US Reports Intense Repression in Tibet

May 25, 2012; DHARAMSALA, India: The US State Department in its Annual Country Reports on Human Rights 2011, released yesterday, said that Tibet continued to remain under “increasingly intense and formalized system of control” of the Chinese government.

The report has documented a detailed account of human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese government, such as repression of freedom of speech, religion, association, movement, extrajudicial killing, torture, arbitrary arrest and detention and house arrest. The report said that Chinese authorities’ repressive measures to control the Tibetan religious freedom has created ” cycles of repression that resulted in increasingly desperate acts by Tibetans, such as a series of self-immolations by Tibetan Buddhist clergy and laypersons in China’s Tibetan areas”.The report further noted the Chinese authorities’ restriction on media, saying “The government strictly controlled information about, and access to, the TAR and Tibetan areas outside the TAR, making it difficult to determine accurately the scope of human rights abuses”.

The report cited in-depth information on the violation of Tibetan people’s academic and cultural freedom, particularly right to use and preserve Tibetan language. Highlighting on the grim prospect of Tibetan language, the report said that despite both Tibetan and Mandarin Chinese being official languages in the ‘TAR’, “Mandarin was widely spoken and was used for most official communication” and ” Inside official buildings and businesses, including banks, post offices, and hospitals, signage in Tibetan was frequently lacking, and in many instances, forms and documents were available only in Mandarin”. Full Report is available on http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm?dynamic_load_id=187481#wrapper ; http://tibet.net/2012/05/25/us-reports-intense-repression-in-tibet/