Tibet: October 2006 Archives

By The European Parliament
October 26, 2006

In the resolution on Tibet, adopted by 66 votes to 0 with 0 abstentions, Parliament condemns the events of 20 September this year, when more than 70 unarmed Tibetan civilians were fired upon by the Chinese police, killing at least one person.

The Tibetans were attempting to cross the Nangpa Pass in the Himalayan region of Tibet, to seek refugee status in Nepal. The Chinese People’s Armed Police fired upon the Tibetans, who included women and children. Video and photographic evidence shows that the group was moving slowly away from the Chinese forces firing upon them and did not represent a threat. A seventeen-year-old nun was killed and there are unconfirmed eyewitness accounts of other deaths. A group of Tibetans, including children, were arrested after continuing to flee.

The Chinese authorities have thus far not officially recognised that the incident at Nangpa Pass took place or that any individual was killed by Chinese forces.

In its resolution, Parliament "condemns the excessive use of force by the Chinese People’s Armed Police in firing upon unarmed Tibetan civilians, including children". It "strongly condemns the killing of an unarmed civilian who, being under 18 years of age, was also considered a child under international law" and "expresses its dismay at the imprisonment of Tibetan civilians, nine of whom are children".

>> Read the complete article

by REUTERS | via yahoo.com (censored in Communist China)
July 16, 2006

Video footage shot by a Romanian television station appears to show Chinese soldiers firing at a group of Tibetans as they attempt to cross a mountain pass into Nepal, days after China defended the soldiers' action.

The video, taken by Romania's Pro TV, shows a line of people trekking through the snow when sounds of gunfire are heard and one of the figures crumples to the ground.

The footage is shot from too far away to make out identities, but a voice can be heard saying in English, "They are shooting them like dogs."

A group of climbers from Britain and Australia told Reuters last week that on September 30 they watched Chinese border guards take aim at a group of 20 to 30 people as they prepared to cross from Chinese territory into Nepal.

Tibet has been ruled by China since Communist troops invaded in 1950, and the government deals harshly with Tibetans who press for greater political and religious freedoms.

>> Read the complete article

AFP via yahoo.com (censorend in Communist China)
by Verna Yu
October 15, 2006

The United States has lodged a protest with China over an incident where Chinese border soldiers killed one person trying to flee Tibet into Nepal, a US embassy spokeswoman said.

"The US ambassador on Thursday had gone to the foreign ministry to officially protest the September 30 shooting incident," the spokeswoman told AFP.

Tibetan rights groups last week said Chinese border troops had opened fire on a group of about 70 Tibetan refugees, including children, women and monks, who were trying to enter Nepal.

China's state news agency admitted Thursday that its soldiers killed one person and injured another near Mount Everest, but said they were acting in self-defense.

>> Read the complete article

By RADIO FREE ASIA
October 11, 2006

KATHMANDU—Members of a group of 43 Tibetans have described their terrifying flight to Nepal under deadly fire from Chinese border guards who took several dozen other Tibetans into custody.

Witnesses said at least one person was killed and at least one wounded by gunfire Sept. 30 near the Himalayan pass at Nangpa La in the Mount Everest region. Others set the death toll higher. Another 36 or 37 Tibetans were detained, witnesses told RFA’s Tibetan service.

The group, which originally numbered around 80 Tibetans, began their journey out of Chinese-controlled Tibet on Sept. 30-Oct. 1, according to members of the group—41 asylum-seekers and two Tibetan escorts—who arrived in Kathmandu on Oct. 10.

“When the Chinese fired at us, I was so tense and frightened. It is still difficult for me to explain what happened,” one man said in an interview after arriving at the Tibetan Reception Center in Kathmandu.

“It was so tense and confusing that I just thought of staying alive and escaping. I couldn't think of anything else or help the others.”

“I think the Chinese fired for about 15 minutes. I felt bullets whizzing past my ears. In fact I felt about five bullets pass by me and luckily they missed me. I was so frightened that I crawled in the snow using my hands and feet. The snow was about knee-deep,” he said.

The man, who asked not to be named, said the group initially thought the gunshots were fireworks, because there were many Western visitors who had come to climb the mountains in the area.

“I thought they were playing with fireworks. But then we realized it was gunshots and about 30 to 40 rounds were fired. In the confusion, we split into two groups. Those of us who were in the front managed to escape and the later group of about 30 or more Tibetans could not escape,” he said.

Another Tibetan, who hid in the mountains for two nights before crossing into Nepal, said: “I saw a small child…There was another young boy who was shot in the foot and an old man. They were detained in the area until late afternoon and then the Chinese police took them away.”

Buddhist nun shot dead

“Those who escaped later saw the body of the nun who was killed. She was Kalsang Namtso, 17 years old from Ngachu Dri-ru (in Chinese, Biru Xian) county. They gave a local yak herder 100 yuan and asked him to take body away but we heard that he didn’t do it. So we don’t know what happened later,” the second man said.

A Western climber who witnessed the incident told RFA’s Tibetan service that two others in his group had been contacted by the Chinese Embassy in Nepal and asked to attend a meeting there.

“They have since left Nepal and gone home” without visiting the Chinese Embassy, the climber said.

“We heard five shots very, very quickly,” the climber said. “We saw a line of refugees making their way up the pass and obviously the Chinese army coming with guns.”

Tibetans working as cooks at the climbers’ base camp reported that seven people had been killed and their bodies left in a crevasse, the climber said, although this information couldn’t be confirmed.

Residents in the mountainous area of Solokhubum, on the Nepal side of the border, confirmed the shootings had occurred.

“There were about 77 Tibetans who escaped in a group, and the Chinese police shot at them on Sept. 30,” one resident said in an interview.

One group escaped

“Forty of them managed to escape and about 37 were arrested by the Chinese police. Among them seven were either injured or killed. Again on Oct. 1, three more Tibetans crossed the same pass and the Chinese again fired at them but they managed to escape unhurt. There were about eight or nine armed Chinese police who fired on the escaping Tibetans.”

The resident said escape across the mountains was becoming more difficult as what were previously Tibetan border guards were gradually being replaced with Han Chinese.

“Chinese officials recruit Tibetans who are paid to spy and inform on the escapees. Spies in the area are paid 300 yuan a month, and they get a special bonus for tracking and informing on Tibetan escapees,” the resident said.

No comment from Chinese officials

An official at the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Foreign Liaison Office declined to comment on the incident when contacted by RFA’s Mandarin service.

“On this matter, we are not very clear. We don’t know about it. I have never heard of it,” the official said. “I can tell you nothing,” he said, before hanging up.

Phone calls on Wednesday by RFA’s Cantonese service to both the external affairs office of the Tibetan exile government in Dharamsala and the Chinese Embassy in Nepal went unanswered.

In recent years, thousands of Tibetans have risked the illegal border crossing into Nepal and India in search of better educational opportunities and religious freedom.

Many end up in Dharmasala, a town in northern India where their exiled leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived since 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule. More than 20,000 Tibetan refugees currently live in Nepal, although those who arrive now are required to travel on to neighboring India.

Original reporting by RFA's Tibetan service. Director: Jigme Ngapo. Translated and edited by Karma Dorjee. Additional reporting by Lillian Cheung of RFA’s Cantonese service, Xin Yu and Xi Wang of RFA’s Mandarin service, and Richard Finney. Produced in English by Luisetta Mudie and edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.