Published by: World Tibet Network News Thursday - May 15, 1997

I am pleased to have been asked to testify on the important issue of Tibet

and especially in circumstances where I have friends of long acquaintance

on both sides of the dais. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your welcomed

invitation.

For much of my time in the Senate I knew little of Tibet. In 1980, however,

China opened Tibet to tourism and inadvertently revealed that Chinese rule

in Tibet has been oppressive and destructive of Tibetan culture and

civilization. It was about that time when I first met the Dalai Lama and

began to follow the situation inside Tibet carefully.

As a former chairman of this Committee, I convened hearings in the Senate

focusing on Tibet, the most recent of which was held in July of 1992. At

that time, the Soviet Union had started to break apart and there was

renewed hope by oppressed peoples everywhere that their own aspirations for

freedom might be fulfilled.

Unfortunately, for the Tibetan people there has yet to be a perestroika, an

"opening up" and lessening of the may restrictions on their culture,

religion and social institutions. To the contrary, over the last year the

Chinese authorities in Tibet have intensified their campaign to wipe out

the Tibetan Buddhist culture and to create an atheistic socialist state in

Tibet.

Monks and nuns are required to attend the kind of self-criticism and

indoctrination sessions that hearken back to the Cultural Revolution. The

Stalinist rhetoric coming out of the Chinese propaganda machine and

directed at the Dalai Lama offends even the staunchest friends of China.

China's "Strike Hard" anti-crime campaign is used in Tibet as a means to

round up any Tibetan who has not shown him or herself to be a loyal

communist. I am informed that Lhasa prisons are full of these unfortunate

souls.

In speaking out and more important in acting on Tibet, I do not deny that

conditions in China re better than they were a few years ago And, since the

forces of freedom around the world are irresistible, they will continue to

improve. But our job today is to speed up the process and to eliminate the

instances of individual cruelty that have and re occurring.

The Tibetan people have suffered at the hands of the Chinese Communists

since their "peaceful liberation" from a theocratic Tibet in 1950-51.

china's occupation policies continue to be heavy handed. Let me cite the

charges against but a handful of the hundred of Tibetans currently serving

long sentences meted out by the Chinese authorities:

-- A senior monk, a geshe meaning one who holds a doctorate of theology,

from Drepung monastery, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for producing

political leaflets.

-- a 45 year old doctor from Lhasa is serving a 13-year prison sentence for

copying lists of names of those arrested or injured during two

pro-independence demonstrations.

-- a 71-year-old teacher at Lhasa primary school was sentenced to 28 years

for "corrupting the minds of children with reactionary ideas."

-- a 19-year old nun is serving 17 years in prison for leading a

celebratory demonstration three days after the Dalai lama was awarded the

Nobel peace prize.

-- a nun from Garu nunnery was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment "for

incitement to subversive and separatist activities." After recording

pro-independence songs in prison, I am informed she was severely tortured.

Another imprisoned nun was beaten and crippled for wearing new clothes to

mark the Tibetan New Year.

All these incidents and so many like them, reflect a Tibetan nationalism

that has not been eradicated but rather has been exacerbated by Chinese

misrule and repression. However, in spite of China's claims that Tibetans

conspire to armed rebellion, most Tibetans seek a return to self-rule

through peaceful terms brokered by the Dalai Lama.

I would dispute any claim by China that its national security is

jeopardized by a young nun with her fist in the air or a young man with a

video camera taping traditional Tibetan music. anyone who submits that a

handful of dissidents -- even a thousand dissidents -- could rise up

against the PLA fortress city that Lhasa has become has not visited there

recently. Political dissent in Lhasa today is squelched with awesome speed

and efficiency. During my own visit to Lhasa in 1993 I saw nothing to

suggest even the remotest possibility of armed rebellion.

Much of the world regards the situation in Tibet as a trouble some

component of China's ascendancy on the world stage. As Hong Kong reverts to

Chinese rule at the end of June, may Hong Kong Chinese remember that Tibet,

too, was promised a "one country, two systems" form of government. The

17-point Agreement signed in 1951 guaranteed the Tibetan people the right

of national regional autonomy, preserved the existing political systems

including the status, functions, and powers of the Dalai Lama, protected

religious freedom and monasteries, and so on. Over a period of only nine

years, the agreement completely eroded consistently with the Tibetan

people's freedoms.

It is understandable then that when China cautions Taiwan to look to Hong

Kong as a model for its own future reunification, Taiwan answers that it

more cautiously looks to Tibet. Taiwan's President Lee Teng-hui, a shrewd

leader and visionary, welcomed the Dalai lama to Taiwan this past March,

ignoring China's warning that such a meeting would damage cross-Strait

relations. President Lee likely calculated that the value of adding his

support to the Dalai Lama's message of tolerance and conciliation, knowing

that it would be broadcast into southern China from Taipei television, was

worth the scolding.

That the Chinese government has failed to grasp the true value of the Dalai

Lama is perhaps Tibet's greatest tragedy. In a recent news article, Winston

Lord, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific

Affairs, chided the Chinese for failing to use the Dalai lama

"constructively."

Mr. Chairman, I believe Ambassador Lord's call for the constructive use of

the Dalai Lama should be the message of this hearing. The Dalai Lama, above

all, has emerged as the single moral authority from within China. He is

revered by millions of Tibetans, Taiwanese, Mongols and, yes, even Chinese.

His mediation could bring stability in China's restive border regions. He

has been recognized the world over as a man of peace.

Above all, he is posed to enter into serious discussion, without

preconditions, with the Chinese government at any time. This has been his

sincere message for many years, most recently reiterated personally to this

Committee, the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leaders in the House and

the Senate, the Vice President and the President of the United States. In

my view, the course of action of the United States Government should take

to bring negotiations about consists of four elements: 1. To keep pressure,

the United States must continue to shine the light on human rights abuses

by the Chinese authorities in Tibet at the U.N. Human Rights commission in

Geneva. A failed resolution is better than no resolution, and a more

vigorous leadership effort must be made to match China's perpetuated

approach. I recently returned from Geneva where I was part of the U.S.

Delegation and where we proudly cast the U.S. vote in opposition to China's

no motion action against the resolution.

2. Tibetan language broadcasts, both VOA and Radio Free Asia should be

increased. It is reaching Tibetans. This approach has been magnificently

successful in bringing democratic change about in closed societies. There

is every reason to believe it will work in Tibet, and that is why Senator

Helms and I introduced the authorizing legislation for this VOA program in

March 1989.

3. U.S. humanitarian assistance to Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal

should continue until such a time when China desists tits oppressive

policies in Tibet, and Tibetans can return home. these settlements provide

the lifeline for Tibet's unique culture and religion. It is no exaggeration

to say that there are more Tibetan monks in settlements in southern India

today than remain in the once great monasteries of Ganden, Drepung and

Sera.

4. As I first proposed in 1994, there should be appointed in consultation

with the relevant congressional committees, a coordinator for U.S.

initiatives on Tibet. As a priority, the coordinator would explore with the

Chinese and representatives of the dalai Lama prospects for negotiations.

Mr. Chairman, this Committee and the U.S. Congress have put themselves on

record time and again in support of a negotiated peace in Tibet. However,

the United States is not isolated in its support. The European Parliament,

the German Bundestag, the Italian Parliament, the Danes, the Irish, the

Australians, indeed parliaments the world over, have commended the efforts

of the Dalai Lama because, as you have said many times, my friend, "the

cause is just."

It was indeed a pleasure to meet with you here today. I look forward to

hearing the other witnesses. Thank you.