THE ECONOMIST – Tibetans: Nothing to celebrate

The Economist
by T.P. | BEIJING
15 February 2013

 

With days of difference between one and the other; This year (Gregorian), The New Year's celebrations of the Chinese have and the Tibetans. They have almost shared a single calendar. For both peoples, It is traditionally a time to wish good luck and new beginnings. In political terms, However there are very few signs of change in its problematic relationship.

Tibetans continue to protest against the Chinese government, burning until he died. The most recent auto-immolation was reported by groups of activists abroad that occurred the 13 February, The third day of the losar, The Tibetan New Year party. Drugpa Khar, A young father of three children, He died after soaking himself with gasoline and caught fire in a Tibetan area of Gansu province.

The same day in the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu, In the home of a large community of Tibetan exiles, Another unidentified Tibetan, died after immolating. It was said that he was a monk who had just arrived from Tibet.

He 3 February, in a Tibetan area of the province of Sichuan, A monk of 37 years of age called Lobsang Namgyal reached another burning end. The news of his death took ten days to make himself known. When he did, It was widely reported that it was the 100ª Self-immolation from 2009, which was when the Tibetans adopted this extreme form of protest.

Although the number of auto-moltings rose dramatically during November, When China celebrated leadership transition in turn, Hopes arose that the newly installed leader, Xi Jinping, You can house a softer attitude towards the demands of Tibetans for greater autonomy- or that could at least have new ideas about the management of the situation.

If that were the case, The Mr. XI is not yet ready to act. At the beginning of his mandate, Instead he has chosen to reaffirm hard line policies. He 29 January, China announced the appointment of Losang Gyaltsen as the new Governor of Tibet. A Tibetan ethnic, according to his official biography that joined the Communist Party at the age of 21 years, He followed an academic career in Marxism-Leninism, And later he became mayor of Lhasa. In his first public statements as governor, alabó el partido por su "liberación pacífica" from Tibet, Your socialist system and its autonomy ethnic policy.

In recent months, China has intensified its security campaign, both within the formal limits of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), as in the Tibetan areas of the neighboring provinces (that is to say, Sichuan, Qinghai y Gansu), where most disturbances and auto-immolations have been reported.

Because China rarely allows external observers in these areas, The news of the latest events often come from human rights groups and tibetan activists who are abroad. According to your reports, Officials have been retaining the passports of Tibetans in order to restrict their trips abroad.

State officials also reported having taken energetic measures with collective punishments, cutting the financing of projects located in the villages that have connections with the protesters -suicides, as well as public benefits to individual homes.

Earl this month, China condemned a man to 13 years in prison for trying to incite a monk to self-tomole, and arrested a 70 People for non -specified positions, that it is believed that they are related to self-immolations.

China rejects Tibetan claims, who claim that suicides are a desperate response to deep complaints. Instead, la posición oficial dice que "la camarilla del Dalai Lama" ha alentado el extremismo y que es el "autor intelectual que incitó a las auto-inmolaciones". But the organization of Dalai Lama, headquarters in India, The Tibetan Central Administration (CTA), ha pedido reiteradamente a los tibetanos "no emprender acciones drásticas", While at the same time it urges China to end what calls repression and economic marginalization of Tibetans in their own homeland.

The CTA has also asked Tibetans, que bajo la luz de la "continuada trágica situación", that they refrain from their usual revelry during this year's party season, and that only traditional religious rituals observe. This does not seem like a new year conducive to any of the interested parties.