinese-designated Tibet

Autonomous Region (TAR) and the Tibetan autonomous prefectures

incorporated into Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces)

has increased substantially since 1949. At that time, according

to both Tibetan and Chinese statistics, there were virtually no

Chinese in the TAR and only a few hundred thousand in the

bordering provinces. According to Chinese statistics, by 1953,

there were 426,000 Chinese in the areas of Qinghai, Gansu,

Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, though still none in the TAR, not

counting soldiers. The 1982 census showed 1,541,000 Chinese in

Tibet (including Tibetan autonomous prefectures) and 92,000 in the TAR itself.

Official Chinese figures for 1990 show lower overall numbers

of Chinese (1,508,000) in Tibet, but independent observations

indicate that the actual number of Chinese in Tibet is much

higher and still growing. For example, the official Chinese

census for the TAR in 1990 67,000 Chinese, but a 1993 Chinese

report indicated 118,000. On the other hand, a recent

fact-finding mission to Tibet (led by Anders Anderson)

conservatively estimated the total Chinese population in the

remaining areas of Tibet at 5 to 5.5 million. Tibetan government

estimates, however, put the number at over 7.5 million.

In contrast, the Tibetan population has declined drastically

from over 6 million Tibetans in Tibet at the time of the invasionto about 4.6 million today based on Chinese census figures and

first-hand observations. Population transfer has therefore made

the Tibetans a minority within their own country.

In 1994, the Chinese government publicly acknowledged that it encourages and supports settlement in Tibet. The government had previously denied any policy to relocate Chinese into Tibet, but other sources have acknowledged that such a policy has existed for decades.

Chinese government policies and programs, moreover, encourage

a large "floating population" to settle in Tibet. The government

has built housing, schools, hospitals and even shopkeepers'

stalls to support the Chinese settlement. It has relaxed

regulations to make it simpler to open a private enterprise in

Tibet and substantial numbers of Chinese are taking advantage.

The government has been building and improving major roads

connecting Chinese provinces to Lhasa and other Tibetan cities,

and is now working on railroad connections. A few years ago it has reportedly removed all checkpoints on roads leading from neighbouring provinces to Tibet. The government also resettles Chinese cadres and technical experts involuntarily and actively recruits others.

The impact on Tibetans of the massive transfer of Chinese

settlers and soldiers has been devastating. Beginning in the 1950's, Tibetan farms and grasslands have been confiscated and

incorporated into collectivized and communal farms. The rapid

increase in settlers and soldiers, led to the worst famines in

Tibet's history, with the death of over 340,000 Tibetans, because

the land could not support the rapid increase. Ill-conceived

efforts to boost productivity of lands suitable only for nomadic

grazing or limited farming has resulted in widespread

desertification.

Economic development projects, including the construction of

roads, power plants, housing and office buildings, factories, and

large-scale agricultural/irrigation projects, have been carried

out with primarily Chinese workers, even in unskilled positions.

At the same time, Tibetans are being displaced from farmlands

confiscated for construction sites.

Housing, schools and hospitals are primarily being built for

the inflowing Chinese population, not for Tibetans. In Lhasa

recently, thousands of Tibetans were removed from their homes and

relocated to the outskirts of the city so that their homes could

be razed to build housing for Chinese workers.

Perhaps the most insidious practice to accompany the Chinese

settlement in Tibet is the restriction on child-bearing. Chinese

birth control policy is carried out in the whole of Tibet, in a

very systematic and organised manner, through propaganda,

coercion and strict regulatory measures.

In 1996, the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women

reported: "Through [its one-child] policy, the Government of

China intrudes into the domestic sphere by regulating and

restricting the number of children a married couple may have and,at times, by violently enforcing this policy.

Every year the Chinese authorities determine the percentage

of child birth (ranging from 3 to 5%) allowed for each community.

It is mandatory for couples who wish to have a child to test

their luck in a lottery system. If the couple is unlucky, then

the mother, even if she is five or six months pregnant, must

undergo an abortion. If a couple produces a child without

undergoing the lottery system, they are fined an their child is

deprived of a registration card, welfare facilities and

educational opportunities in the future.

These measures in and of themselves, violate the Tibetans'

human rights. In the context of massive Chinese influx into

Tibet, they can only be explained by a concerted effort to see

that the Tibetan people disappear under the waves of Chinese

settlers.

Even Chinese government statistics show an overall decline

in the Tibetan population since 1949 of over 1.4 million

Tibetans, or one-quarter of the pre-invasion population (from

over 6 million to 4.6 million). Only a little more than 80,000 Tibetans have gone into exile. There is evidence that over 1.2

million Tibetans died as a direct result of the Chinese invasion

and occupation from famine, military aggression, imprisonment,

execution, torture and suicide. A decline in the Tibetan

population of over 100,000 is unaccounted for even putting aside

the natural growth in the Tibetan population that would otherwise

be expected.

The massive population transfer into Tibet with accompanying

dislocation, discrimination, overburden on the fragile

environment and restrictive child bearing practices are

threatening the very existence and survival of Tibetan people and

culture. The genocidal effect of population transfer on the

Tibetan people is becoming only clearer with the passage of time.

That China's policies in Tibet constitute violations of all

human rights, as recognised by International Law, has been

confirmed by a wide range of UN Treaty Bodies and Special

Rapporteurs. The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities must pay serious attention to the deteriorating situation of human rights in Tibet and China and discuss the situation in Tibet on its agenda. It should recommend furthermore, the appointment of a Special Rapporteur to investigate the human rights situation in Tibet and China. We therefore call upon this Sub-Commission to take note of the seriousness of the situation of population transfer in Tibet and to provide all the possible means to change for better this critical situation.