Published by: World Tibet Network News ISSUE ID: 98/01/09

TIN News Update / 8 January, 1998 / total no of pages: 2 ISSN 1355-3313

A team of top Chinese officials flew into Lhasa yesterday to assess relief measures for Tibetans trapped by severe snowstorms amid varying reports about the gravity of the situation.

The local government authorities in Lhasa say that their aid efforts have been extensive and that there have been no casualties in Nagchu prefecture, the focus of the relief effort 250 km north of Lhasa, but unofficial sources say the situation there is increasingly serious, and in neighbouring Qinghai province officials are reported to be seeking outside assistance.

"Things are well under control thanks to the rapidity of the government's disaster relief efforts," said Tsering Samdrub (Ciren Sangzhu in Chinese), a vice governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region, about the situation in Nagchu, according to the "China Daily" last week. He was "convinced that the region will win the fight with the help of the central government and people from across the country", reported Xinhua on 30th December.

"Official figures show that Nagchu has received and distributed vast quantities of grain and fodder, as well as some 30,000 pieces of clothing, quilts and ther necessities [...] thanks to extensive efforts of the central and local governments," said a Xinhua report on Monday 5th January.

The TAR government has allocated 27.25 million yuan ($3.38 million) in relief funds, and on Tuesday the army distributed 8,000 coats and 4,000 quilts in the prefectures of Nagchu, Ngari and Shigatse, all of which have been affected by the "exceedingly grave snowstorm", said Xinhua.

On Wednesday an 11-member team of high-ranking officials from the State Council, China's cabinet, arrived in Lhasa "to assess the situation and assist the local government in relief efforts", said Xinhua yesterday, in its fifth article on the subject in four days. It was unclear if the team's arrival was a publicity move or a response to concern about local provisions for handling the disaster.

- Qinghai Seeks Assistance -

In Qinghai province, where severe conditions are reported in the Yushu area, provincial authorities are not reported to have made any public statements but have asked for assistance from a western aid organisation, according to the Brussels-based aid organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (Belgium) which said it had received a request from Xining, the capital of Qinghai.

A team of aid workers from the Swiss section of Medecins Sans Frontieres is based in Nangchen, in Yushu prefecture, southern Qinghai, and is reported to be preparing an assessment of the situation in higher parts of Yushu prefecture.

"Since the beginning of winter until 20th December 1997, it snowed 14 times, and owing to the temperature the snow does not melt," said an local official in Dzadoe (Chinese: Zadoi), one of the worst-hit counties in Yushu. Three quarters of a million livestock perished in Yushu in severe winter conditions two years ago.

"In some valley areas snow reaches 66 cms. deep. Consequently the grass is covered and animals have nothing to eat," said the official, who predicted an increasing need for animal feed and fuel. "Snow continues to fall", he said.

A Westerner who was in the area last month confirmed reports of serious conditions. "I witnessed one storm at the end of November where I think between 20 and 30 cms. of snow fell in one storm, in one day," he told TIN.

The Qinghai weather centre, contacted on Monday, said that more snow was expected in Yushu in mid- and late January, and that temperatures would remain low, so that the present snow cover would not melt.

Frostbite can reach epidemic proportions among the nomads once animals stop producing dung, which is a primary source of fuel. The risk of starvation increases in severe winters if people give their food supplies to their animals to try to save them from dying.

- 40 Snowfalls in Nagchu -

In Nagchu, the winter began this year in September, 50 days earlier than last year, according to vice-governor Tsering Samdrub on 30th December. There had been 40 snowfalls by the end of December and snow had fallen in some places at the rate of 10 cms. in 24 hours, he told journalists in Beijing, where he had travelled to report on the situation to the central authorities.

About 100,000 animals, or one percent of the total stock in the prefecture, were said to have died so far and temperatures had fallen in some areas to 34 degrees Celsius below zero, said the vice-governor. The snowfall is being described as the heaviest in the Tibet Autonomous Region since it began keeping meteorological records.

News reports from Lhasa yesterday said that there is "a general mood of order and serenity" in the Nagchu region, and stressed the "abundant" supplies of meat and fresh vegetables in the town of Nagchu. But national level officials last week gave a more sober view of the situation, describing the relief effort only as "stable at present" and urging victims to solve their own problems.

"While the state provides active support, disaster victims should help themselves by engaging in productive labour, and grass-roots cadres should organise self-help projects," advised Vice-Premier Jiang Chunyun and State Councillor Li Guixian, according to a Tibet TV broadcast on 29th December, in the only reported comment on the disaster so far by Beijing officials.

"The state shall do everything possible to support localities with special financial difficulties and utilise every available resource to solve practical problems," they said, according to the BBC Monitoring Service. "All departments are urged to work in a concerted way to ensure success in fighting the disaster and delivering relief to disaster victims," the two officials were reported to have said.

The recent snowstorms are a fresh threat to regions that have scarcely recovered from the 1996 blizzards, and in Yushu some herders who lost all their animals that winter are still waiting for replacements. Western aid organisations such as Medecins sans Frontiers which helped deliver grain and fuel to stranded nomads in Yushu in 1996 are still widely appreciated, said a western aid worker who recently returned from the area.

The nomadic life-style is already under pressure in Yushu because of environmental degradation. "The locals refer a lot to the larger problem, that the grass cover is already very thin," said the Westerner, who asked not to be named.

"They talk a lot about the fact that medium-sized wildlife, like foxes, were all killed off, and seem to feel that is a very significant factor," he said. Large areas of the high altitude grasslands in Qinghai have been destroyed by an anchecked growth in the population of pika, a species of marmots, who live by foraging grass roots. "We virtually never saw grass that was not fairly depleted," said the aid worker.

The Qinghai authorities have been implementing a four point scheme, which includes fencing all pasture areas to protect winter grazing areas and building winter shelters for animals, but the controversial plan, which some critics say is designed to encourage nomads to settle, has not yet had time to allow grassland regeneration. In the Tibet Autonomous Region officials have tried to limit grassland degradation by ordering nomads to cull excess animals each year so that herd size is restricted.