US report points at growing repression in Tibet for self-immolations/ENG

2011. december 28./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, December 28: A report by the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) has found a direct relation between the worsening trend of religious repression in Tibet and the shocking instances of self-immolations by Tibetans.

The special report, titled “Tibetan Monastic Self-Immolations Appear To Correlate With Increasing Repression of Freedom of Religion” was released last week.

In its special report, the CECC demonstrated an “apparent correlation between increasing Chinese Communist Party and government repression of freedom of religion in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and nunneries, and 12 instances in 2011 of current or former monks and nuns resorting to self-immolation”.

“Reporting from each of the Commission's 10 annual reports (2002-2011) reveals a trend of deterioration in the environment for Tibetan Buddhism, especially in Tibetan Buddhist monastic institutions,” CECC said in its report.

CECC pointed out that China’s heavy-handed reaction to the popular 2008 Tibetan uprisings – including intensification of its long-established anti-Dalai Lama campaign; issuing regulatory measures that intrude upon and micromanage Tibetan Buddhist monastic affairs; implementing aggressive "legal education" to monks and nuns – significantly “worsened” the deteriorating human rights trend in Tibet.

Since March this year, 12 Tibetans have set their bodies on fire demanding the return of the Dalai Lama from exile and protesting against China’s continued occupation of Tibet.

While eight of the instances of self-immolation occurred in Ngaba region, where the Kirti monastery is situated, three took place in Kardze and the latest incidence of self-immolation, on December 1, happened in Chamdo.

Citing available official statistics, the report also noted that more Tibetans were arrested for political reasons from the distraught Ngaba and Kardze regions in eastern Tibet since March 2008 than in other parts of Tibet.

Testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, last month, Kirti Rinpoche, the head of Kirti Monastery had stated that conditions at Kirti was driving the monks "to a state of utter fear and desperation”.

CECC in its annual report on China for the year 2011, released in October, had urged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

Referring to the wave of self-immolations inside Tibet, the annual report pointed out that dialogue could result in a durable and mutually beneficial outcome for the Chinese government and Tibetans, and improve the outlook for local and regional security in coming decades.

In its annual report, the US condemned China for the use of 'strike force' security campaigns to suppress human rights and had urged the Chinese government to provide complete details about Tibetans detained, charged and sentenced for protest-related crimes.

The US Congress created the CECC in October 2000 with the legislative mandate to monitor human rights and the development of the rule of law in China, and to submit an annual report to the President and the Congress.