4 of January of 2018
The trial held today against a Tibetan activist who fights for language education and who could face up to 15 years in prison for “incitement to separatism””, has brought to light the ridiculously unfair nature of the judicial case against him. This is what Amnesty International has stated.
Tashi Wangchuk's trial was held Thursday in a court in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in the province of Qinghai, northwest China. According to his lawyer, The main evidence presented against Tashi Wangchuk was a short film made by The New York Times in 2015, which documented this activist's campaign for teaching in the Tibetan language in schools.
Tashi Wangchuk, who has spent almost two years in preventive detention without access to his family, He is now awaiting the court's ruling..
“It is terrifying that Tashi Wangchuk can face up to 15 years in prison simply for expressing his opinion in interviews with the media. The charges against him are blatantly false., and Tashi Wangchuk must be immediately and unconditionally released.”, Roseann Rife has expressed, Director of East Asia Research at Amnesty International.
“Exposing and criticizing the way government policy is repressing Tibetan language and culture is a legitimate exercise of freedom of expression.. Labeling these demonstrations as a form of 'incitement to separatism'’ demonstrates the flagrant misuse of this criminal charge by Chinese authorities to silence dissent.”
Tibetan culture
Tashi Wangchuk advocates an increase in Tibetan-language education in schools located in Tibetan-populated areas, in which Chinese has become the only language used in education. This activist has expressed concern about the fact that many Tibetan boys and girls do not know how to speak their mother tongue fluently., which contributes to the gradual extinction of Tibetan culture.
The short film titled A Tibetan’s Journey for Justice (The journey of a Tibetan in search of justice), made in 2015 por The New York Times, tells the story of Tashi Wangchuk's trip to Beijing to try to get legal help to file a lawsuit against the local authorities for the absence of Tibetan language teaching in schools. It reveals that no law firm had been willing to take on the lawsuit and that state television channel CCTV, subsidized with public funds, had refused Tashi Wangchuk's request for information on the situation. The police used the filmed footage to prove that Tashi Wangchuk had deliberately incited “separatism”, attempting to discredit the international image of the Chinese government and its policies regarding ethnic minorities.
“The video made by The New York Times shows that Tashi Wangchuk was trying to express his opinions on education policy through completely legitimate means, using official media and the Chinese judicial system, But no one was willing to touch such a delicate topic.. This case demonstrates the extreme discrimination suffered by the Tibetan population in China today., especially with regard to restrictions on the right to freedom of expression and the use of one's own language.", Roseann Rife has expressed.
The trial took place shortly after Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen joined his family in the United States on 26 December, almost ten years after he was first detained in China for making an independent documentary on the opinions of the Tibetan population in the run-up to the Beijing Olympic Games. 2008.
