DP Tool Club 15/CD_ASCQ_15_070894.iso/vrac/wtn_0594.zip/WTN-0530.NWS

Text File | 1994-06-06 | 13KB | 241 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.
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Issue ID: 94/05/30 21:00 GMT            Compiled by Nima Dorjee
======================================================================
1.   Second Day of Tax Protests in Lhasa - Seven Arrests (TIN Report)
2. NO LONGER FACE TO FACE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
3. Ethnobiology and civil ecology of Tibetans
========================================================================

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1.   Second Day of Tax Protests in Lhasa - Seven Arrests (TIN Report)
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/* Written 12:52 am  May 30, 1994 by [e-mail] in gn:tibet.informat */
/* ---------- "Second Day of Tax Protests" ---------- */
Tibet Information Network / 7 Beck Rd London E8 4RE  UK
ph: ([phone] / fax: [phone]
TIN News Update / 29 May, 1994 / total no of pages: 2


Street demonstrations broke out for the second day in Lhasa, yesterday 28th
May, and at least seven people were arrested, according to unofficial sources
in the Tibetan capital. The demonstrators were protesting against steep
increases in taxes on shopkeepers, but several sources in the city say the
protestors were motivated by opposition to the US decision on Thursday to
renew China's trading privileges.

In addition, five arrests were reported from a small pro-independence
demonstration by a group of nuns earlier in the week.

Plainclothes police were said to be patrolling the streets yesterday in large
numbers and police vehicles were visible on all main streets in Lhasa after a
second day of anti-tax protests in Lhasa.

The Barkor, the Tibetan quarter of Lhasa, has been declared off limits to
tourists and all shops there remain closed after shop keepers continued a
boycott of trade yesterday, Saturday 28th May, in protest against steep rises
in monthly fees which they have to pay to the local administration.  One
source claimed the tax on shop keepers had been increased by 100%, but others
said the increase was around 25-30%.

The protests, which began on Friday afternoon, are widely believed by sources
in Lhasa to be fuelled by Tibetan disapproval of the US decision to renew
China's most favoured trading status, announced on Thursday by US President
Bill Clinton.

Clinton had undertaken last year that the status would be renewed only if
China achieved "overall significant progress" in human rights, including in
Tibet. Clinton stated on Thursday that such progress had not been achieved,
but renewed the status anyway. The Tibetans cannot legally demonstrate on such
an issue, and the shop strike is reported by some sources to be also a cover
for an anti-MFN protest.

A similar tactic was used in a major demonstration on May 24th last year, when
a protest by over 1,000 Tibetans against price rises later turned into a
pro-independence rally.

Tibetan traders in Lhasa, believed to be in the minority except in the Barkor
area, are planning to continue their current shut-down for at least a week,
according to one unconfirmed source. A similar shop closure lasted for three
days from 8th June 1991 when the authorities tried to increase the monthly tax
on Barkor shop keepers by 50%.

Concern about "high price rises" and other "outstanding contradictions and
problems" was expressed last week by the Tibet branch of the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, an official body of local dignitaries,
according an announcement on Lhasa TV on 21st May, monitored by the BBC.

Tourists say they have been confined to the capital, suggesting that the
authorities fear that unrest may spread to areas outside Lhasa. On Friday, the
first day of the tax protest, staff in a hotel near the demonstration site
closed the curtains on all windows overlooking the main street, and police
impounded the passports of three foreigners caught looking from their rooms.

Arrests; One Month Security Alert

Among the seven people arrested on Saturday were a child, whose name is not
known, and a woman named Drolma Yangzom, the wife of Tenzin Norbu, according
to unofficial sources in the capital.

A Tibetan source in Lhasa has confirmed reports from tourists earlier this
week that four monks were arrested in a protest in Lhasa on 24th May.

Five nuns were also detained after a protest in the Barkor at around 1pm on
25th May, according to an unconfirmed report which named the women as Phuntsog
Peyang (27), Phuntsog Wangmo (21), Phuntsog Tsomo (19), Ngawang Lamdrol (19),
and Dekyi Nyima (20), all nuns from Garu nunnery near Lhasa.

On 13th May a 30 year old monk from Ganden Monastery, was arrested by police
on suspicion of helping Tibetans to cross the border to Nepal illegally,
according to another source. The monk, Chung Tsering, from Meldrogungkar
county, also risks being accused of carrying information to the exile
Government based in India, suggested the source, who asked not to be named.

In meetings in government offices on 10th May the authorities in Lhasa
declared a one month period of heightened security measures, including
cancellation of leave and confinement to quarters for security officials.
During this period all group tourists have to have their names submitted to
police and state security departments in Lhasa, and Tibetans in Nepal wishing
to visit their homeland were told that visas were heavily restricted until
26th May.

The measures, designed to minimise the risk of protest, cover a series of
anniversaries that fall in late May, plus the MFN decision, and the 1989
Tiananmen massacre anniversary next week. The anniversaries coincide this year
with the one month Sagadawa festival which falls on either side of the
anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment on May 25th, and which has regularly
been marked in the past by pro-independence protests.   - end -


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2. NO LONGER FACE TO FACE ON HUMAN RIGHTS
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Description: --ESSAY: On the Clinton administration and human
rights Header: US News & World Rept
 Copyright, 1994, U.S. News & World Report All rights reserved.
U.S.NEWS & WORLD REPORT, JUNE 6, 1994


This week marks the fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square
massacre, in which Chinese troops crushed a nonviolent protest by
pro-democracy students.  The images of hopeful youths with their
``Give me liberty or give me death'' signs still linger. Now, five
years and one administration later, America still gropes for a
human-rights policy in China. Last week, President Clinton, who
more than once assailed George Bush for coddling dictators,
discarded last year's policy--which linked Beijing's progress on
human rights to renewal of its most-favored-nation trading
privileges--and unveiled a Bush-like ``broader strategy'' to
promote human rights in China.

   Although Beijing failed to meet many of Clinton's conditions
for renewing MFN status, the president's punishment was barely a
slap on the wrist--a ban on imports of the cheap Chinese
semiautomatic rifles that neo-Nazis and gang members in this
country favor. The administration did not even take the modest
step of saying that the U.S. attitude toward China's membership in
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, the world trading
system Beijing dearly wants to join, will be influenced by how it
treats its citizens.

   Clinton's threat to revoke MFN privileges was always a
problematic policy.  Even Chinese dissidents were deeply divided
about it, fearing renewed isolation. U.S. businesses and many
members of Congress opposed it, as did many of America's
traditional allies in Asia. But while severing the linkage between
trade and human rights, Clinton has not put forth a convincing
long-term approach to human-rights progress. When asked why
China's pace in improving human rights has been so slow, he
repeated the familiar argument that Asians are entitled to their
own definition of human rights. ``We see in the culture of China,
and in many other Asian societies,'' he said, ``a desire to
preserve order in the interests of the group, often at the expense
of the individual.''

   Many Chinese, Vietnamese, North Koreans and others have
suffered terribly because they have opposed the tyrants in charge,
and many human-rights advocates believe Clinton's comments comfort
the enemies of democratic principles instead of their champions.
They also say his view echoes a distortion of Confucian culture
that has been perpetuated by the region's authoritarian regimes.
The Confucian leader earns the right to rule, the ``Mandate of
Heaven,'' through virtue and moral rectitude. When he loses those
qualities, he abrogates the social contract.

   China, in fact, is in the midst of an intensive debate about
what kind of society it wants to be and which values to espouse.
In a Shanghai speech long before Tiananmen Square, now exiled
Chinese physicist Fang Lizhi said, ``If you want reform, attaining
democracy is the key.'' The president has sidestepped that debate,
leaving the impression that his promises to fight for human rights
in China are as empty as his pledges to halt aggression in Bosnia
and to restore democracy in Haiti.

BY LOUISE LIEF




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3. Ethnobiology and civil ecology of Tibetans
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From: Wendel Trio <[e-mail]>

Heike FABIG (private: [e-mail]) from KWIA - Flemish
Supportgroup for Indigenous Peoples (work: [e-mail])
and TSG-B member.

A study of the ethnobiology and civil ecology of Tibetans is
being carried out between now and 1996 by a team from teh
Lanzhou University and teh National Minority Committee. The
study examines traditional Tibetan Medicine; the genetic and
biological diversity of highland plants cultivated within
traditional Tibetan agricultural systems; traditional agricul-
tural and animal husbandry practices; the nature and ecologi-
cal/economic significance of Tibetan home gardens and forests
cultivated for firewood; and the nutritional aspects of Tibe-
tans' traditional way of life, and its influence on the health
of local people. In future, the study may also include re-
search on the indigenous economy, the new power policy, and
the relationship of this policy to the conservation of plant
resources.

Premilinaty field work was conducted between June and October
1993 in northwest and southwest Tibet. Information and re-
search materials can be obtained from the address below.
Fieldwork in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan province is
planned for the summers of 1994 and 1995.

Data will be processed and analyzed by computer (e.g. using a
database programme and multi-analysis). Remote-sensoring
techniques will be used to investgate the status of agricultu-
re, resources, and animal husbandry production. Botanical and
biochemical studies will also be conducted to investigate the
genetic variation of cultivated highland plants.

The results of the study will be published in monographs and
other academic publications. Computerized information, such as
databeses of Tibetan ethnobiology and Tibetan agriculture will
be developed as well. Video programmes will be produced to
introduce Tibetan medicine and Tibetan traditional agriculture
to the outside world.

Other scholars who have interest in these comprehensive stu-
dies are invited to join the team.

Contact: Xia Quan, Lanzhou University, Department of Biology,
Rm. 409 family Dependent Building No., Lanzhou, Gansu Province

--- GoldED 2.41+/#1067
 * Origin: BODY DHARMA * Moderator, TIBET_NEWS - DharmaNet (96:101/33)