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China's railway to Tibet is allowing the government to exploit the region's natural resources while threatening its Buddhist culture and traditional way of life, an activist group said Thursday.
The Washington, D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet did not prominently mention the upcoming Beijing Olympics, but its report was released amid increasing criticism of China over a variety of issues, including its policies on ethnic minorities.
The railway, nearly 2 years old, has accelerated the migration to Tibet of Han Chinese, the country's majority ethnic group, the report said. Although the train was touted as part of a plan to bring economic growth to the far-western region, the traditionally nomadic Tibetans have been relegated to unskilled work while Han business owners reap the benefits of development, it said.
The railway allows efficient transport of raw materials — iron, copper, zinc and others — out of Tibet to manufacturing centers, where they are used to make the world's televisions, DVD players and other electronics, ICT said.
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In response to a letter from a Tibetan Campaign group Prince Charles has let it be known that he will not be attending the Beijing Olympics.
The views of the Prince are well known. He did not attend a dinner at Buckingham Palace when Hu Jintao was hosted by The Queen, because of China's flagrant Human rights violations.
The Prince who is a friend and supporter of His Holiness has again made his feelings known.
According to a Free Tibet spokesman, in a letter to the Campaign Group Free Tibet the Prince's Secretary wrote, "As you know, His Royal Highness has long taken a close interest in Tibet and indeed has been pleased to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama on several occasions." The spokesman declined to release a copy of the letter.
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Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu led a call by nine peace prize recipients Tuesday for the United Nations Security Council to act to halt the sale of arms to the military regime of Myanmar.
The laureates, including the Dalai Lama and Elie Wiesel, also called for nations to implement arms embargoes to prevent Myanmar from getting weapons that are used against its citizens.
Most Western nations embargo arms sales to Myanmar due to its poor human rights record and the junta's failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government. Russia supplies Myanmar with arms, and Rosatom, the Russian federal atomic energy agency, signed a deal last May to build a nuclear research center there.
"We call upon the international community to actively work to implement arms embargoes against the regime," the laureates said in a statement.
International Herald Tribune
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A group of Nobel laureates has called for an arms embargo against Myanmar, dismissing elections planned for 2010 as flawed if pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi is barred from standing.
A group of seven laureates, including Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and South Africa's anti-apartheid cleric Desmond Tutu, said the junta should face sanctions for its crackdown on Buddhist monks last September rather than plaudits for its recent announcement of an election timetable.
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The Dalai Lama yesterday said the Tibetan people will vote on a new system of spiritual leadership before he dies, as Tibetan Buddhists grapple with ways to prevent their leaders from falling under Chinese control.
Fears that China will appoint a new Dalai Lama after the death of the current one have led Tibetan chiefs to contemplate breaking with the centuries-old system used to choose their spiritual leader - including doing away with Dalai Lamas or changing the system of their reincarnation.
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The Vatican has said that Pope Benedict XVI will not meet the Dalai Lama when the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader travels to Italy next month.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi was quoted as saying on the Italian daily Corriere della Sera that "a meeting is not on the agenda" between the Pope and the Dalai Lama but he explained that this was "not a diplomatic incident".
"It's simply that an audience was not announced and as such was never fixed," he was quoted as saying on Monday.
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