Contacts: Tempa Tsering, Thubten Samphel

DHARAMSALA, 27 November - The Central Tibetan Administration, which is headed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, protests in the strongest possible terms China's demarcating of the borders between the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region and theTibetan areas incorporated into Sichuan.

The central Tibetan Administration views this act as a cartographiceffort to legitimise China's policy of divide and rule in Tibet.

We state that no effort made by China will succeed in dividing the Tibetan people and the land which Tibetans inhabit. For all the six million Tibetans, Tibet consists of the three traditional provinces of Kham, Amdo and U-Tsang, which covers 2.5 millionsquare kilometers, and is inhabited by six million Tibetans.

'Tibet into different areas. Half of historic and traditional Tibet was made into the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region. Amdo was made into a new province and named Qinghai. A part of Amdo was incorporated into the Chinese province of Gansu. Half of Kham was incorporated into Sichuan province and some areas of Kham were included in Yunnan province.

In these Tibetan areas incorporated into Chinese provinces, before the Chinese invasion, the inhabitants are different from the Chinese. Their way of life, culture, ethnic origin, language, tradition are different. They are all Tibetans. It is for these reasons, the Chinese authorities are compelled to name these areas as Autonomous Tibetan Prefectures or Counties.

Though this administrative and physical division of Tibet may beconvenient to China's divide and rule policy in Tibet, we state categorically that this will not succeed as the Tibetan people are united by shared history, common culture, language, emotional bonds, race and the leadership of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The legal demarcation of the border between Tibet and China was done as early as 821 AD and a treaty was signed to this effect between Tibet and China during the reign of the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen. The treaty was carved into three stone pillars, one of which was installed at the border between Tibet and China, one in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, which still stands today and one in the present-day Chinese city of Xian, the then capital of Tang China.

Part of the treaty says, "Both Tibet and China shall keep the country and frontiers of which they are now in possession. The whole region to the east of that being the country of Great China and the whole region to the west being assuredly the country of Great' frontier there shall be no warfare, no hostile invasions, and no seizure of territory... And in order that this agreement establishing a great era when the Tibetans shall be happy in Tibet and Chinese shall be happy in China shall never be changed, the Three Jewels .... have been invoked as witnesses."

Consequently, China's demarcation of the boundaries between the so-called Tibet Autonomous region and Sichuan is not only illegal and historically false but also does not reflect the ground reality of Tibet as a nation and people. As such, the people of Tibet will reject any such attempt of dividing Tibet.