“Stability Maintenance” campaign increased detention and prosecutions in Tibet: HRW/ENG

2016. május 23./Phayul.com/TibetPress

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By Tenzin Dharpo

DHARAMSHALA, May 23: A report by Human Rights Watch claims that Chinese government’s harsh implementation of the “Stability Maintenance” campaign has led to increased persecution and detention of Tibetans in the last three years (2013-15).

The report surmised from 479 cases from the three year period points to in essence the “increase in state control over daily life, increasing criminalization of nonviolent forms of protest, and at times disproportionate responses to local protests. These measures, part of a policy known as weiwen or “stability maintenance,” have led authorities to expand the range of activities and issues targeted for repression in Tibetan areas, particularly in the countryside.”

Statistically, the average sentencing for the 153 detainees out of the total 479 in context, which reportedly went to trial and convicted was 5.7 years. And fourteen among the total, 2.9 percent either died while in custody or soon after their release and only 40 percent of the total are monastic unlike in the 1980’s when the majority (90%) was monks and nuns.

Interestingly, of the lot, “those who received the longest sentences were people who tried to assist victims of self-immolations, leaders of protests against mining or government construction projects, and organizers of village opposition to unpopular decisions by local officials. Such activities, most of which were not explicitly political and did not directly challenge the legitimacy of the state, received markedly longer sentences than people shouting slogans or distributing leaflets in support of Tibetan independence.”

As a sign of intensified measures in line with the “stability maintenance” campaign, many of the detentions were due to activities which were earlier deemed to be “minor offences or not politically sensitive”. The detentions also happened in locations (rural areas where 80% of Tibetans live) and segment of society not previously linked to dissent. To oversee the campaign, the boots on the ground aspect saw the mass transfer of about 21,000 officials in TAR alone, and “has led to a surge in the creation of local Communist Party organizations, government offices, police posts, security patrols, and political organizations in Tibetan villages and towns.”

One notable change that has transpired is the “epicenter of detentions” which has shifted to the Tibetan Autonomous region since 2013. Previously from 2008-13, Sichuan province recorded the highest figures in the same respect. Also, unlike in the last three decades, most of those prosecuted and detained came from sections of people such as “local community leaders, environmental activists, and villagers involved in social and cultural activities, as well as local writers and singers.”

The report also expounded on the Chinese government’s “criminalization of sympathy” for self-immolators or self immolation related activities. “The actual number of those detained in connection with self-immolations was certainly much higher than 60: in February 2013 official media in China reported that 70 people had been detained in connection with self-immolations in parts of Qinghai and Gansu provinces, and that at least 56 of them had been formally arrested. Since those reports were published, 32 further immolations have taken place,” the report mentioned. The detention related to the self immolations include family of the victims, people who prevented bodies being taken by authorities or even bystanders who happen to be there during the self immolations.

The Statement from Chen Quanguo, Tibet Autonomous Region Party Secretary in December 2013 in many ways than one predicts the level of intensified campaign meted against Tibetans the following years. He had said, “We have followed the law in striking out and relentlessly pounding at illegal organizations and key figures, and resolutely followed the law in striking at the illegal organizations and key figures who follow the 14th Dalai Lama clique in carrying out separatist, infiltration, and sabotage activities, knocking out the hidden dangers and soil for undermining Tibet’s stability, and effectively safeguarding the state’s utmost interests [and] society’s overall interests.”