Copyright 1997 Federal Information Systems Corporation

Federal News Service

March 9, 1994, Wednesday

SECTION: CAPITOL HILL HEARING TESTIMONY

LENGTH: 3173 words

HEADLINE: TESTIMONY MARCH 9, 1994 LODI G. GYARI PRESIDENT INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET HOUSE FOREIGN AFFAIRS/INTERNATIONAL SECURITY RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

Lodi G. Gyari
President, International Campaign for Tibet
Testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Subcommittee on International Security, International Organizations and Human Rights

Religious Persecution in Tibet

March 9,1994

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of this Committee, for providing me with the opportunity to testify before you today on Chinese Government persecution of the Tibetan people and the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. It is a particularly appropriate day to hold this hearing as tomorrow marks the 35th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising against the occupying Chinese forces. P-vents on March 10, 1959 led to the eventual escape of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from Tibet along with thousands of Tibetan refugees.

My name is Lodi Gyari and I was born in Nyarong, in the Tibetan province of Kham. I am President of the International Campaign for Tibet, an American nongovernmental organization dedicated to the promotion of human rights and democratic freedoms for the Tibetan people. I am also Special Envoy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and have served in both the Tibetan Parliament and Cabinet in Exile in Dharamsala, India.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to the U.S. Congress for its tremendous leadership on the issue of Tibet, and particularly to you, Mr. Chairman. The numerous resolutions passed by you and your colleagues condemning human rights violations in Tibet and providing financial and other assistance to Tibetan refugees, have given great encouragement to the Tibetan people. In particular I would like to thank the Congress for the historic resolution passed in 1991 recognizing all of historical Tibet as an occupied country and His Holiness the Dalai Lama as the legitimate representative of the six million Tibetan people. Mr. Chairman, your long history of support for Tibet and for His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been instrumental in putting the grave situation in Tibet on the agenda of the United States in its relations with the People's Republic of China.

Since 1989 the International Campaign for Tibet has supported the efforts of the Congress to use annual renewal of China's Most-Favored- Nation (MFN) trade status to help bring about a change in the policies of the People's Republic of China towards the Chinese and Tibetan people. We were therefore pleased when President Clinton issued his Executive Order and addressed the issue of Tibet independently by including a condition calling for the protection of Tibet's distinct religious and cultural heritage.

While this Tibet condition is disturbingly broad, it acknowledges that the problem in Tibet is not simply one of human rights violations, environmental degradation or even destructive development practices, but one at which the very survival of a people and their religious, cultural and national identity is at stake.

Since the President issued this Executive Order last May, the Chinese Government has taken no steps to protect Tibet's' religious and cultural heritage and continues to persecute the Tibetan people for the religious and political beliefs and practices.

Today, the Chinese Government continues to violate the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of the Tibetan people. I will not go into detail here on all aspects of the human rights violations occurring in Tibet and will speak only on the focus of this hearing, religious persecution. However, I would like to mention two of the most serious problems occurring in Tibet today, the increased influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet and the alarming rate of imprisonment of Tibetans for their political beliefs. I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have on these related topics.

Religious Persecution in Tibet

Since China invaded Tibet in 1949, over 1.2 million innocent Tibetans have lost their lives and the Chinese Government has attempted to destroy all vestiges of the unique Tibetan culture and religion. After demolishing over 6000 monasteries and places of worship, the Chinese authorities imposed strict rules against all displays of Tibetan culture and religion. These restrictions remain to this day. The initial destruction in Tibet was so severe that in 1960 the International Commission of Jurists found "that acts of genocide had been committed in Tibet in an attempt to destroy the Tibetans as a religious group."

The 1993 State Department Country Human Rights Report found that the Chinese government still "tightly controls" Tibetan Buddhism and that in 1993 relations between secular authorities and Buddhists "continued to be tense." Many of the recently arrested political prisoners are monks and nuns, who are generally very active in opposing Beijing's repressive rule.

Over the past year the Chinese Government has stepped up repression against Tibetan Buddhist nuns. On February 20, the sentences of fourteen imprisoned nuns were doubled and tripled for singing pro-independence songs while in prison, including one woman whose sentence was increased from nine to seventeen years. Last month, twelve nuns charged with demonstrating in June 1993, including a 15 year old girl, were given sentences of to up to seven years in prison. If such blatant violations of the rights of Tibetan women continue, we may be compelled to protest Beijing as the site for hosting the prestigious 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women as we did with their bid for the 2000 Olympics.

The Chinese Government has allowed the physical reconstruction of many monasteries to occur, yet virtually all remain only marginally restored and the number of monks in each monastery is usually only 5- 10% of the original number. Monasteries today are unable to function as centers of learning. Current religious education in Tibet is similar to allowing children to go to a school where there is no classroom, no teacher, no books. Obstacles include a shortage of qualified teachers, lack of administrative control by the monks, insufficient numbers of students, and stringent work regulations which leave little time for study.

There are also government-enforced guidelines for Tibetans to enter the monkhood, which are not consistently applied, yet are common throughout Tibet. These include: an age requirement of at least 18 years old, should "love" the country and the Party, parents and candidates must have "good" political background and must receive approval of local authorities to enter the monastery.

Religious Policy

Religious policy for Tibet is developed by central authorities in Beijing, by both the Communist party and the government structure. In 1949 Chinese authorities built an infrastructure of committees and administrators to exert control over religious activities in Tibet.

The religious policy is carried out in each monastery through Democratic Management Committees (DMC), which is the highest authority in a monastery. This structure uprooted the traditional hierarchy of the abbot. The DMC has the power to intervene in all activities of the monastery and often works directly with security forces. Restrictions on religion are enforced by the Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB). The RAB oversees the restoration and reconstruction of monasteries, administers funds, and screens applicants for entrance into the monasteries. The Tibetan Buddhist Association is the liaison between practicing Buddhists and RAB.

In 1992 there was a shift in religious polity requiring that local Buddhist Associations, staffed by Party cadres and trusted officials, exert more influence over monasteries and nunneries and conduct more "study sessions". These study sessions often have the dual purpose of identifying which monks and nuns are willing to speak out against the government policy. Those selected are promptly arrested or monitored.

1992 also brought the TAR a new Communist Party Secretary, Chen Kuiyuan, who promptly alienated many Tibetans for his policies to replace Tibetan officials who sympathize with the Dalai Lama with Chinese cadres. The policies were enunciated in a highly classified speech delivered to a Party meeting in Lhasa, in which he also criticized a "great number" of Tibetan Party cadres, including some very high ranking officials, for having photos of the Dalai Lama on display in their homes. He said that this needs to be taken very seriously and that cadres must remember that they are atheists. Previously, the policy of requiring Tibetan Communist Party officials to be, or pretend to be, atheists had been relaxed.

This new expression of intolerance of religion within Party ranks is significant in that it comes from the highest official in Tibet and is part of on overall offensive against Tibetans playing. any significant role in the government.

Over the past nine months the Chinese Government been no steps taken to protect Tibet's religion and has made no progress towards meeting, the condition included in President Clinton's Executive Order calling for the protection of Tibet's distinct religious and cultural heritage.

Conclusion

In September the United States Institute of Peace convened a conference on religious intolerance in Tibet. In their recently released conference report they found that "Chinese control over Tibet -- and particularly control over the religious institutions of the society-- is seen by the Tibetans as an assault on their very identity... So long as Tibetans are denied a greater measure of self- direction, including the right to define for themselves acceptable forms of religious expression, practice, and education, political agitation by monks and nuns for independence is likely to persist."

The Institute goes on to say that " increasing Tibetan control over political economic, and religious life within Tibet appears to be the only viable means of reducing tension in the region between Chinese and Tibetans." They conclude that the best way to achieve this goal is by establishing a dialogue between the Chinese Government and the Tibetan people.

It has long been the belief of the Dalai Lama that the only way to peacefully resolve the situation in Tibet is through negotiations and over the past fourteen years he has made numerous statements calling for the Chinese to begin negotiations with the Tibetan people. In fact he presented his forward-looking proposal, the Five Point Peace Plan, before you and the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1987. In this proposal and others, the Dalai Lama has stressed the importance of substantive negotiations and stated his solid commitment to negotiate with the Chinese Government on an agenda that does not include the issue of independence. He stands firm by this commitment. However the Chinese Government has consistently rejected all of his proposals.

I have been encouraged by efforts of the Administration to urge the Chinese Government to commence negotiations with the Dalai Lama or his representatives as a benchmark to meeting the Tibet condition in the MIFN Executive Order. The International Campaign for Tibet calls on the Congress and Administration to insist that the Chinese begin negotiations with the Dalai Lama or his representatives before June 3, 1994.

We further call on the Chinese to agree to the time, place and agenda for completion of negotiations on the future of Tibet before June 3, and on the United States to use its ongoing leverage with China to ensure that the negotiation process is successfully completed. This will guarantee that China follows through with such negotiations and does not simply agree to a single meeting with the Tibetans in order to meet the MIFN condition. While such actions in and of themselves would not protect Tibet's religious and cultural heritage, they would represent some progress in an extended process which could lead to peace in Tibet.

Unless a negotiated settlement is reached it will be difficult to ensure that the religious and cultural heritage will be protected, and that the Tibetan people will be allowed to freely practice their religion.

Again I thank you for providing me this opportunity to testify before you today.