FromTibet's blog

Jigme Gyatso has assisted Dhondup Wangchen for filming amazing documentary showing the true life on Tibetan in Tibet: LeavingFearBehind. Both of them were jailed in March 2008.

Jigme Gyatso was recently released from jail, and he is now back in Labrang Tashikyil Monastery in Gansu Province. "Following his release, the statement said, Jigme Gyatso told sources that he was severely tortured after his arrest in March 2008. The interrogators beat him continuously and hanged him by his feet from the ceiling for hours and kept him tied for days on the interrogation chair. During the interrogations he fainted several times due to the beatings."

Watch the documentary: http://blog.fromtibet.com/index.php?post/2008/08/24/Leaving-Fear-Behind-The-true-feeling-of-Tibetans-living-in-Tibet-Full-documentary
Take action: http://www.leavingfearbehind.com/take-action.html

Source: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=23020&article=Tibetan+filmmaker+temporarily+released+from+prison

Twelve Suggestions for Dealing with the Tibetan Situation by Some Chinese Intellectuals

1. At present the one-sided propaganda of the official Chinese media is having the effect of stirring up inter-ethnic animosity and aggravating an already tense situation. This is extremely detrimental to the long-term goal of safeguarding national unity. We call for such propaganda to be stopped.

2. We support the Dalai Lama's appeal for peace, and hope that the ethnic conflict can be dealt with according to the principles of goodwill, peace, and non-violence. We condemn any violent act against innocent people, strongly urge the Chinese government to stop the violent suppression, and appeal to the Tibetan people likewise not to engage in violent activities.

3. The Chinese government claims that "there is sufficient evidence to prove this incident was organized, premeditated, and meticulously orchestrated by the Dalai clique." We hope that the government will show proof of this. In order to change the international community's negative view and distrustful attitude, we also suggest that the government invite the United Nation's Commission on Human Rights to carry out an independent investigation of the evidence, the course of the incident, the number of casualties, etc.

4. In our opinion, such Cultural-Revolution-like language as "the Dalai Lama is a jackal in Buddhist monk's robes and an evil spirit with a human face and the heart of a beast " used by the Chinese Communist Party leadership in the Tibet Autonomous Region is of no help in easing the situation, nor is it beneficial to the Chinese government's image. As the Chinese government is committed to integrating into the international community, we maintain that it should display a style of governing that conforms to the standards of modern civilization.

5. We note that on the very day when the violence erupted in Lhasa (March 14), the leaders of the Tibet Autonomous Region declared that "there is sufficient evidence to prove this incident was organized, premeditated, and meticulously orchestrated by the Dalai clique." This shows that the authorities in Tibet knew in advance that the riot would occur, yet did nothing effective to prevent the incident from happening or escalating. If there was a dereliction of duty, a serious investigation must be carried out to determine this and deal with it accordingly.

6. If in the end it cannot be proved that this was an organized, premeditated, and meticulously orchestrated event but was instead a "popular revolt" triggered by events, then the authorities should pursue those responsible for inciting the popular revolt and concocting false information to deceive the Central Government and the people; they should also seriously reflect on what can be learned from this event so as to avoid taking the same course in the future.

7. We strongly demand that the authorities not subject every Tibetan to political investigation or revenge. The trials of those who have been arrested must be carried out according to judicial procedures that are open, just, and transparent so as to ensure that all parties are satisfied.

8. We urge the Chinese government to allow credible national and international media to go into Tibetan areas to conduct independent interviews and news reports. In our view, the current news blockade cannot gain credit with the Chinese people or the international community, and is harmful to the credibility of the Chinese government. If the government grasps the true situation, it need not fear challenges. Only by adopting an open attitude can we turn around the international community's distrust of our government.

9. We appeal to the Chinese people and overseas Chinese to be calm and tolerant, and to reflect deeply on what is happening. Adopting a posture of aggressive nationalism will only invite antipathy from the international community and harm China's international image.

10. The disturbances in Tibet in the 1980s were limited to Lhasa, whereas this time they have spread to many Tibetan areas. This deterioration indicates that there are serious mistakes in the work that has been done with regard to Tibet. The relevant government departments must conscientiously reflect upon this matter, examine their failures, and fundamentally change the failed nationality policies.

11. In order to prevent similar incidents from happening in future, the government must abide by the freedom of religious belief and the freedom of speech explicitly enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, thereby allowing the Tibetan people fully to express their grievances and hopes, and permitting citizens of all nationalities freely to criticize and make suggestions regarding the government's nationality policies.

12. We hold that we must eliminate animosity and bring about national reconciliation, not continue to increase divisions between nationalities. A country that wishes to avoid the partition of its territory must first avoid divisions among its nationalities. Therefore, we appeal to the leaders of our country to hold direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama. We hope that the Chinese and Tibetan people will do away with the misunderstandings between them, develop their interactions with each other, and achieve unity. Government departments as much as popular organizations and religious figures should make great efforts toward this goal.

Signatures:

1.Wang Lixiong (Beijing, Writer)
2.Liu Xiaobo (Beijing, Freelance Writer)
3.Zhang Zuhua (Beijing, scholar of constitutionalism)
4.Sha Yexin (Shanghai, writer, Chinese Muslim)
5.Yu Haocheng (Beijing, jurist)
6.Ding Zilin (Beijing, professor)
7.Jiang peikun (Beijing, professor)
8.Yu Jie (Beijing, writer)
9.Sun Wenguang (Shangdong, professor)
10.Ran Yunfei (Sichuan, editor, Tujia nationality)
11.Pu Zhiqiang (Beijing, lawyer)
12.Teng Biao (Beijing, Layer and scholar)
13.Liao Yiwu (Sichuan, writer)
14.Wang Qisheng (Beijing, scholar)
15.Zhang Xianling (Beijing, engineer)
16.Xu Jue (Beijing, research fellow)
17.Li Jun (Gansu, photographer)
18.Gao Yu (Beijing, journalist)
19.Wang Debang (Beijing, freelance writer)
20.Zhao Dagong (Shenzhen, freelance writer)
21.Jiang Danwen (Shanghai, writer)
22.Liu Yi (Gansu, painter)
23.Xu Hui (Beijing, writer)
24.Wang Tiancheng (Beijing, scholar)
25.Wen kejian (Hangzhou, freelance)
26.Li Hai (Beijing, freelance writer)
27.Tian Yongde (Inner Mongolia, folk human rights activists)
28.Zan Aizong (Hangzhou, journalist)
29.Liu Yiming (Hubei, freelance writer)
30.Liu Di (Beijing, freelance writer)

Source: http://stoptibetcrisis.net/download/chineseintellectinEnglish.pdf

China increase repression in Tibet during the Olympic Game.

The situation is far to be improved for the Tibetan people living in Tibet.

Since the March 10th, clampdown on the Tibetans by the PRC follows below:
 * Number of Tibetans killed: more than 216
 * Number of Tibetan injured: above 1,000
 * Number of Tibetan arrested: more than 5,972

source http://stoptibetcrisis.net
numbers from the 29 July 2008

Since June, we do not heard anymore about what is currently going on in Tibet.

  ... did the situation improve?
  ... did the Chinese government follows their promises to improve human rights?
  ... does all injured Tibetans have access to medical assistance?
  ... what happened of the 6000 Tibetans arrested?

So now that all the athletes try to get new records, what's going now there?

Journalists are still not allowed in Tibet and the repression is increasing in order to avoid "any events" during the game:
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5iB7z9lFB07Pwj89x7HHTq7vo7UKQ
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22525&article=China+stepping+up+Tibet+repression%2c+activists+say&t=1&c=1

Hundreds of Tibets are killed!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/feedarticle/7741979
"The Dalai Lama accused Chinese troops of opening fire on protesters in eastern Tibet on Aug. 18 and said in an interview published on Thursday he had unconfirmed information that 140 people were killed.

Very courageous activists are banned from China, after their amazing actions:
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22523&article=Demonstrator+tells+of+9-hour+interrogation&t=1&c=1
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/8/8/summer_olympic_games_open_in_beijing

Though, Chinese government, is planning a lot of good stuffs for the up coming years:
- Expend the railway for the sake of economics development and Tibetan people's comfort: http://news.smh.com.au/world/china-to-expand-tibet-railway-20080818-3xim.html
- And move over 73,700 Nomadic Tibetans in Kanlho into permanent homes: http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22527&article=China+to+relocate+over+73%2c700+Nomadic+Tibetans+in+Kanlho+into+permanent+homes%3a+state+media&t=1&c=1

Some words from His Holiness: http://dalailama.com/news.288.htm


Obviously the clampdown in Tibet just keeps going and increasing, even now during the games.
No government dare say anything to China. People around the world are still watching the event and get brainwash because of the Chinese Infowar.
The Tibetan culture is in a great danger.


That's definitely the WORST Olympiad ever ...

At the begging we wanted to have a free speech corner for FromTibet.com, a place where everybody could discuss about our web site, Tibet, Buddhism, and so on.
To do so, we had opened a forum. Our main hope was to use this forum as an interaction with worldwide net users, and to provide also a place were Tibetan people could communicate.

Unfortunately our forum has been flooded by pro-Chinese messages, and became unusable ...
... we had no choose but to close it.

As an alternative we have decided to open this blog. We still hope that this will be a place of interaction, so please do not hesitate to add comments or even if you wish to become an author of this blog!

From my side I'll apologize in advance for my poor English skill, which may disappointing native speakers.