TWA launches 'Global Petitioning and Lobbying Week' to garner International Arbitration over the Deepening Crackdown in Kirti Monastery
Dharamsala, April 26, 2011: The executive members of Central Tibetan Women's Association and its 57 regional chapters spread accross the globe will meet with Parliamentarians, Government Representatives and Human Rights groups to lobby and garner International Arbitration over the deepening crackdown in Kirti Monastery in Amdo Ngaba in northeastern Tibet. Below is the copy of the petition that the executive members will present during the 'Global Petitioning and Lobbying Week'.
URGENT APPEAL
Subject: Appealing for Immediate Legal Protection for Tibetans inside Tibet facing Persecution
The Tibetan Women's Association is bringing your attention to the heightened repression on the Tibetans inside Tibet and the recent deepening crackdown in Kirti Monastery in Amdo Ngaba (Northeastern Tibet) and the ensuing arrests of hundreds of Kirti monks. In 2008, the world witnessed national uprisings in Tibet which saw Tibetans from all the three provinces of Tibet rise up against the tyranical rule of the Chinese Government. More than 150 separate protests have taken place across the Tibetan Plateau (the Tibet Autonomous Region and other parts of Tibet in the Chinese provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai). The peaceful protests was met with brutal and violent clampdown by the Chinese government and consequently 218 Tibetans have been killed, 6500 arrested and there are over a thousand cases of involuntary or enforced disappearance.
Between Febraury and March this year, three Tibetan political prisoners, Sangye Gyatso (male 29), Bulug (male 59), and Jamyang Jinpa (male 37) died in Tibet after succumbing to prison and police brutalities in Chinese prisons in Tibet. This explains the use of torture by the Chinese authorities and the inhuman treatment of the thousands of Tibetan political prisoners inside Tibet. The recent spate of tragic events unfolding in Amdo Ngaba evidences the mounting tension that has engulfed the restive region. On March 16, 2011, Phuntsok (aged 21) a Tibetan monk from Kirti Monastery set himself ablaze while marking the 3rd anniversary of the 2008 national protests. Follwing the self immolation of Phuntsok, there has been an unrest in the region with heavy presence of Chinese paramilitary police and armed forces.
On Thursday (April 21) two elderly Tibetans, Dongko (male, aged 60) and Sherkyi (female, aged 65) were killed after enduring excessive beatings from the Chinese police. The two died in their attempt to prevent the three hundred Kirti monks from forcibly being hauled into the trucks driving them to an undisclosed location. Eyewitnesses claim that "people had their arms and legs broken, one old woman had her leg broken in three places, and cloth was stuffed in their mouths to stifle their screams."
Proliferation of Chinese paramilitary police and armed forces is now visible throughout ethnic Tibetan areas following a crackdown in Ngaba. The threat of force and violence is looming large and the absence of international intervention and lack of adequate legal protection and free media coverage will only exacerbate the situation.
Since the Chinese illegal occupation of Tibet in 1959, human rights violation has been rife in Tibet and yet the Tibetan people inside and outside Tibet have staged a peaceful non violent resistance against the Chinese rule. Even after 52 years the Tibetans inside Tibet are not happy under the foreign rule and therefore demand freedom inside Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
While we demand global vigilance and arbitration over the intensified Chinese repression in Amdo Ngaba, we earnestly appeal to you to:
1) Take legal measures to immediately stop the crackdown on monks of Krit Monastery.
2) Request your Government to intervene and stop the brutal clamdown on the Tibetan people in Amdo Ngaba.
3) Pressure the Chinese Governemnt to allow freedom of press inside Tibet and allow the presence of foreign media in the Ngaba region.
4) Seek effective reparation for denial of right to life, right to religious freedom of the Tibetan people.
5) Staunchly reproach the autocractic Chinese rule in Tibet and to disallow such oppression and travesty of justice to continue in Tibet.
Thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
Tibetan Women's Association (TWA)
TWA has 57 regional chapters spead accross the globe and over 15, 000 members outside Tibet. Today, TWA is the second largest Tibetan NGO and the only women's NGO in exile that advocates human rights for Tibetan women in Tibet and works to empower Tibetan women in exile. TWA's slogan is 'Advocacy for home, Action in exile'.