h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

London-based Tibet Information Network (TIN) has reported that it has documented cases of 145 Tibetan political prisoners in China's prisons, but that the real number is unknown and could be as much as 10 or 20 times higher. The greatest recent increase in political sentences has been in eastern Tibet in regions absorbed by China's Sichuan province. TIN links the increase in political sentencing in Sichuan to escalating religious repression.

See also:

http://www.tibetinfo.net/reports/ngaba_prison/ngaba_prison-2.htm

http://www.tibetinfo.net/news-updates/nu220201.htm

Students for a Free Tibet has reported that it has received new information indicating that religious leader Tenzin Delek Rinpoche is being held in Tuandong prison, a high security installation in Sichuan province. The two year suspension of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's death sentence (for his alleged involvement in pro-Tibet independence activities) expires in April. He could be executed at any time after that.

Please see WWW.SAVETENZIN.ORG for more information.

Phuntsok Nyidron, the last of the Drapchi 14 nuns, has, at last, been released from prison and returned to her family in Lhasa. Phuntsok was arrested in 1989 when she and five other nuns held a peaceful demonstration in Lhasa. Her sentence was later extended to 17 years when she and 13 other nuns, who came to be known as the Drapchi 14, secretly recorded songs and personal messages on a cassette recorder. This heroic testament of defiance can still be heard on the CD 'Seeing nothing but the sky'.

ICT Europe - More than 8,000 people gathered in the heart of Amsterdam on Saturday for a Tibetan freedom concert protesting repression in Tibet and the death penalty of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. The "Save Tibet Now!" concert was organized by ICT Europe and Tibet Support Group Nederlands. A petition for Tenzin Delek Rinpoche's release was signed by an estimated 4,500 people. The event was also intended to mark Tibetan National Uprising Day and raise the Dutch people's awareness of ongoing human rights abuses in Tibet, as the Netherlands government prepares to take over the EU Presidency in July 2004.

[For more information about Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, see h2g2FoT Current Projects: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/classic/A2170982#5]

TibetNet - The UK has raised the issue of Tibet at the High Level Segment of the 60th session of the Commission on Human Rights on Tibet. The UK delegation expressed serious concerns about human rights issues, including the death penalty, dissidents, freedom of religion, arbitrary detention and torture, freedom of expression, and repression in Tibet and Xinjiang. The UK representative, Bill Rammell, said, 'There are times when the level of violations so high, when the consequences for the victims, the region and the world are so great, and when the political will to tackle the problems, alone or in cooperation, is so manifestly absent, that we have to take more immediate action.'

Editorial - With less than a month to go before the visit of his Holiness the Dalai Lama to Canada, it now seems unlikely that representatives of government at any level will receive Him. In the fine Canadian tradition of prevarication, and despite the hopes that Prime Minister Paul Martin would demonstrate more integrity than his predecessors, Canadian politicians from Parliament Hill to City Hall are all claiming to be too busy to meet with the Nobel Peace Laureate rather than risk offending the occupants of the Chinese Embassy. It must be patently obvious by now that no one in Beijing is interested in what Canadian politicians do.

JTG

Radio Free Asia - China has launched a political
re-education program at an official television station in the Tibetan
capital, Lhasa, after it broadcast shots containing the Tibetan national flag. The footage is thought to have been broadcast inadvertently for just under five seconds. Most of the junior staff at the station were ethnic Han Chinese, working part-time. All staff must now undergo re-education and write self-criticisms acknowledging their error. The offending footage, broadcast on the first day of the Tibetan new year, showed a Tibetan man in the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, with a huge Tibetan national flag behind him.

TIN - 'Tsemonling' Dawa passed away in Lhasa on February 22, 2004 at the age of 67. Dawa personified a generation of men and women in Lhasa, who eased the lot of many political prisoners held in and around Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) by distributing food to them. Dawa was a monk at Sera monastery. He experienced firsthand the upheavals of the so-called `Great Leap Forward' and the Cultural Revolution.

An 8-year-old Tibetan girl, Emma Guo Yuthok, was crowned the queen of chessboard in Australia. The Kaleen Primary student, who learned chess from her father, Lama Choedak Rinpoche, has been playing chess since she was five. She won Australia's under 10 girl's chess championship at the Australian Junior Chess Championship in Perth on January 25.

His Holinees the Dalai Lama will visit Edinburgh this summer and address the Scottish Parliament after arriving in the city on June 2. He is also scheduled to meet with MSPs, religious leaders and other dignitaries and attend a private lunch at the Signet Library with political party leaders. His Holiness will also answer questions posed by schoolchildren during his visit to the parliament.

RFA - A young Tibetan monk has been arrested for keeping a photo of the Dalai Lama and a banned Tibetan flag. He was seized during a police raid at Ganden Monastery near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in mid February. Choeden Rinzen, 20, is thought to be held in a detention centre in Lhasa but police have not informed family members or the monastery of his whereabouts.

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin will meet the Dalai Lama when He visits Canada next week, despite strong protests from the Chinese embassy, which has threatened that any sort of meeting between His Holiness and any Canadian official would harm trade relations between Canada and China. Martin will be the first Canadian Prime Minister to meet with the Dalai Lama.

China has released a 'white paper' stating that it will not grant autonomy to Tibet, which, it says, has always been an integral part of China, unlike Hong Kong and Macao (former British and Portuguese colonies).

According to the white paper, 'Since ancient times Tibet has been an inseparable part of Chinese territory, where the Central Government has always exercised effective sovereign jurisdiction over the region. So the issue of resuming exercise of sovereignty does not exist.'

China invaded Tibet in 1950.

A resolution has been introduced in the US Senate calling on China to Release Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and other political prisoners:

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.RES.365:

According to ICT,

'Senate Res. 365 was inspired by the success of House Resolution 157, which called for the release of Tibetan nun Phuntsog Nyidron and other Tibetan political prisoners. H.Res. 157 overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives on February 3, 2004, and Phuntsok Nyidrol was released from Drapchi prison on February 26, 2004, thirteen months before her expected release date.

'The passage of this bill will put needed pressure on China to release Tenzin Delek Rinpoche and other Tibetan political prisoners. Please take action and ask your senators to pass Senate Resolution 365.'

The sponsors of the resolution are Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM).

'On this 69th Birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Central Tibetan Administration and the people of Tibet express immense gratitude to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the kindness and love with which His Holiness has pioneered the Tibetan people out of darkness towards a better future. The Central Tibetan Administration and the people of Tibet request His Holiness to continue to bless the Tibetan people and all the sentient beings of the world. May the wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama be fulfilled and may the issue of Tibet be peacefully resolved soon. Long Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama!'

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (http://www.tchrd.org/) reports that a new Re-education-through-Labour camp has been established in Senge Township, Ngari County, Tibet Autonomous Region:

'TCHRD considers the new "Re-education-through-Labour" facility to implement the government's hard-line policy in cracking down on fleeing Tibetan refugees and suppressing political dissidence in the region. Ngari falls in the route of Tibetans fleeing Tibet and those returning from India. With the newly established facility, the authorities will be able to crack down on the Tibetans on a massive scale.'

The camp is said to have a capacity of 200 people. There are now two 'fully functional Re-education through-Labour camps' in the TAR.

People can be sent to Re-education through-Labour camps by the Public Security Bureau (PSB) or by the Re-education-through-Labour Management Committee without a court trial. Sentences typically range from six months to three years.

Edinburgh - 120 people protested the appearance of the PLA at this year’s Edinburgh Military Tattoo on Sunday. Human rights activists and members of Free Tibet Campaign marched from the Tattoo offices on Market Street and along Princes Street before gathering for a rally at West Princes Street Gardens. Amnesty International had earlier expressed its concerns to Brigadier Melville Jameson, chief executive and producer of this year’s Tattoo, who is reported to have said that the organisers were '100 percent right' to invite the PLA, describing them as 'charming people'

Martin Scorsese's 'Kundun' and Jean Jacuques Annaud's 'Seven years in Tibet' have been dropped from this year's Asian Film Festival (Pune, Bombay & Goa, August 21-Sept 5) at the request of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, according to Festival Director Sudhir Nandgaokar.

Greek newspaper, Eleftherotypia, will carry International Tibet Support Network's advertisement depicting five bullet holes inparody of the Olympic emblem. Those in attendance at Sunday's closing ceremonies are asked not to applaud and turn their backs during the presentation of the Olympic flag to Beijing, hosts of the 2008 games.

ITSN - A peaceful protest by six Tibetan activists, representing the
worldwide movement for Tibet, was halted today at the Olympic Sports Complex by police officers. The activists displayed their own version of the Olympic flag which shows five bullet holes replacing the Olympic rings and carries the slogan 'China plays games with human rights' as Athens today passes on the Olympic flag to Beijing, the hosts of the 2008 Games. The group were marching towards the main stadium, singing the Tibetan national anthem, to deliver their flags to IOC officials but were stopped by a group of 15 police officers who roughly removed both their flags. The activists, wearing traditional Tibetan dress, also carried T-shirts bearing their logo which were also seized by police. The police officers then searched the bags of the activists who were sitting down in silent protest
whilst waiting for representatives of the IOC. Press releases and copies of the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN) human rights report on Tibet found in the bags were also confiscated.

Wangpo Tethong, one of the six Tibetan activists and chair of the ITSN
Olympic Committee "2008-Free Tibet" stated, 'Although we are disappointed at the treatment we have been given here in Athens, what is even more disturbing is the prospect of how Beijing will deal with dissent in 2008. Tonight it is important to gauge the reaction of the audience at the closing ceremony as we have appealed to audience members not to applaud China's presentation and instead to turn their backs.'