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Breaking: Monk torches self in Ngaba, Toll rises to 107
Phayul[Tuesday, February 26, 2013 16:16]
DHARAMSHALA, February 26: In confirmed reports coming out of Tibet, a monk set himself on fire yesterday in Ngaba region of eastern Tibet in protest against China’s continued occupation of Tibet.
Sangdag, a monk of the Dhiphu Monastery, set himself ablaze on a main road in Ngaba district at around 10 am (local time).
According to the exile base of Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, Sangdag’s present condition is unknown.
“Soon after Sangdag carried out his fiery protest, Chinese security personnel arrived at the scene and doused the flames on his body,” Kirti Monastery said in a release today. “He was taken a hospital in Ngaba but shortly after that the Chinese police bundled him away to another place.”
The release added that details of Sangdag’s self-immolation protest and his current condition and whereabouts are not available.
The Dhiphu Gon Gelek Terzoe Ling Monastery, founded by Dhiphu Choeje, currently has around 500 monks.
Also yesterday, another Tibetan, Tsezung Kyab, 27, passed away in his self-immolation protest in front of the Shitsang Monastery in Luchu region of eastern Tibet. The large number of Tibetans who were taking part in religious rituals at the Monastery surrounded Tsezung Kyab’s body and rescued it from falling into the hands of Chinese security personnel.
Since 2009, as many as 107 known Tibetans living under China’s rule have self-immolated demanding the return of Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile and freedom in Tibet.
11 Tibetans have self-immolated since the beginning of this year with eight of those fiery protests occurring in February.
Last month, the Tibet Policy Institute, a think tank affiliated with the exile Tibetan administration in a white paper on the crisis in Tibet noted that the self-immolations were a "stark judgment of Chinese rule in Tibet."
The report titled, Why Tibet is Burning? said China’s policies of political repression, cultural assimilation, social discrimination, environment destruction, economic marginalisation were the principle reasons for Tibet’s fiery protests.
BBC condemns jamming of its broadcasts, Points finger at China
Phayul[Tuesday, February 26, 2013 17:48]
DHARAMSHALA, February 26: The BBC “strongly” condemned the jamming of its radio broadcasts in China, calling the action “designed to disrupt audiences' free access to news and information."
In a statement released on Monday, the British broadcasters, while noting that it was not possible to determine the exact origin of the blocking, said that the "extensive and co-ordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China.”
It was not the first time international news broadcasters have complained of disruption to its services in China, which is listed at number 173 out of 179 countries on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by campaign group Reporters Without Borders.
Apart from BBC, which has experienced “several instances of satellite services being jammed in recent years,” the New York Times, Bloomberg and Al Jazeera have also been at the receiving end of China’s intolerance of free and fair reporting.
Tibetan language radio broadcasts and websites on Tibet’s current affairs based outside Tibet have been severely blocked by Chinese authorities.
Tenzin Peldon, Editor-in-Chief of the Dharamshala based popular Tibetan radio service Voice of Tibet notes that for them, jamming of their signals beamed throughout Tibet by Chinese authorities is their “biggest challenge.”
“We are constantly fighting China’s attempts at keeping our voice from reaching inside Tibet,” Peldon told Phayul. “For us the jamming of our broadcast is our biggest challenge.”
The radio service, which broadcasts news on current Tibetan affairs and speeches of the Dalai Lama in Tibetan and Mandarin, has also been a victim of cyber attacks originating from China.
“During sensitive time, like the March 10 Tibetan National Uprising Day, our signals get heavily botched, especially across cities and towns throughout Tibet,” Peldon added. “Our webiste has also been compromised and rendered useless with DDoS attacks originating from inside China.”
In recent months, Chinese authorities in eastern Tibet, which has been at the centre of the ongoing wave of self-immolations, intensified their campaign on banning satellite dishes as part of the government’s wider clampdown to stifle information on the self-immolations.
The satellite equipments used by Tibetans to receive foreign radio and TV programmes are the only source of information inside Tibet besides the state sponsored propaganda news.
Chinese authorities have issued public notices banning the sell, purchase, and use of all “illegal satellite equipment” and initiated a massive drive destroying and burning hundreds of seized satellite equipments. Monetary fines in addition to “other consequences” have been announced in the event of Tibetans failing to surrender satellite dishes.
Dharamshala based rights group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, last month said the crackdown on satellite dishes in Tibetan areas “appear not only to be a deterrent against self-immolation protests but also a part of the intensified ‘patriotic education’ campaigns and the ‘Nine Must Haves’ programme under which government aid will be provided in terms of electricity, roads and pension in return for installing state provided satellite dishes and newspapers all of which feature state-controlled news and views.”.
Free Tibet ?!?! Free violence !!! |