Tibet: Country under the occupation
Shunsuke Murakami
The Youtube Project
Background
On October 7 1950, People’s Liberation Army of China first entered the Tibetan area of Chamdo, and quickly surrounded the outnumbered Tibetan forces. The battle ended in Chinese victory in 1951, and the Seventeen Point Agreement was signed between both nations which affirm Tibet as part of China. The Seventeen Point Agreement ensured that the China would not interfere with the structure of Tibet’s government and their leader Dalai Lama. But from 1951 to 1959, China slowly but surely started to interfere with those issues, and caused Tibetans uprising against China in March 1959. China quickly oppressed the most rebels within few days, and resulted in 100,000 Tibetans and their holiness Dalai Lama escaped into exile. Since then, Dalai Lama stays in the Dharamsala, the northern region of India, and settled the Tibetan government in exile there. Since then, Tibetans continued the non-violent struggles for more than 40 years. Today, China continues ruling over Tibet claiming that they are one united country since around 13th to 14th centuries when Mongols dominated over both Tibet and China.
Since the occupation, Tibetans lost their people, lands and resources. From the direct result of the occupation, about 1.2 million Tibetans died, and over 6000 Monasteries, Temples and Historical Structures destroyed. Today, Some 300,000 Chinese troops and 7.5 million Chinese stay in Tibet. Also, vast tracts of forests and mineral resources were plundered.
Adding to these issues, there are many human rights violations being done against Tibetans by Chinese. To this, many human rights organizations and western governments demanded more rights to Tibetans. However, the situation continues without any major improvement still.
The Issue
Solutions
One effective solution to this issue would be to urge leaders of all countries to increase the social pressures against China. Leaders of some countries already did it by threating China that they would not attend Olympic Games ceremony until the human right issues are solved. However, what makes this solution hard to be achieved is that the China is one of the world power which possesses strong military, econimic, and political power. This makes many nation to hesistate about breaking the friendship.
Another Solution would be to urge more people to get engaged in this issue. By making more people engaged, it could also increase the international pressure agianst China. Recently, even though there are many news about Tibet going around, many people still hesitate to make the movement. One way to make those people engaged is by supporting more human rights organizations to advertise this issue, so that more people will get awared about it.
MLA Bibliography
“China and Tibet”. HRW Report 1999. 1999. May 21, 2008.
“Dalai Lama”. TIMES ONLINE. March 19, 2008. May21,2008.
“Dharamsala”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. May 17, 2008. May 21,2008.
“History of Tibet”. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. May 18, 2008. May 20, 2008.
“Prison Condition in Tibet”. Behind Bars. 1999. May 21, 2008.
“Tibet: An Occupied Country”. Friend of Tibet (NZ). 2007. May 20, 2008.
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