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Federal Document Clearing House Congressional Testimony

May 13, 1997, Tuesday
TESTIMONY May 13, 1997 CLAIBORNE PELL SENATOR SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS SITUATION IN TIBET
SENATE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
MAY 13, 1997 HEARING ON TIBET
TESTIMONY OF SENATOR CLAIBORNE PELL

I am pleased to have been asked to testify on the important issue of Tibet and especially in circumstances where I have friends of long acquaintance on both sides of the dais. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your welcomed invitation.

For much of my time in the Senate I knew little of Tibet. In 1980, however, China opened Tibet to tourism and Inadvertently revealed that Chinese rule in Tibet has been oppressive an destructive of Tibetan culture an civilization. It was about that time when I first met the Dalai Lama and began to follow the situation inside Tibet carefully.

As a former chairman of this Committee, I convened hearings in the Senate focusing on Tibet, the most recent of which was held in July of 1992. At that time, the Soviet Union had started to break apart and there was renewed hope by oppressed peoples everywhere that their Own aspirations for freedom might he fulfilled.

Unfortunately, for the Tibetan people there has yet to be a perestroika, an "opening up" and lessening of the many restrictions on their culture, religion and social institutions. To the contrary, over the last year the Chinese authorities in Tibet have intensified their campaign to wipe out the Tibetan Buddhist culture and to create an atheistic socialist state in Tibet.

Monks and nuns are required to attend the kind of self- criticism and indoctrination sessions that hearken back to the Cultural Revolution. The Stalinst rhetoric coming out of the Chinese propaganda machine and directed at the Dalai Lama offends even the staunchest friends of china. China's "Strike Hard" anti- crime campaign is used in Tibet as a means to round-up any Tibetan who has not shown him or herself to be a loyal communist. I am informed that Lhasa prisons are full of these unfortunate souls.

In speaking out and more important in acting on Tibet, I do not deny that conditions in China are better then they were a few years ago. And, since the forces of freedom around the world are irresistible, they will continue to improve. But our job today is to speed up the process and to eliminate the instances of individual cruelty that have and are occurring.

The Tibetan people have suffered at the hands of the Chinese Communists since their "peaceful liberation" from a theocratic Tibet in 1950-1951. China's occupation policies continue to be heavy-handed. Let me cite the charges against but a handed of the hundreds of Tibetans currently serving long sentences meted out by the Chinese authorities:

--A senior monk, a geshe meaning one who holds a doctorate of theology, from Drepung monastery, is serving a 19-year prison sentence for producing political leaflets.

--a 45-year old doctor from Lhasa is serving a 13-year prison sentence for copying lists of names of those arrested or injured during two pro-independence demonstrations.

--a 71 -year old teacher at Lhasa primary school was sentenced to 28 years for "corrupting the minds of children with reactionary ideas."

--a 19-year old nun is serving 17 years in prison for leading a celebratory demonstration three days after the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel peace prize.

--a nun from Garu nunnery was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment "for incitement to subversive and separatist activities." After recording pro-independence songs in prison, I am informed she was severely tortured. Another imprisoned nun was beaten and crippled for wearing new clothes to mark the Tibetan New Year.

All these incidents, and so many like them, reflect a Tibetan nationalism that has not been eradicated but rather has been exacerbated by Chinese mis-rule and repression. However, in spite of China's claims that Tibetans conspire to armed rebellion, most Tibetans seek a return to self-rule through peaceful terms brokered by the Dalai Lama.

I would dispute any claim by China that Is national security is jeopardized by a young nun with her fist in the air or a young man with a video camera taping traditional Tibetan music. Anyone who submits that a handful of dissidents - even a thousand dissidents - could rise up against the PLA fortress city that Lhasa has become has not visited there recently. Political dissent is Lhasa today is squelched with awesome speed and efficiency. During my own visit to Lhasa in 1993 I saw nothing to suggest even the remotest possibility of armed rebellion.

Much of the world regards the situation In Tibet as a troublesome component of china's ascendancy on the world stage. As Hong Kong reverts to Chinese rule at the end of June, many Hong Kong Chinese remember that Tibet, too, was promised a "one country, two systems" form of government. The 17-point Agreement signed in 1951 guaranteed the Tibetan people the right of national regional autonomy preserved the existing political systems including the status, functions, and powers of the Dalai Lama, protected religious freedom and monasteries, and so on. Over a period of only nine years, the agreement completely eroded consistent with the Tibetan people's freedoms.

It is understandable then that when China cautions Taiwan to look to Hong Kong as a model for its own future reunification, Taiwan answers that it more cautiously looks to Tibet. Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui, a shrewd leader and visionary, welcomed the Dalai Lama to Taiwan this past March, ignoring China's warning that such a meeting would damage cross-Strait relations. President Lee likely calculated that the value of adding his support to the Dalai Lama's message of tolerance and conciliation, knowing that it would be broadcast into southern China from Taipei television, was worth the scolding.

That the Chinese government has failed to grasp the true value of the Dalai Lama is perhaps Tibet's greatest tragedy. In a recent news article, Winston Lord, former Assistant Secretary of State of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, chided the Chinese for failing to use the Dalai Lama "constructively,"

Mr. Chairman, I believe Ambassador Lord's call for the constructive use of the Dalai Lama should be the message of this hearing. The Dalai Lama, above A has emerged as the single moral authority from within China. He is revered by millions of Tibetans, Taiwanese, Mongols and, yes, even Chinese. His mediation could bring stability in China's restive border regions. He has been recognized the world over as a man of peace.

Above all, he is posed to enter into serious discussion, without preconditions, with the Chinese government at any time. This has been Ids sincere message for many years, most recently reiterated personally to this Committee, the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leaders in the House and the Senate, the Vice President and the President of the United States. In my view, the course of action of the United States Government should take to bring negotiations about consists of four elements:

1. To keep pressure, the United States must continue to shine the light on human rights abuses by the Chinese authorities in Tibet t the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva. A failed resolution is better than no resolution, and a more vigorous leadership effort must be made to match China's perpetuated approach. I recently returned from Geneva where I was part of the U.S. Delegation and where we proudly cast the U.S. vote in opposition to China's no-motion action against the resolution.

2. Tibetan language broadcasts, both VOA and Radio Free Asia, should be increased. It is reaching Tibetans. This approach has been magnificently successful in bringing democratic change about in closed societies. There is every reason to believe it will work in Tibet, and that is why Senator Hehns and I introduced the authorizing legislation for this VOA program in March, 1989.

3. U.S. humanitarian assistance to Tibetan refugees in India and Nepal should continue until such a time when China desists, is oppressive policies In Tibet, and Tibetans can return home. These settlements provide the lifeline for Tibet's unique culture and religion. It is no exaggeration to say that there are more Tibetan monks in settlements in southern India today than remain in the once great monasteries of Ganden, Drepung and Sera.

4. As I first proposed in 1994, there should be appointed, in consultation with the relevant Congressional committees, a coordinator for U.S. initiatives on Tibet. As a priority, the coordinator would explore with the Chinese and representatives of the Dalai Lama prospects for negotiations.

Mr. Chairman, this Committee and the U.S. Congress have put themselves on record time and again in support of a negotiated peace in Tibet However, the United State is not isolated in its support. The European Parliament, the German Bundestag, the Italian Parliament, the Danes, the Irish, the Australians, indeed, parliaments the world over, have commended the efforts of the Dalai Lama because, as you have said many times, my Mend, "the cause is just."

It was indeed a pleasure to meet with you here today. I look forward to hearing the other witnesses. Thank you

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