DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/wtn_0594.zip/WTN-0523.NWS

Text File | 1994-06-06 | 26KB | 435 lines

------------------------   World Tibet Network News   ----------------------
   Published by:     The Canada-Tibet Committee
   Editorial Board:  Brian Given <[e-mail]>
                     Nima Dorjee <[e-mail]>
                     Conrad Richter <[e-mail]>
                     Tseten Samdup <[e-mail]>
   Submissions and subscriptions to:
                     [e-mail]
                     or fax to: [phone]  (U.K.)
   Send us your comments, announcements, news or items for discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue ID: 94/05/23 11:30 GMT                      Compiled by Conrad Richter

Contents
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1. Thousand Tibetans Demonstrate in New Delhi Against Chinese Rule
2. Unrest and Arrests in Eastern Tibet
3. Gore Says Clinton Still Unsure on MFN for China
4. Clinton Likely to Renew MFN
5. Twisting Off the Hook; Clinton Seems Headed for One of Those Compromises
   with China That Have Little Effect But Annoy Everybody
6. Escape from the Global Sweatshop: Capitalism's Stake in Uniting the
   Workers of the World
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----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Thousand Tibetans Demonstrate in New Delhi Against Chinese Rule
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   NEW DELHI, May 23, AP -- About 1,000 Tibetan refugees marched to a park,
linked arms and sang anti-Chinese songs today to mark the 43rd anniversary of
China's occupation of Tibet.
   "Death to Li Peng," the protesters shouted, referring to the Chinese prime
minister, after chanting an ode that recounts the sacrifices of Tibetans in
their fight against the Chinese occupation army.
   The protest was organized by the Tibetan Youth Congress, which called for
similar demonstrations worldwide. In the United States, Tibetans planned to
assemble today outside the United Nations in New York and the White House.
   Youth Congress President Tsewang Phuntso said Tibetans in Washington
planned to deliver a letter to President Clinton asking him to punish China by
refusing to renew its coveted low-tariff trade benefits.
   China sent its army into Tibet in 1950 and formally took over the country
in 1951, claiming it historically was a Chinese province.
   Since 1951, about 120,000 Tibetans, led by their spiritual and political
leader, the Dalai Lama, have fled, most to India.

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2. Unrest and Arrests in Eastern Tibet
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From: Human Rights Desk, Department of Information and International
      Relations, Central Tibetan Administration
Forwarded by: Tibetan Computer Resources Centre <[e-mail]>

DHARAMSALA, May 20, DIIR -- On 9 February, 1994, the Lokhor Gonchoe Chemo
(Annual Winter Offering Festival) of the Bu Gon monastery, one of the two
biggest monasteries in Dragyab (Ch: Chagyap), was held at Jamdun Qu. The
festival which is also held simultaneously at Ma Gon (located at Yandum)
monastery, is normally attended by monks from 40 monasteries affiliated (8 to
Bu Gon and 32 to Ma Gon) to the above two monasteries of Dragyab.  Dragyab
lies about 89 kms to the south of Chamdo.  Similar religious festival-
offerings are also held annually in Spring and Autumn. Kalon Sonam Tobgyal,
minister for Home and Health of the Tibetan Government in Exile who hails from
Dragyab said, "these three annual religious ceremonies were considered the
biggestin Dragyab in independent Tibet."

During this winter festival, Tibetan activists reportedly hoisted a Tibetan
national flag on the roof of Jamdun Qu headquarters, a three-storey house
which once belonged to the Drongreytsang family.  At the same time over 100
wall-posters saying, "Tibet is independent", "Chinese should be expelled from
Tibet," "the Tibetan people should rise up" and "Struggle for Truth and
Justice" were widely thrown in the streets and pasted on the walls of many
residential houses and office.  The wall-posters also appeared in large
numbers in the streets of other areas like Yandum (Ch: Yan Doa), Tsangshar,
Yobum in Dragyab district.  "This is one of the largest known campaign for
Tibetan independence in Dragyab region which has taken place in recent years,"
said Kalon Sonam Tobgyal.

The local authorities in Jamdun Qu immediately referred the incidents to their
district and prefectural headquarters, Dragyab and Chamdo (Ch: Qamdo), in
order to handle the situation.  Thereafter, about 30 officials and 70 security
forces from Chamdo and Dragyab were deployed in the area the same day,
according to sources in the town.  The security forces and the officials
immediately raided the Bu Gon monastery forcing into the rooms of the monks,
in some cases by breaking the doors and windows.  From the room of Ven. Tse
Tse, the secretary of the monastery, one copy of 1963 draft Constitution of
Tibet promulgated by H. H. the Dalai Lama; one book of collected statements of
H. H. the Dalai Lama; one Tibetan copy of the UN Universal Declaration on
Human Rights; 20 photographs of H. H. the Dalai Lama taken at the Nobel Peace
Prize Award Ceremony and hard cash of 40,000 Yuan were confiscated.

According to other accounts received from the region, the raid at the
monastery resulted in the detention of Gendun, aged 27, from Tsangshar Qu, his
younger brother, Tobgyal, aged 21, Tse Tse, the secretary of the monastery,
aged 47,  Tsetob, aged 28, Apho, aged 36 and Tenzin, aged 24.

These accounts state that sometime after these arrests, a massive rally of
about 5000 people, including 500 monks of various monasteries, was called in
the region.  Tibetans in about 25 towns, villages and nomadic regions were
forced to depute at least one member from a family to attend the rally.  These
type of rally are normally called to intimidate and terrorise the people
whenever there are major political unrests in Tibet.

During this public "trial", the authorities charged that activities like the
hoisting of the Tibetan national flag and wall-poster campaign on Tibetan
independence were "serious and unlawful."  However, they declared that if the
detainees confessed that henceforth "Tibet was not independent", they will not
face any form of punishment.  Two of the monks Ven. Tse Tse and Gedun
reportedly replied to the officials that "there is no change, whatsoever, in
our objectives." Though no sentences were announced the two monks were
immediately manacled and whisked away from the crowd.  Ven. Tse Tse and Apho
were taken to a prison in Chamdo  while Gedun and Tsetob were taken to the
district prison at Dragyab, the district headquarters.

At these two prisons, all those detained from the Dragyab campaign were
thoroughly interrogated as the Chinese authorities attempted to get
"confessions" from the six Tibetans. Sources close to the case in Jamdun say
that during one of the interrogation sessions these Tibetan detainees were
severely beaten and tortured with "electric cattle prods for two consecutive
hours."

Latest reports from the region say that two of those detained, Tenzin and
Tobgyal who also faced severe beating and torture were reportedly released
after the authorities decided that their actions were "incited" by others.
However, Ven. Tse Tse, Gedun, Apho and Tobgyal continues to face
interrogations and are under constant threat of severe torture and other
degrading forms of punishment.

In an indication of growing protests against the Chinese occupation in this
part of eastern Tibet, recent refugee accounts also state that wall-posters
calling for Tibetan independence appeared around 15 January, 1994 in many
areas of Chamdo and Dragyab.   The Chinese authorities have detained four
monks of Chamdo monastery, including 16 year-old Jampa Choejor, reportedly
in connection with the wall-posters which appeared on the walls of Chamdo
monastery and offices in the town.

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3. Gore Says Clinton Still Unsure on MFN for China
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    NEW YORK, May 22, Reuter -- Vice President Al Gore said Sunday President
Clinton had not yet made up his mind on extending Most Favoured Nation (MFN)
trade status to China and called the dialogue under way on human rights there
a form of progress.
     "There is still an effort by China to convince us they are complying with
several of the conditions (on human rights). Even though the deadline (on
Clinton's decision) is approaching, I still think it's worthwhile to look at
the overall record there," Gore said on the CBS programme "Face the Nation."
     "It's premature to jump to conclusions on what may or may not occur," he
said.
     President Clinton must make his decision by June 3 as to whether he will
extend MFN status to China.
     Last year, the Clinton administration said China must improve its human
rights before Washington renews its Most Favoured Nation (MFN) trading status,
which allow Chinese exports to enter the United States at the lowest possible
tariffs.
     It said China should make "overall, significant progress" on seven
human-rights issues, including freeing political prisoners, ending repression
in Tibet and easing emigration.
     According to a TIME/CNN poll conducted last week, 62 percent said they
felt encouraging human rights in China was more important than trade and 60
percent said the U.S. should require China to show more progress.
     Gore said he thought the constant pressure applied by the United States
on China on the issue of improving human rights was the correct approach. The
dialogue, itself, was a form of progress, he said.
     "I think it's important," he said, "to recognise that the very fact of
dialogue on the advancement on human rights the world is having is in itself a
victory of sorts.
     "The constant pressure of improving human rights the U.S. has tried to
assert around the world is in keeping with our most basic traditions," Gore
said.
     Asked what efforts China has made, Gore cited the release of some
dissidents, although he conceded there has been movement both ways. Some
dissidents have been rearrested, often within hours or days of their release.
     Gore refused to be pinned down as to whether a total revocation of MFN
would take place if China did not cooperate, and would not comment on the
possibility of selective sanctions as The New York Times suggested in an
editorial in its Sunday edition.
     "There are a number of alternatives open to the president," he said.

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4. Clinton Likely to Renew MFN
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Forwarded by: Debra Guzman, Human Rights Network <[e-mail]>
By: Gigi DiGiacomo and Kai Mander, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy,
    Minneapolis <[e-mail]>

MINNEAPOLIS, May 20, Trade Week in Review and Resources
[Vol. 3, No. 20] -- Media reports indicate that President
Clinton is prepared to renew Most Favored Nation (MFN)
status for China, despite some opposition in Congress.
According to the WASHINGTON POST, informed administration
sources say President Clinton will renege on last year's
pledge to withdraw most favored nation status if Chinese
leaders failed to pass specific test showing their respect
for human rights.  Some congressional members expect Clinton
to couple MFN renewal with a call for the creation of a
bilateral human rights commission with Beijing.

China has only partially fulfilled Clinton's seven human
rights demands, which included accounting for political
prisoners, allowing prisoners to be seen by the American Red
Cross, easing the repression in Tibet, taking steps to begin
adhering to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
allowing the free emigration of certain dissidents, halting
the jamming of Voice of America radio broadcasts and ending
the export of prison-made products.

Human rights groups say China has failed to make true
strides toward acceptable human rights provisions.  On
Wednesday, a bipartisan group of lawmakers endorsed a report
and videotape made by Hongda Harry Wu, a former Chinese
prisoner, who found evidence that China is still exporting
don't you know, that toddler with the bricks, but nothing to be
done. "Those who truly seek to advance the cause of human rights
in the Third World should . . . reluctantly conclude that the
costs of pressing for new links between trade and basic human
rights outweigh the likely benefits."
    The laissez-faire dogmatism of the Economist notwithstanding,
it is true enough that we must guard against disingenuous attempts
to import narrow agendas into the debate under the guise of
high-minded arguments.  Protectionists have shown a remarkable
readiness to march under any promising banner. A decade ago, when
national-defense arguments clinched Washington debates, producers
seeking protection argued that reliance on imports would
compromise our autonomy and dull our military edge. Today, when a
different set of political imperatives dominate the terrain, pleas
for protection may be more shrewdly couched in terms of the plight
of foreign workers.
  Beyond dogmatism and disingenuousness, what bases exist for
defining our legitimate national interests? At least three - some,
to my mind, more convincing than others - have been advanced:
  National security. The core premise of this argument is that
some states are simply bad actors, who both abuse their own
citizens and will sooner or later threaten global peace.
International labor codes, as a proxy for minimal standards of
good global citizenship, would serve to isolate these global
outlaws, denying them the trade connections that would strengthen
their economies and entrench their rulers.
    Internal repression, however, is no exact index to external
aggressiveness, so the proxy is far from perfect. And economic
sanctions have a decidedly mixed record in forcing change on
recalcitrant regimes. Moreover, national-security arguments are
seldom at the fore in the current debate over labor standards.
  Economic advantage. As low-standard producers exploit their edge
in an interlinked world economy, this argument goes, producers in
high-standard countries will be forced to respond by cutting wages
and benefits and worsening working conditions in a destructive
race for the bottom. Therefore, the best hope for hard-pressed
low-wage workers in America is to take labor costs out of
competition by establishing international standards.
    But this line of reasoning can also be dangerous because it so
easily slides into a call for walling off the advanced countries'
economies from all low-wage labor abroad. Moreover, technological
change is a much larger factor than Third World competition in the
evaporation of high-paid jobs for unskilled American workers. And
the United States itself enjoys formidable competitive advantages
that, in most markets, are far more important than labor costs -
solid infrastructure, high levels of education and training, a
stable political system and a robust macroeconomic structure.
   Humanitarian concern. The moral concern for exploited workers
in developing countries is clearly legitimate. But what is the
extent of our responsibility?  How can we best fulfill it?
    Some labor practices simply place countries outside the
community of civilized nations. A consensus list of "core" labor
standards will certainly proscribe goods produced by prison or
slave labor. Some forms of child labor - such as work by very
young children - will also be found to violate universal norms,
even in the poorest countries. Nor is poverty a valid pretext for
repressively restricting freedom of association and organization.
    Beyond a short list of core labor standards, judgments must
become more nuanced. How, if at all, are we to respond to the
developing country that allows 14-year-olds to work with no
limitations or special protections? What of countries where wages
are a small fraction of the levels prevailing in the developed
world, or where pension and health benefits are alien concepts?
What stance should we take toward countries where workplace health
and safety conditions are better than barbarous, but still much
worse than anything that U.S. or European laws would permit?
    The developing countries' insistence that they must grow
richer in order to afford American or European labor standards -
and that they must trade if they are to grow richer - is
essentially correct. Yet this observation contains within it an
implicit acknowledgment that standards should not be static, that
a country's ability to offer its citizens better working lives
rises with development, and that international expectations may
properly rise as well.
    So while it is neither fair nor realistic to insist that labor
standards in developing countries must be identical to those in
richer countries, it is appropriate to expect labor standards to
improve as economies develop. This expectation is an extension of
the moral concern that justifies international enforcement of
certain core labor standards.
    But it also reflects the fact that we have an economic stake
in broadly shared prosperity abroad. The emergence of middle-class
economies in developing nations not only affirms our values. It is
also good for business - both theirs and ours. Such economies
offer outlets for the goods and services that advanced economies
such as ours produce as well as providing an internal, stable
source of demand for their own production. Despotisms and
oligarchies are unreliable customers. Middle-class economies offer
more stable foundations for global growth. The improvement of
labor conditions as developing countries grow richer advances
America's moral agenda and our economic interests at the same time
- a fortunate, if rare, coincidence of interests.
    Free trade, we must remember, is a means, not an end. The end
is rising living standards worldwide. The reason to open trade is
because it has been shown to improve people's lives. But if a
country pursues policies that hold down living standards and limit
to a narrow elite the benefits of trade, the promise of open
commerce is perverted and drained of its rationale.
  If the industrialized world can legitimately expect improving
labor conditions to accompany Third World growth, how should these
expectations be articulated? Let me suggest a two-part test. The
first concerns democratic institutions. The second concerns
trends.
   Labor conditions are determined by economic, cultural and
political factors, and it is difficult to disentangle the effects
of each. But the existence of democratic institutions - multiple
parties, freedom of speech and the press, clean elections - makes
it much more likely that low wages and poor working conditions are
caused by unfortunate but legitimate economic constraints. The
less democratic the country, conversely, the greater the grounds
for suspicion that labor standards are being suppressed to serve
narrow commercial interests or a misguided mercantilist impulse on
the part of elites.
    But what of the sadly extensive list of developing countries
where democratic institutions are weak or absent? For these
countries, trends in labor standards and economic inequality offer
a second sort of yardstick.  Low-wage workers should become better
off, not worse off, as trade and investment boost national income.
The gap between rich and poor should tend to narrow with
development, not widen. If a country both lacks democratic
institutions and fails to disseminate the benefits of growth,
other countries might justifiably conclude that low labor
standards are due not to poverty itself, but to political choices.
    In short, international action can be justified where the core
labor standards that define a civilized economy are violated, or
where low labor standards persist despite economic growth, and
where the feebleness of democratic institutions gives grounds for
belief that living conditions are suppressed by policy, not
poverty. But this tentative framework deals only with diagnosis,
not prescription. What should be the response of the international
community to policies that affront the set of standards it comes
to articulate?
    It is clearly best for any measures to be authorized and
implemented multilaterally, in order to exploit the expertise of
global organizations. That would help to insulate labor-standards
issues from parochial motives in any particular country and to
increase the odds that intervention will be effective. Also needed
is a menu of potential responses to labor-standard abuses, varying
in both the nature and the severity of their effects. The range
could include general trade sanctions, sector-specific
restrictions, the loss of preferential trade status, ineligibility
for international grant and loan programs, "sunshine" provisions
to highlight abuses and technical assistance to clear the path to
improvement.
    The final principle, which gives force to the other two, is
pragmatism.  International action that fails to effect change in
offending nations is a waste of time, or worse. Scrupulous
assessment and analysis, at each stage, must inform the
international community's efforts to improve labor standards.  And
we must not lose sight of the fact that trade itself - by opening
an economy to external influences, and empowering a wider range of
internal interests - can sometimes be a catalyst for progressive
change.
    We are all becoming bound together in a planetary network of
commerce and culture. And treading painfully through that global
village is the young child laden with bricks. It becomes harder to
ignore him every year. It is true enough that defining our
obligations toward workers overseas will be a complex affair, one
that will occupy us through the century's end, and probably
beyond.  But that's all the more reason to get to work on it.

   [Robert Reich is U.S. secretary of labor.]

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------   World Tibet Network News   ----------------------
   Published by:     The Canada-Tibet Committee
   Editorial Board:  Brian Given <[e-mail]>
                     Nima Dorjee <[e-mail]>
                     Conrad Richter <[e-mail]>
                     Tseten Samdup <[e-mail]>
   Submissions and subscriptions to:
                     [e-mail]
                     or fax to: [phone]  (U.K.)
   Send us your comments, announcements, news or items for discussion.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Issue ID 94/05/23 GMT 18:50     Compiled by Tseten Samdup

Content
---------------------------------------------------------------------
1) China using religion to divide Tibetans
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From:Tempa Tsering
        Secretary Department of Information & International
        Relations Central Tibetan Administration Gangchen Kyishong
        Dharamsala 176 215 India
Date:   23 May 1994

A senior Tibetan official in exile has charged China with
exploiting the religious sentiments of the Tibetans in Tibet as
well as well to create disunity.  Kalon Tashi Wangdi, head of the
Tibetan Department of Information & International Relations,  said
today, "There are strong indications that China is actively
engaged in creating divisions in the Tibetan community by
interfering in their religious activity."

Referring specifically to the unusual interest by official Chinese
media in the developments connected to the reincarnation of the
16th Gyalwa Karmapa, a senior Tibetan Lama.  Kalon Wangdi said
China was implementing the decisions taken at a secret meeting by
senior Chinese officials on May 12, 1993.  The meeting, code named
512, was attended by 80 provincial and national leaders, including
officials from the Chinese foreign security ministries.  Among the
measures discussed to curb Tibetan resistance to Chinese rule, the
meeting decided to "manipulate renowned international figures and
religious personages in Tibet" and to break up the Tibetans in
exile by infiltrating the ranks of Tibetan religious figures."

Kalon Wangdi said, "The Chinese Government will not succeed in
trying to use the reincarnation at Tsurbu in Tibet as a pawn in
the game plan to create divisions among Tibetans and as a
propaganda tool.  The people who are directly connected with the
reincarnation and the Tibetan people at large know that the
candidate was first approved by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  The
subsequent involvement of Chinese authorities was because of Tibet
being under the Chinese occupation.  The fact that His Holiness
the Dalai Lama had given approval to a candidate in Tibet in spite
of the political complications shows the sincerity and genuineness
of His motive.  He said that it was clear that China was not
interested in respecting Tibetan religious and cultural traditions
but only in exploiting it with destructive and negative motive."

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