After slamming China for its “expansionist policies” and issuing a warning to Nepal regarding Chinese combativeness, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has now asked the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to hold a special session on “human right violations” by China in Tibet and other regions under it. Accusing China of committing “cultural genocide” in Tibet, President of the Tibetan government-in-exile, Lobsang Sangay, has issued a statement in which he has asked UNHRC to “act with a sense of urgency” to “unite and ensure that China fulfils its obligations under international laws including human rights obligations before it is too late”.
The Tibetian government based in Dharamshala, the district headquarters of Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India, has urged the UN body to take appropriate decisive measures to protect fundamental freedoms in China occupied regions including Tibet, Hong Kong, and Xinjiang.
Central Tibetan Administration (CTA)
For the uninitiated, while the People’s Republic of China (PRC) claims that Tibet is an integral part of China, the Tibetan government-in-exile maintains that Tibet is an independent state under unlawful occupation. Prior to 1951, Tibet had a theocratic government of which the Dalai Lama was the supreme religious and political head. On 29 April 1959, Dalai Lama established the Tibetan exile administration in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie. Named the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), this is the continuation of the government of independent Tibet. In May 1960, the CTA was moved to Dharamsala. The Tibetan people, both in and outside Tibet, look to the CTA as their sole and legitimate representative. Since 2012, Lobsang Sangay is the Sikyong or the President of the Tibetan-government-in-exile, officially known as Central Tibetan Administration.
In his statement on Sunday (June 28th), Lobsang Sangay said that in the last six decades and more, Tibetans within Tibet were suffering under the authoritarian rule of China. The Chinese government has stripped off Tibetans of their basic human rights and their inherent dignity of being human, he said.
China accused of torturing the Tibetans for decades
Sangay furthered that China has for decades tortured the Tibetans, and the act of cruelties which China has been imparting on the Tibetans “do not fall short of being categorised as cultural genocide”. Accusing China of carrying out unchecked human right violations in Tibet and other places under it, Sangay furthered: “The tortures, enforced disappearances, and destructions of monasteries carried out by the government of China against Tibetans are acts of crimes against humanity and do not fall short of being categorized as ‘cultural genocide’,” he added.
“The persecution and suppression via high-tech surveillance by China have forced 154 Tibetans from different walks of life in Tibet to self-immolate as a mark of peaceful protest against the Chinese authorities since 2009,” alleged Sangay.
The President of the Tibetan government-in-exile said that it is time to hold China accountable otherwise it will have an adverse global impact, similar to the Wuhan originated Covid-19 pandemic.
Quoting a recent demand by UN independent experts to examine the alleged human right violations in Tibet by China, Sangay said: “We strongly urge the UNHRC and the member states to hold a special session to evaluate the human rights violations being carried out by China and to establish a country mandate of UN Special Rapporteur on China to monitor, analyse and report annually on the human rights situation in Tibet and other occupied regions”.
President of the Tibetan government-in-exile speaks of China’s “five-finger” plan
Earlier, Lobsang Sangay had warned Nepal that China has been looking at occupying the entire sub-continent since the 1960s after the occupation of Tibet. Sangay said that what China did with Tibet, it is looking at emulating the same with Nepal. Speaking on Chinese combativeness, Sangay said that the Chinese leadership had stated that Beijing was looking to accomplish its ‘Five Finger’ plan, where Tibet was the palm, while Ladakh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh, the five fingers.
