Tibetan Martyrdom

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29245, 1 July 1960, Page 10

Tibetan Martyrdom

The Tibetans’ continued resistance to the Chinese Communists must evoke the admiration of the free world. With astonishing heroism—or desperation—a small. Unprogressive, but freedom-loving people has confronted the modern army of the earth’s largest nation. China’s admission to Nepal that measures are still necessary to suppress Tibetan rebels in the -frontier areas gives the He to earlier Communist claims that, with the Tibetans’ approval, 'peace and tranquillity have been restored to the roof of the world. Current reports of fighting are similar to those which preceded the Dalai Lama’s flight to India last year. If the pattern of events is repeated the ‘ Tibetans’ struggle against their " liber- “ ators ” may be entering upon its final and perhaps most bloody phase. For several months it has been known that considerable rebel forces are still operating from the mountain fastnesses of eastern Tibet. The activities of these forces are directed against Tibetan collaborators as well as Chinese troops and colonists. But the rebels have much poorer 'resources of arms and ammunition than in 1956, when they seriously embarrassed the Chinese. Moreover, they now lack unified, ’pffective support « from their exiled compatriots in ’ India.

The slaughter of dissident Tibetans removes the most important obstacle to the inflow of Chinese migrants and the easing of population pressure in China itself. Since the Lhasa revolt of early 1959 many thousands of Tibetans have been removed to China or put to - forced labour on- roads and railways. Tens of thousands of children have been taken from their parents for indoctrination in China. In Lhasa all the machinery of a Communist system of government has been established. The great Buddhist monasteries have been despoiled: their occupants have been singled out for special treatment in the ruthless campaign to change the Tibetan way of life. In April Ngapo Ngawang Jigme, one of the most prominent Tibetan collaborators, told the Chinese National People’s Congress: “ Today the masses of the “Tibetan people who have oe- “ come their own masters, are “rejoicing at their success “in emancipating themselves “under the leadership of the “Communist Party and Chair*man Mao Tse-tung, and at

“ becoming masters of their own “destiny”. Naturally he would not mention that for the first time in centuries the festival marking the Tibetan new year had not been held in 1960. At this time opportunity ‘is traditionally given for criticising high government officials.

- On June 20 the Internationa! Commission of Jurists released the findings of its Legal Inquiry Committee on Tibet, which was appointed in July last year. In a heavily-documented report the committee found that the Chinese had committed acts of genocide in an attempt to destroy the Tibetans as a religious group, and had therefore breached international law as set out in the United Nations’ 1948 Convention on Genocide. China, according to the committee, had violated its undertakings to Tibet, which was entitled on March 11, 1959. to repudiate its 1951 agreement with the Peking Government. Thus Tibet, in the committee’s opinion, regained de facto independence: and Tibetan affairs are not “ essentially “within the domestic jurisdic- “ tion ” of China. The committee inquired also into the maintenance of human rights in Tibet Although it recognised Chinese success in promoting economic development it considered that the living standards of ordinary Tibetans had fallen and that the Communists had grossly violated the principles of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The committee’s indictment underlines the tragic futility of international conventions such as that on genocide which cannot be enforced because there are no means of enforcement. As an authoritative, independent survey of conditions in Tibet this report will be valuable, however, in determining the validity of future claims that all is well with China’s Himalayan colony