By Human Rights Watch
November 29, 2012
(New York) – The self-immolation of seven Tibetans since November 26,
2012, highlights the failure of Chinese authorities to address Tibetan
grievances, Human Rights Watch said today. Increasingly pervasive and
punitive security measures in response to protests have exacerbated the
situation in Tibetan areas of China.
A total of 89 Tibetans have self-immolated since February 2009,
almost all of whom shouted slogans or left statements calling for the
return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet,
Tibetan freedom, relaxation of religious and cultural policy, and
related issues. In 2012, 76 Tibetans self-immolated, including 27 in
November. Of the 89, 74 died, 7 reportedly survived, and the condition
of 6 is unknown.
“Self-immolation is an act of complete desperation to bring attention to the plight of Tibetans,” said Brad Adams,
Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of stepping up repression
and driving people to believe there is no hope of change, Beijing needs
to take steps to respond to Tibetans’ grievances.”
The central government has authorized increasingly aggressive moves
against both individual Tibetans and Tibetan communities where
immolations have taken place, Human Rights Watch said. Since late
October, officials have responded to immolations by punishing the
families and communities of protestors, characterizing immolations as
criminal offenses, arresting those associated with immolators, and by
deploying paramilitary forces and restricting communications and travel
in areas where immolations have occurred.
Although the Chinese leadership in March said that the immolators
were “innocents,” officials this month described these protests as “ugly
and evil acts intended to achieve the separatist goal of Tibetan
independence,” and as “used by the Dalai group to incite unrest in an
attempt to split the nation.”
Qinghai and Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) officials have in recent
weeks employed forms of collective punishment to discourage immolations.
On November 14, after five self-immolations in their area in a week,
officials in Huangnan (Malho in Tibetan) prefecture in Qinghai
ordered the cancellation of all “benefits received by the households of
self-immolators under public benefit policies” and announced that “all
projects running on state funds in self-immolators’ villages must be
stopped.” The officials extended those cancellations to any families,
monks, or monasteries who take part in “instances of greeting and making
contributions to family members of self-immolators,” and ordered
criminal investigations to begin against any “laypeople and monks who
organized to greet family members” of immolators (see appendix for full
statement).
The use of collective punishment is contrary to international human
rights law, and in these instances infringe on the rights to freedom of
religion and belief, Human Rights Watch said.
Similarly broad punishments have been imposed in Lhasa, the capital
of TAR, since a May 27 double immolation. As a direct result of those
immolations, the authorities have since banned all Tibetans who reside outside the TAR from entering the region without written police guarantees.
In some cases documented by Human Rights Watch, police have indicated
that self-immolations are being treated as a criminal offense.
According to press reports, after four immolations in October 2012, the prefectural police in Gannan (Ganlho
in Tibetan), Gansu province, issued a notice offering rewards of up to
50,000 yuan (approximately US$7,900) for information on “the sources of
scheming, planning, and instigating” of immolations and offered 20,000
yuan (US$3,150) for information leading to those supposed to have
planned the protests.
The authorities have also arrested Tibetans apparently for
involvement in helping immolators plan or carry out their protests. A
local source reported that on October 6, four Buddhist monks from Dokar
monastery in Gannan, Gansu province, were detained apparently "for
taking care of the body” of an immolator and for taking photos of the
body. Four monks from Zilkar monastery in Chenduo (Trindu in
Tibetan) county, Yushu prefecture, Qinghai province, were detained on
September 1 and later sentenced to up to two years in prison, apparently
for involvement in a small protest on February 8.
Both sets of arrests were carried out by large numbers of armed police in riot gear who surrounded and raided the monasteries.
Large contingents of armed police in areas where immolations have
occurred continue to be reported. Since October, reports of large
numbers of security forces were received from numerous sites where
immolations have occurred, including Tongren (Rebkong in Tibetan) in Qinghai, Xiahe (Sangchu in Tibetan) country in Gansu, Serxu (Sershul in Tibetan) in Sichuan Province, as well as Hezuo in Gansu province, Chenduo in Qinghai, and Suo in Nagchu, TAR.
Human Rights Watch asked governments committed to promoting human
rights to jointly urge the Chinese government to address Tibetan
grievances. They should consider forming a contact group or issuing a
joint statement on longstanding human rights problems in Tibet.
“The central government should devote as much energy to addressing
the deep-rooted problems facing Tibetans as it is on punishing the
families of those who have taken the drastic step of protesting by
self-immolating,” Adams said. “Coordinated, international expressions of
concern are essential to get Beijing to substantively address the
issues being raised by Tibetans.”
Appendix
The text below was translated by Human Rights Watch from an
original text in Tibetan transcribed by the Tibetan Centre for Human
Rights and Democracy, from a screenshot of a television broadcast that
showed the notice.
Human Rights Watch believes, though cannot confirm, that this November
14, 2012 notice, issued by the Huangnan prefectural authorities in
Qinghai province, is an official document.
Urgent notice from the Huangnan Prefecture
Party Work Department and Huangnan Prefecture Peoples Government Work
Department concerning issues related to social stability
To the Party committees and Peoples Governments of each county,
departments of the Prefecture Party committee, Prefecture agencies,
Provincial offices based in the prefecture, Mass organizations and Armed
[Police] branches in the prefecture:
In the period of the 18
th Party congress, six incidents of
instability have occurred one after the other in the Rebkong [Ch.:
Tongren] area of the prefecture. This has caused serious damage to
harmony and stability in the whole prefecture and been a negative
influence on the province and nation. The incidents are clearly a case
of the Dalai group, while wearing the cloak of religion, using
self-immolation to encourage social grievance and incite unrest among
students to create social disturbance in an attempt to split the nation.
At this time when upper, lower and middle [level officials] throughout
the prefecture are giving all their strength to maintaining social
stability, the masses in some areas, both monks and laypeople, are
putting about random and nonsensical talk and being taken in by the
incitements of the Dalai group through ignorance, believing the
self-immolators to be heroes and even going to greet their family
members and make voluntary donations to them. They have made a
problematic scene and upset normal social order. With firm
determination, those responsible for implementing the policies of the
provincial Party committee, and those responsible for forcefully
maintaining the appearance of social stability throughout the
prefecture, must strictly smash the small number of criminals who
despicably manipulate people who do not understand the real situation
and incite them to self-immolate and create social grievances, must
establish good order and smash disorder, in order to maintain general
harmony and stability in the prefecture. The urgent notice on current
related work follows below.
One: Each area, department and office must take swift measures to
cancel benefits received by the households of self-immolators under
public benefit policies, such as minimum income support, disaster relief
aid and so on. No retrospective allocation is permitted. All projects
running on state funds in self-immolators’ villages must be stopped. All
previously made arrangements must be reviewed and cancelled. The main
responsible [local officials] in townships where self-immolation
incidents have occurred must be thoroughly investigated by the county
Party committee, and criticized in notices circulated throughout the
prefecture. Township leaders and other government and Party officials
may not be recommended as advanced personnel this year. Townships in
which multiple incidents of instability have occurred may not benefit
from state-funded projects for the next three years, leading party and
government officials in those townships must be replaced, other staff
must be corrected, rejections of responsibility must be investigated,
and insufficient attention to duty and failures in this regard strictly
punished according to Party discipline.
Two: Each area and related departments must swiftly and clearly
establish whether there were instances of greeting and making
contributions to family members of self-immolators among the masses in
their locality. If there were instances of greeting, donation and paying
of respect, the county and township Party committees must send special
personnel to swiftly put a stop to it, educate them and clearly explain
why this is mistaken and has serious consequences. Public security
agencies must swiftly take measures against those who do not listen to
this advice and strictly smash them.
Three: Laypeople and monks who greet and make donations must be given corrective training and criticism [
skyon brjod slob gso],
and the households of those who organized it and acted as public
representatives, and of monks who went to greet family members, must
have benefits granted under public benefit policies, such as minimum
income support, disaster relief aid and so on cancelled. In the case of
members of monastery management committees, they must be put together
and determinedly dealt with by United Front and Nationalities and
Religion departments. Where villages or monasteries organized to make
collective donations (down to ‘Five-support households’) [poorest
households that qualify for five kinds of state assistance] must have
all benefits received under public benefit policies, such as minimum
income support, disaster relief aid and so on cancelled. Those villages
and monasteries may not benefit from any state-funded projects for the
next three years, and those already underway must be cancelled.
Four: Laypeople and monks who organized to greet family members and
forced others to participate must be swiftly investigated, and once
solid evidence of their activities is gathered, they must face legal
proceedings at an early date, and be smashed quickly and heavily,
according to law. (Village and local Party officials) and especially
village Party secretaries and village heads who were involved must
resolutely be changed, their responsibility investigated, and their
cases entrusted to disciplinary, organizational, Public Security and
inspection departments for strict punishment, and any violations of
discipline and law strictly dealt with. In the case of Lamas and
monastery DMC members involved in such organizing activities, their
monasteries must be closed according to law and strictly investigated,
and those involved in organizing activities punished heavily.
Five: Officials who are found to have disregarded Party and government
discipline and state laws to greet and make donations to the families of
self-immolators must be swiftly dismissed from government service and
handed over to the judicial departments to be strictly dealt with
according to law.
Each locality, each unit and each office must use multiple methods to
publicize and enact this notice, and report to Prefecture Party and
Government on related matters in a timely way. Prefecture Party agencies
responsible for internal oversight must monitor related matters in
conjunction with the Prefecture Party and Government oversight
departments, and if implementation is inadequate, and further incidents
of self-immolators being greeted and offered donations occur, the
Prefecture Party and Government will hold Party and government officials
strictly to account.
Huangnan Prefecture Party Work Department, Huangnan Peoples Governmnent Work Department
November 14, 2012
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Originally posted athttp://www.hrw.org/news/2012/11/29/china-tibetan-immolations-security-measures-escalate. Reprinted pursuant to HRW's use policy. --
