| Phayul[Friday, June 26, 2009 15:50] |
By Phurbu Thinley  Nepalese police block Tibetan activists during a peace march on June 26. Nepalese police on Friday arrested dozens of Tibetan exiles who tried to stage a demonstration near the Tibetan border, witnesses said. (Photo: AFP/Prakash Mathema) The group of Tibetan exiles, some of whom are said to have Nepali citizenship or ID cards, left from a Buddhist monastery in the capital early in the morning, according IANS. They left Kathmandu around 4am today as the world observed the "International Day Against Torture". The group hired a bus in the Nepalese capital Kathmandu and were on their way to the Tibetan border town of Khasa (Tib: Dram) when they were stopped by the police at Andheri, a town about 30km from the border in Nepal's northernmost Sindhupalchowk district. "There is no peace in Tibet," one of the protesters told IANS. "People are being killed and tortured. Though we are Tibetans we can't return to our own land." "We had wanted to stage a peace march in Tibet to draw attention to our plight. But Nepal police arrested us." According to DPA, nine Tibetans were detained after they tried to force their way through the police line in their efforts to reach Nepal's international border with the Chinese-occupied Tibet. Tibetan exiles chanted pro-Dalai Lama and Free Tibet slogans and blocked the main highway demanding the release of their colleagues, police told DPA. Police said the bus had been sent back to Kathmandu where the group will be handed over to the immigration authorities for appropriate action. This is the first open show of defiance by Tibetan exiles in Nepal, a country that readily succumbs to Chinese pressure over Tibet issues, in nearly a year.  Tibetan refugees marching towards Tibet scuffle with Nepalese police during the protest against the Chinese government at Andheri town, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Nepal-Tibet border, in Nepal, Friday, June 26, 2009. (Photo: AP/Gemunu Amarasinghe) Tibetan demonstrations were routinely stopped by Nepali police, often using excessive force. The demonstrators regularly faced arrests, intimidation and in some cases individual threats and arbitrary detention. In the midst of protests, China sent a flurry of high-level visits by Chinese officials, including a delegation led by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, to ask Nepal to effectively curb "Free-Tibet activities” while promising to increase assistance to the crisis-stricken country in return. Nepal has more than 20,000 Tibetans refugees concentrated mainly in the Kathmandu valley and Pokhara in western Nepal. The figure does not include Tibetans who arrived in the country after 1990 because the Nepalese government stopped registering them as refugees. Estimates also suggest between 2,500 and 3,000 Tibetans escape Tibet and enter Nepal each year after a perilous journey over the Himalayas on their way to Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan Government-in-Exile in north India. This week, a delegation of Nepali MPs visited Dharamsala for the first time and met with the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and senior leaders in the exile Tibetan community. The members pledged to initiate efforts to speak for Tibet and the plight of Tibetan refugees in Nepal after they return to their country at the end of their three-day visit here. |
Friday, June 26, 2009
Nepal police arrest Tibetan protesters near Tibet border:
Nepal police arrest Tibetan protesters near Tibet border: Update
‘My Blog Was Deleted’
‘My Blog Was Deleted’
| RFA[Thursday, June 25, 2009 17:42] |
Don’t curb the Internet, designer and commentator Ai Weiwei says: It’s China’s best hope.  Chinese artist and commentator Ai Weiwei, in Kassel, Germany, June 14, 2007. (Photo: AFP) “No one can block the Internet, though all totalitarian regimes rule by intimidating and applying restrictions on people,” Ai said in a telephone interview from his home in Beijing. “I wish all citizens could exercise their rights, which are guaranteed by the Constitution.” Ai, a blogger, social commentator, and the designer of Beijing’s emblematic "Bird's Nest" Olympic stadium, said he hoped the online boycott would wake up Chinese Internet users, who he said have faced ever-tighter online curbs this year. He said he planned to pursue a legal complaint against sina.com, his blogging platform, for closing down his blog after he called for the July 1-2 boycott. “I sent out my appeal for a cyber strike on my blog…But today my blog was deleted,” he said. “In the first half of this year, the Internet in China has suffered from more and harsher restrictions. Obviously the government wants to control people’s rights to access information and news, and it wants to restrict freedom of speech,” he said. “The cyber strike can push more people to think about their own rights, and therefore to express their attitude toward official cyber controls and restrictions.” He picked July 1, he said, because that’s the day Chinese authorities will begin requiring the installation of a filtering program known as Green Dam, which officials say aims to protect youths from online pornography. It also marks the anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, “which pitilessly restricts press freedom and personal freedom of expression,” he said, and the anniversary of a killing spree in Shanghai by a disgruntled citizen, Yang Jia. “The Internet is the only visible possibility for China to develop into a democratic and civil society. It enables Chinese people to freely obtain information, though strict media controls remain and information can’t be disseminated” as it is elsewhere, Ai said. “The Internet provides a platform for Chinese people to freely communicate and exchange information. All these are not what a totalitarian political entity wants to see.” Original reporting by Ding Xiao for RFA’s Mandarin service. Translated by Chen Ping. |
Monday, June 22, 2009
Tibetan TV dishes removed to block access to foreign broadcasts Phayul[Monday, June 22, 2009 12:18]
Dharamsala, June 22: Chinese authorities have begun to remove satellite dishes in the Tibetan populated region in Gansu province in an effort to block access to foreign broadcasts, a media report cited Tibetan sources as saying.
Locals Tibetans told RFA that the latest drive is a new government effort to control what news they hear.
Tibetan-language broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America appear to be particular targets of the campaign, one source said.
“Beginning in April of this year, the local broadcasting department in Kanlho [Ch: Gannan] prefecture [of Gansu province] dispatched staff to the counties to install cable lines and to pull down the satellite dishes used by local Tibetans to listen to foreign broadcasts like RFA and VOA Tibetan programs,” a Tibetan woman in the Labrang area of Kanlho said.
“They also installed cable lines for listening to government-approved programs,” the woman said of the new government campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Local Tibetans were told by officials that they were carrying out the directives of central and provincial level authorities.
“They distributed copies of the letters issued by the government,” she said.
A Gannan prefecture document obtained by RFA, citing State Council document #129, describes what it calls “unprecedented efforts to collect satellite dishes” to restrict access to long-distance broadcasts in Gansu province, a site of repeated Tibetan protests against Chinese rule during the past year.
Machu, Luchu, Chonoe, Tsoe, and Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) counties all in Kanlo TAP witnessed sporadic and sustained anti-China unrest last year.
Tibetans in the region staged some of the most aggressive anti-China protests last year, resulting in several deaths following a violent crackdown by Chinese military troops.
Anyone failing to comply with government directives to remove the dishes would be “dealt with in accordance with law,” the memo said.
Such attempts by Chinese authorities to block the flow of information in and out of Tibet is not new.
China has employed latest technology and harsh stringent measures to effectively stem the flow of information in all possible media outlets.
Efforts were reportedly made by Chinese government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America as early as 2000.
Tibetan writer Woeser, in the June 15 entry of her blog “Invisible Tibet,” noted efforts “as early as 2000” by China’s government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, RFA reported.
Hundreds of jamming towers have been built in Tibetan regions for this purpose, she wrote.
“The Chinese government is now forcing Tibetan monks to pull down satellite dishes so that they cannot listen to RFA and VOA broadcasts. In May this year, the Chinese authorities carried out the policy vigorously in Kanlho.”
“In their place, the local Tibetans are forced to listen to [state-controlled] local TV programs connected through land lines,” she wrote.
A young Chinese boy stands on the roof of his home, with a television satellite dish, in the new migrant village of Guihua, China, June 18, 2003. (Photo: RFA)
Tibetan-language broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America appear to be particular targets of the campaign, one source said.
“Beginning in April of this year, the local broadcasting department in Kanlho [Ch: Gannan] prefecture [of Gansu province] dispatched staff to the counties to install cable lines and to pull down the satellite dishes used by local Tibetans to listen to foreign broadcasts like RFA and VOA Tibetan programs,” a Tibetan woman in the Labrang area of Kanlho said.
“They also installed cable lines for listening to government-approved programs,” the woman said of the new government campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Local Tibetans were told by officials that they were carrying out the directives of central and provincial level authorities.
“They distributed copies of the letters issued by the government,” she said.
A Gannan prefecture document obtained by RFA, citing State Council document #129, describes what it calls “unprecedented efforts to collect satellite dishes” to restrict access to long-distance broadcasts in Gansu province, a site of repeated Tibetan protests against Chinese rule during the past year.
Machu, Luchu, Chonoe, Tsoe, and Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) counties all in Kanlo TAP witnessed sporadic and sustained anti-China unrest last year.
Tibetans in the region staged some of the most aggressive anti-China protests last year, resulting in several deaths following a violent crackdown by Chinese military troops.
Anyone failing to comply with government directives to remove the dishes would be “dealt with in accordance with law,” the memo said.
Such attempts by Chinese authorities to block the flow of information in and out of Tibet is not new.
China has employed latest technology and harsh stringent measures to effectively stem the flow of information in all possible media outlets.
Efforts were reportedly made by Chinese government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America as early as 2000.
Tibetan writer Woeser, in the June 15 entry of her blog “Invisible Tibet,” noted efforts “as early as 2000” by China’s government to block broadcasts by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, RFA reported.
Hundreds of jamming towers have been built in Tibetan regions for this purpose, she wrote.
“The Chinese government is now forcing Tibetan monks to pull down satellite dishes so that they cannot listen to RFA and VOA broadcasts. In May this year, the Chinese authorities carried out the policy vigorously in Kanlho.”
“In their place, the local Tibetans are forced to listen to [state-controlled] local TV programs connected through land lines,” she wrote.
spirit for freedom lives on
A gigantic “Free Tibet” hoarding appears on an overpass in a busy commercial and shopping district in Taipei, Taiwan on June 1 this year. Also seen on the hoarding are Taiwanese heavy metal band Chthonic’s lead vocalist Freddy and bassist Doris who have long been active supporters of freedom and human rights. Photo: Guts United [Sunday, June 21, 2009, Guts United]
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