POR MATTEO MECCACCI* 9, DECEMBER, 2018
A heavenly hotel (Hotel Intercontinental Paradise)
It is located right in the middle of hell on earth:
China's state control over Tibet.
In this center, Tibetans are imprisoned for
participate in protests; or for getting involved in
celebrations such as the Dalai Lama's birthday.
After your stay in Lhasa, the ancient capital of Tibet, In a luxurious five-star hotel an anonymous person left the following comment as a review: “The Intercontinental Hotel is incredibly luxurious, but eerily silent”. The hotel guest, which has a global presence and was inaugurated in the cultural and historical center of Tibet by an English company in 2014, perhaps you have perceived, but I couldn't have known, the shocking reality: that the neighboring building is the most infamous detention center in Lhasa and has the reputation of being the place where nuns are brutally tortured, Tibetan monks and laymen. It is conceivable that tourists could even glimpse the prisoners from the windows of their rooms at the Intercontinental Paradise Hotel in Lhasa., whose pyramid-like buildings emulate snowy peaks.
The contrast of a prisoner building, created by the Chinese state, topped with watchtowers and barbed wire, in front of a luxury brand hotel, It is a vivid illustration of the unprecedented development taking place in Tibet today., with the coexistence of Chinese mass tourism and state security that involves total surveillance and electronic monitoring. While Chinese tourists are free to come and go to the Tibetan plateau, usually escorted by groups of trained guides, Tibetans are “locked in”” and face unparalleled oppression.
The official website of the Lhasa Intercontinental Hotel —open for operations since the year 2014, and which is one of several global hotel chains in the city, including Starwood St. Regis y el “Four Points” by Sheraton— exposes: “Intercontinental Lhasa Paradise not only offers tranquility, luxury and world-class cuisine, but also warm smiles that make traveling to Lhasa a necessary escape”.
Satisfy, the Detention Center of the Public Security Bureau, It is next to the hotel where tourists receive friendly smiles; It is the place where Tibetans are imprisoned for participating in peaceful protests; or for getting involved in celebrations such as the Dalai Lama's birthday; in addition to being arrested, They are interrogated and tortured. Reports from former inmates of the center recount beatings, attacks with baited dogs and the use of electric shocks on prisoners who are found naked and hanging from the ceiling.
A Tibetan nun arrested in Gutsa, for the purpose of celebrating an award that the Dalai Lama had received, remember: “An especially painful torture consisted of putting a wire on one finger of each hand, while I was sitting in a chair; and connected the cables to an electrical device. When the handle of the device was completing a full circle, I felt like every part of my body was being crossed by a powerful electrical current.. The intensity of the current was throwing me across the room; which invariably left me unconscious. However, Those who were interrogating me tried to revive me by slapping me and throwing buckets of ice water at me.. Very often, the cables would burst and they had to be reconnected. “People subjected to this method of torture were often taken directly to the hospital.”.
Once the center of Tibetan Buddhism, a city of pilgrimage and the cosmopolitan core of Tibetan civilization and its language and culture, Lhasa today has undergone a dramatic remodeling, as an urban axis of hypervigilance and state security. Recently obtained satellite images of Lhasa show that Gutsa and other key prisons have been modernized and expanded; just as violence and oppression have intensified in Tibet, after the wave of peaceful protests that flooded the mountain range in 2008.
Some Tibetans do not survive imprisonment. Ngawang Jamphel, a monk and one of the highest-ranking scholars of his monastery, who taught Buddhism to the local people, was visiting Lhasa when he “disappeared”, he 23 November 2013. The monastery to which he belonged was searched by the police; and some monks were suspected of being loyal to the religious leader, the dalai lama, and to resist the Chinese mandate. one month later, Ngawang Jamphel, who was healthy and in excellent physical condition, was dead, apparently beaten to death, during your custody time.
Tenzin Choedak, who was the age of 33 years, I worked for an NGO. He died 19 March 2014, when he was just completing the sixth year of his sentence of 15 years of prison, after a severe torture session inside Qunshui Prison, located on the outskirts of Lhasa. Tenzin never fully recovered from the injuries he suffered while in police custody., after his arrest on suspicion of having participated in the March protests 2008, which were protesting against the Chinese mandate in Lhasa. A Tibetan witness who saw him being taken to the hospital, just before his death, He relates that they had him handcuffed and handcuffed tightly and that his physical appearance was unrecognizable.; and that he was also vomiting blood and had suffered a brain injury.
At the same time, the Chinese government uses marketing to position Tibet as a Shambala located in the clouds., both Chinese and international tourists, has developed a fearsome system of unprecedented coercion and oppression that integrates high-tech surveillance and police methods, who have increased ground-level work to control every aspect of the lives of Tibetans and all their relationships. In Lhasa and beyond there are huge infrastructure projects, which include the construction of roads that can be used as runways for military aircraft.
The Chinese government seeks to hide the existence of extensive prison facilities in cities, in an initiative to increase the attractiveness of tourists to Tibet.
China also wants to hide evidence of the destruction of ancient Tibet fabric. In an act of mockery towards the spirit of restoration and conservation, A few buildings surviving the communist purges are being demolished and “rebuilt.”” like simulations —characterized by China as “original replicas”—, which is emblematic of the commercialization of Tibetan culture.
Just as UN officials and foreign governments are banned from entering Tibet to investigate conditions of political prisoners., including cultural heritage preservation organizations, like UNESCO, they are prevented from entering to evaluate the state of preservation of the bastions.
A bill recently presented to the United States Congress, which has been approved by the House of Representatives, the Tibet Reciprocal Access Act, seeks to challenge China's impunity and thus allow access for delegations. The concept of reciprocity is being cited by international governments as a tool to counter China's unilateral influence operations and seek its cooperation and compliance with international standards and long-term mutual obligations..
The Tibet Reciprocal Access Act would promote freedom of movement and an open, accessible Tibet for Americans and Tibetans themselves. Would deny entry to the United States to Chinese officials who prevent diplomats, journalists and American citizens enter Tibet; and seeks to highlight human rights violations against the Tibetan people; and also tries to confront the unfair relations that China has with the United States and other democratic countries.
Those who care about maintaining oppression in Tibet are waiting for the approval of the Act, as it provides a model for other governments to challenge China and seek justice for Tibet. The Intercontinental hotel should also take note; and not simply look the other way at what is happening in your backyard, in Lhasa.
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* The author is president of the International Campaign for Tibet
