Tibet: February 2007 Archives

By Abrahm Lustgarten | FORTUNE Magazine | via (uncensored) yahoo!news
February 21, 2007

When China opened its controversial new railway to Tibet last July, international critics howled at the prospect that the region's culture and environment would be ravaged in search of resources. China repeated a solemn refrain, its officials insisting that the $4 billion project was aimed not at plundering the disputed territory but at bringing prosperity and economic development to Tibetan society.
So much for that. Now China's Ministry of Land and Resources is disclosing monumental new resource discoveries all across Tibet, and it turns out the findings are the culmination of a secret seven-year, $44 million survey project which preceded the railway construction in the first place.

In 1999 more than 1000 researchers divided into 24 separate regiments and fanned out across the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, geologically mapping an area the size of California, Texas and Montana for the first time ever. Their findings: 16 major new deposits of copper, iron, lead, zinc and other minerals worth an estimated $128 billion, according to articles published last week on the website of the China Tibet Information Center, a government-run portal.

"Lack of resources has been a bottleneck for the economy," Meng Xianlai, director of the China Geological Survey, said in the statements. The discoveries in Tibet are prompting China to re-evaluate its potential domestic resources, and "will alleviate the mounting resources pressure China is facing."

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By Associated Press | via (uncensored) yahoo!news
February 12, 2006

Actor Richard Gere on Monday urged Germany, which currently holds the European Union and G-8 presidencies, to press China about human rights and Tibet.

Gere, 57, a longtime advocate of the Tibetan cause, argued at a news conference that the twin presidency marks "a historic moment for Germany to step forward."

"This is a moment of great possibility for ... not just punishing but encouraging China to become part of the modern world," he said. "Tibet should be ever-present in any discussion with China."

China has exercised harsh rule over Tibet since communist troops marched into the country in 1950.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has publicly raised the broader issue of human rights with Chinese leaders, saying during a visit to Beijing last May that they are "an important issue of bilateral dialogue."

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By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
February 10, 2007

DHARMSALA, India (AP) -- Struggling through knee-deep snow at the roof of the world, Jamyang Samten scrambled behind a boulder when he heard gunshots. Who was shooting? Who had been shot? He had no idea.

But foreign mountaineers camped nearby could see what was happening, and the video they made of Chinese border guards firing at a single-file line of 75 Tibetans wading through a snow-filled Himalayan pass provoked international anger.

While more than half the Tibetans managed to scramble away last Sept. 30 and reach Nepal, a 25-year-old Buddhist nun and a man were killed, and 31 people were detained.

Samten, 15, was among the detainees. He had expected an arduous two- to three-week trek to escape Chinese-ruled Tibet. Instead he endured a five-month odyssey and was threatened with execution should he try to escape again.

The teenager ignored the warning from Chinese authorities on the advice of a Buddhist holy man, who told him he would succeed on his second attempt.

His story, while nearly impossible to verify, echoes other accounts that have filtered out of Tibet, where each year thousands of people who are unable to get passports try to flee Chinese rule and reach Dharmsala, the Indian city that is home to the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibet's Buddhists and the Tibetan government-in-exile.

China has exercised an often harsh, intrusive rule over Tibet since communist troops marched into the region in 1950.

Beijing has attacked the foundations of Tibetans' identity, their Buddhist faith. It shut down religious institutions in the 1960s and '70s, and, though some have reopened, religion is still controlled. The Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 following a failed uprising, is vilified.

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