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Friday, May 25, 2012

US Criticizes China’s Rights Violations in its Latest Report

The United States has criticized China for its continuing rights violations in Tibet.  In the US State Department’s 2011 annual human right report released on May 24, 2012 stated, “There was severe repression of the freed of speech, religion, association , and  movement (in Tibet).  Authorities continued to commit serious human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killings, torture, arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial detentions,  and house arrests.”

The report also says,  “The government’s attempts to assert control over all aspects of Tibetan Buddhist monastic and religious practice through such means as compulsory “patriotic education” and “legal education” campaigns at monasteries, compulsory denunciation of the Dalai Lama, establishing permanent CCP and security personnel presence at monasteries, and taking over the identification and training of reincarnated lamas (tulku), provoked acts of resistance among the Tibetan population, who saw it as a threat to the foundations of Tibet’s distinct religious, linguistic, and cultural identity. These acts of resistance, in turn, led to enhanced attempts by PRC authorities to maintain control, thus creating 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 19-page section on Tibet  says that Chinese government  continued to jam  radio broadcasts of  Voice of America’s (VOA) and Radio Free Asia’s (RFA) Tibetan and Chinese language services  in some Tibetan areas, as well as the overseas-based  Voice of Tibet.  In Tibetan areas of  southern Gansu Province and the Ganzi (Kardze)  in Sichuan Province,  police confiscated or destroyed satellite dishes suspected of receiving VOA Tibetan-language television as well as VOA and RFA audio satellite channels.

However,  Tibetans were able to listen to overseas Tibetan-language radio and television broadcasts through the Internet, according to the State Department’s report.

Tibet report  has many sub-headings such as “Torture and Other Cruel and Degrading treatment, Prison Dentation Center Conditions, Arbitrary Arrest, Denial of Fair Public Trial,” and so on.

In an interview with VOA Tibetan Service, Bhuchung Tsering, director of International Campaign for Tibet,   praised the State Department’s latest  report for its close attention to  China’s various human rights abuses in Tibet.

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