Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Jun 09, 1996

ISTANBUL, (Jun. 6) IPS - Rows and rows of new housing would normally be hailed as a step in the right direction. But not in the "occupied nation" of Tibet, say activists in Istanbul for the U.N. Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II).

"We are fast becoming a minority in our own country" as the Chinese government continues to transfer Chinese settlers to Tibet, said Tenzin Atisha of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, India.

Along with the policy of resettling Chinese to "develop" Tibet, especially the capital city of Lhasa, Beijing has used housing as a means of "social control" and to erode Tibetan culture and religion, activists said here yesterday at a forum that highlighted the plight of people in occupied territories.

Traditional Tibetan housing, adapted to life in high altitudes and Buddhist beliefs, are being demolished to make way for concrete buildings and barracks-like apartments alien to local life and culture, they added. Tibetans have been evicted from their homes to make way for so-called modern structures.

"With the exception of the unmistakable 17th century Potala Palace, Lhasa resembles almost any medium-scale Chinese urban center," said Scott Leckie, an urban expert and author of "Destruction by Design: Housing Rights Violations in Tibet."

Similar violations of housing, and human rights, are occurring in other occupied territories, whose concerns are not addressed in the Global Plan of Action to be adopted by the U.N. Conference on Human Settlements, or Habitat II, taking place here, Leckie added.

Another group protesting Chinese occupation, the Turkic Uygurs of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region that borders China and the Central Asian Republics, said its struggle against the "Sinicization" of its Islamic culture and cities is similar to neighboring Tibet.

Arslan Alptekin, a leader of what the Turkic Uygurs call Eastern Turkestan, said in an interview: "What is happening in Tibet is also happening in my country and in places like Inner Mongolia."

"In 1947, the lade-in-China" city.

In half a century, Lhasa has become majority Chinese while Lhasa's total urban area has risen to 40 square kms or nearly 20 times its 1950 size.

Meantime, Tibetan areas have shrunk to a Tibetan Quarter of less than one square kilometers "ringed by army facilities, police quarters, government compounds, Chinese commercial areas and detention facilities," Leckie said in a report on the destruction of Lhasa's habitat.

The Tibetan area is now "mostly slums," added John Acklerly of the Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet. address urban crises in "occupied territories or in indigenous settlements," including population transfers, when these communities should have "protection to keep land in the hands of traditional occupants."

Leckie warned that the draft Habitat Agenda may even retreat from the platform of the first Habitat conference in 1976 in Vancouver. He said it fails to address the use of housing and urban policy as a weapon of occupation. Language recognizing the plight of people in occupied territories had found its way to past action plans of U.N. global conferences.

"It is ironic that the Chinese government is such an ardent supporter of housing rights in the draft Habitat Agenda and other U.N. forums. But when you look at the situation in its own country, there is a different state of affairs," he said.

The Vancouver document recognizes that the ideology of states must not be used to displace people through human settlement policies, "but there is nothing on this in the current Habitat agenda," Leckie pointed out.

He also gave an example of how changed Tibetan housing has served Chinese government control: Tibetan democracy activists used to be able to disappear into the winding, traditional pathways in Lhasa. But this could no longer happen after the old structures were replaced with blocks of buildings criss-crossed with straight roads.

Yesterday's discussion on Tibet was marred by shouting matches that began when pro-Chinese government groups accused speakers of "misleading" the audience about conditions in Tibet. They said Tibet had progressed under Beijing's rule as an autonomous region.

During the meeting, pro-Chinese groups handed out statements, saying the Dalai Lama, Tibetans' religious and political leader, "with the support of some foreign forces, had attempted to undertake discussions on Tibet" to "undermine China's sovereignty and its territorial integrity and separate Tibet from China."

The meeting threatened to repeat similar rows last year in Beijing when non-government groups held a forum parallel to the international women's conference.

Alptekin, the moderator, told the pro-China groups: "This is my conference so if you want to make speeches, hold your own meeting."