中國在藏區加大愛國主義教育力度
中
國政府似乎將對藏族人加強思想教育工作﹐而在中國西部局勢業已緊張的情況下﹐此舉可能成了一起新發暴力衝突的導火索。中 國官方媒體新華社上週五報導﹐近日中國共產黨中央組織部下發了通知﹐要求西藏及其他藏區認真開展黨員幹部主題教育活動﹐切實加強基層黨組織建設﹐進一步發 揮基層黨組織和黨員在反對分裂、維護穩定和促進發展中的戰鬥堡壘作用和先鋒模范作用。週六相關政府機構通過官方媒體對這一號召作出了響應。
海 外藏人組織表示﹐這項活動還包括要求藏傳佛教徒與他們的精神領袖達賴喇嘛斷絕關係﹐並放棄他的照片﹐這一要求可能對上週四在四川省爆發的一起暴力衝突起到 了推波助瀾作用﹐後者是自3月14日拉薩騷亂以來規模最大、也是最為嚴重的暴力衝突。不過中國政府和藏人組織對所發生的事件有不同的解釋。
據 海外藏人及人權組織表示﹐上週四在四川省甘孜縣東谷寺(Tongkhor Monastery)附近有包括一名喇嘛在內的八名藏人因槍擊身亡﹐此前他們正在抗議當局進行的愛國主義教育﹐教育的一項內容就是要求僧侶們抨擊他們的精 神領袖達賴喇嘛。中國新華社報導了甘孜的騷亂事件﹐但沒有提到有人員死亡﹐只是說警方鳴槍示警﹐有人受傷﹐其中一人為政府官員。
這兩方的表述都沒有得到獨立消息來源的證實﹐因為打往該地區的電話不是不通就是無人接聽。中國的政治思想教育總是傾向於強調﹐共產黨的學說應凌駕於包括藏傳佛教在內各類宗教的信仰之上。對許多藏傳佛教信徒來說﹐中國政府將政治思想置於宗教及哲 學信仰之上、並強制他們譴責達賴喇嘛﹐這是導致他們對政府缺乏信任的主要原因﹐也正因為此他們對政府加大在西藏的投資等收攬民心之舉並不買帳。
如今﹐北京方面所做的反應似乎和以往它的權威受到挑戰時如出一轍──政府將在西藏和其他藏族聚居區重新加大思想政治教育的力度。近年來﹐經濟刺激基本上成了政府維係藏族人愛國感情的主要手段。
達賴喇嘛週日在一份書面聲明中再次呼籲藏族人避免使用暴力﹐並表示他們不應該破壞即將到來的北京奧運會。
達賴喇嘛還表示﹐在西藏的政府職員以及中共黨員並沒有忘記他們的藏族身份﹐在當前的危機中表現出了勇氣和明辨是非的能力。他要求這些黨員日後能向他們的黨內領導匯報藏族人的真實情感。達賴喇嘛此言暗示出有許多藏族人都是中共黨員。
華盛頓布魯金斯學會(Brookings Institution)的中國政治問題專家李成表示﹐（在西藏）很快就會展開很多政治學習、宣傳和討論活動。
此外﹐據《西藏日報》網站報導﹐丹增朗傑被免去了西藏自治區民族宗教事務委員會主任的職務。一些西藏問題專家表示﹐北京此舉意在壓制黨內在西藏政策上的不同聲音﹐特別是自由主義傾向。
倫 敦大學亞非學院(School of Oriental and African Studies)的西藏問題專家布蘭登•道森(Brandon Dotson)表示﹐這些轉變恰好發生在北京方面表示有可能與達賴喇嘛重開對話之際﹔而事實上﹐一旦和達賴喇嘛的談判啟動﹐中國政府的強硬言論會起到加強 自己談判地位的作用。
據倫敦的國際聲援西藏運動(International Campaign for Tibet)及其他親西藏組織表示﹐中國政府在甘孜東谷寺開展了持續數日的政治攻勢﹐包括收繳人們手中的達賴喇嘛照片﹐這可能是引發上週騷亂的原因之一。 國際聲援西藏運動表示﹐中國官員告訴僧侶們﹐他們應該譴責達賴喇嘛﹐並對那些反政府的示威活動持反對態度﹐但遭到了僧侶們的拒絕。
倫敦自 由西藏運動(Free Tibet Campaign)的代理負責人安•霍爾姆斯(Anne Holmes)表示﹐一位正在東谷寺修行的僧人向該組織表示﹐4月3日﹐大約有3,000名武裝警察包圍了這座有著350年歷史的寺廟﹐並進行了搜查。兩 名僧侶因留有達賴喇嘛的照片而被逮捕﹐其他僧侶也被告知應該譴責近期發生在藏族聚居區的騷亂事件。霍爾姆斯稱﹐目擊者向自由西藏運動表示﹐東谷寺住持 Lobsang Jamyang表示﹐他寧可死也不願接受這種教育。
據海外藏人組織表示﹐當日傍晚數百僧侶和藏人游行到甘孜城中心地區﹐最終人群遭到了射擊。這些組織表示他們在當地有消息來源。霍爾姆斯表示﹐在和平示威遭到鎮壓後﹐這些僧侶們已忍無可忍。
新 華社引述一位甘孜縣未具名官員的話報導稱﹐當地官員在騷亂發生時採取了克制態度﹐反復告誡示威者要遵守法律。該官員表示﹐由於鬧事者拒絕停止活動﹐警方不 得不鳴槍示警以制止騷亂﹐因為當地官員及群眾當時處境危險。新華社表示﹐一位官員因被襲擊而嚴重受傷﹐當地政府正在調查此次事件。
新華社的報導還談到了此前甘孜地區未獲披露的一次騷亂事件。3月24日那天攜帶刀具和石塊的藏人襲擊了警官﹐致使一人死亡﹐多人受傷。
Jason Leow / James T. Areddy
Political Pressure On Tibetans Rises
China's government appears to be stepping up a political-education campaign directed at Tibetans, a policy that may have sparked a new outburst of violence in the already tense situation in western China.
China's ruling Communist Party has issued a circular in recent days to party members and government officials in Tibetan areas instructing them 'to play an active role in maintaining social stability with more loyalty,' the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. On Saturday, authorities vowed through state media outlets to step up such efforts.
Overseas Tibetan groups said the campaign also involved requiring Buddhist monks to renounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and relinquish photos of him that many of them possess -- a push that may have sparked a new clash with authorities last week. The violence, which occurred Thursday in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was one of the biggest and most violent since the Lhasa riots began March 14 -- although the government and Tibetan groups offer differing accounts on what happened.
In their account of last Thursday's clash, overseas Tibetan and human-rights groups said as many as eight ethnic Tibetans, including one monk, were shot and killed near the Tongkhor monastery in Sichuan province's Ganzi county, following protests at authorities' efforts to step up 'patriotic education' that required monks to denounce the Dalai Lama. News of a riot in Ganzi -- but not those deaths -- was reported by Xinhua, which said the police fired warning shots and that a government official was among those injured.
Neither account could be independently verified as telephones in the area, known as Garze in Tibetan, were either cut off or went unanswered.
China's political-education campaigns tend to emphasize the supremacy of Communist Party doctrine over religious beliefs like the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism. For many Tibetan Buddhists, the government's emphasis on political thought above religious and philosophical beliefs, and its forced denunciations of the Dalai Lama, are the core reason they distrust Beijing's overall intentions, and why they play down the value of such factors as increased central-government investment in Tibet.
Now, as it often does in the wake of challenges to its authority, Beijing appears to be reinvigorating its political-education efforts in Tibet and surrounding areas. In recent years, economic incentives have generally been the government's key tool for building Chinese national loyalty throughout Tibetan areas.
In a written statement Sunday, the Dalai Lama reiterated his appeal to Tibetans to avoid violence and said they shouldn't disrupt the coming Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama also noted how Tibetans are often Communist Party members by referring to 'Tibetan government employees and Communist Party cadres who have, without losing their Tibetan identity, shown grit and sense of what is right during the present crisis.' He requested that in the future they report 'the real sentiments of the Tibetan people to their superiors in the Party.'
'In the near future [in Tibet] . . . there will be a lot of study sessions, a lot of propaganda and discussions,' said Cheng Li, a Chinese-politics expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
In another change, a top ethnic-Tibetan official, Danzeng Langjie, was removed from his post in charge of minority and religious affairs, according to the Web site of the state-run Tibet Daily. Some Tibet experts said Beijing aims to stifle internal party dissent about Tibet policy and is, in particular, squelching liberal voices.
The changes come even as Beijing has left open the possibility of reopening talks with the Dalai Lama, according to Brandon Dotson, a Tibetan specialist at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. 'The hard-line rhetoric in fact strengthens China's position in the event of any opening of negotiations with the Dalai Lama,' he said.
In Ganzi, days of political campaigns at the Tongkhor monastery, including a hunt for photos of the Dalai Lama, may have helped spark last week's trouble, according to the London-based International Campaign for Tibet and other pro-Tibet groups. 'The Chinese officials told monks that they should denounce the Dalai Lama and oppose the ongoing demonstrations against Chinese rule, and the monks objected,' the International Campaign for Tibet said.
Anne Holmes, acting director of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, said a monk who was present at the monastery told her group that on April 3 around 3,000 military police surrounded the 350-year-old monastery and searched it. Two monks were arrested for having pictures of the Dalai Lama, while other monks were instructed to also denounce recent agitation in Tibetan areas, and the witness told her group that Tongkhor's chief monk, Lobsang Jamyang, said he would rather die than undergo the education, Ms. Holmes said.
In the early evening, hundreds of monks and other Tibetans marched on the town center and shots were eventually fired on the crowd, according to the overseas Tibetan organizations, which said they had sources at the scene. 'What's happened in the aftermath of the crushing of peaceful protests is that [the monks] have reached the end of their tethers,' Ms. Holmes said.
The Xinhua report on Friday quoted an unnamed official with the prefecture government as saying 'local officials exercised restraint during the riot and repeatedly told the rioters to abide by the law.' The official said that since rioters refused to stop, 'police were forced to fire warning shots to put down the violence, since local officials and people were in great danger.' It said an official was attacked and seriously injured, while local authorities are investigating the incident.
The report also described a previously unreported earlier incident in Ganzi county, on March 24, in which it said an attack on police officers by Tibetans armed with knives and stones left one person dead and several injured.
Jason Leow / James T. Areddy
China's ruling Communist Party has issued a circular in recent days to party members and government officials in Tibetan areas instructing them 'to play an active role in maintaining social stability with more loyalty,' the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday. On Saturday, authorities vowed through state media outlets to step up such efforts.
Overseas Tibetan groups said the campaign also involved requiring Buddhist monks to renounce their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and relinquish photos of him that many of them possess -- a push that may have sparked a new clash with authorities last week. The violence, which occurred Thursday in the southwestern province of Sichuan, was one of the biggest and most violent since the Lhasa riots began March 14 -- although the government and Tibetan groups offer differing accounts on what happened.
In their account of last Thursday's clash, overseas Tibetan and human-rights groups said as many as eight ethnic Tibetans, including one monk, were shot and killed near the Tongkhor monastery in Sichuan province's Ganzi county, following protests at authorities' efforts to step up 'patriotic education' that required monks to denounce the Dalai Lama. News of a riot in Ganzi -- but not those deaths -- was reported by Xinhua, which said the police fired warning shots and that a government official was among those injured.
Neither account could be independently verified as telephones in the area, known as Garze in Tibetan, were either cut off or went unanswered.
China's political-education campaigns tend to emphasize the supremacy of Communist Party doctrine over religious beliefs like the tenets of Tibetan Buddhism. For many Tibetan Buddhists, the government's emphasis on political thought above religious and philosophical beliefs, and its forced denunciations of the Dalai Lama, are the core reason they distrust Beijing's overall intentions, and why they play down the value of such factors as increased central-government investment in Tibet.
Now, as it often does in the wake of challenges to its authority, Beijing appears to be reinvigorating its political-education efforts in Tibet and surrounding areas. In recent years, economic incentives have generally been the government's key tool for building Chinese national loyalty throughout Tibetan areas.
In a written statement Sunday, the Dalai Lama reiterated his appeal to Tibetans to avoid violence and said they shouldn't disrupt the coming Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama also noted how Tibetans are often Communist Party members by referring to 'Tibetan government employees and Communist Party cadres who have, without losing their Tibetan identity, shown grit and sense of what is right during the present crisis.' He requested that in the future they report 'the real sentiments of the Tibetan people to their superiors in the Party.'
'In the near future [in Tibet] . . . there will be a lot of study sessions, a lot of propaganda and discussions,' said Cheng Li, a Chinese-politics expert at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
In another change, a top ethnic-Tibetan official, Danzeng Langjie, was removed from his post in charge of minority and religious affairs, according to the Web site of the state-run Tibet Daily. Some Tibet experts said Beijing aims to stifle internal party dissent about Tibet policy and is, in particular, squelching liberal voices.
The changes come even as Beijing has left open the possibility of reopening talks with the Dalai Lama, according to Brandon Dotson, a Tibetan specialist at London's School of Oriental and African Studies. 'The hard-line rhetoric in fact strengthens China's position in the event of any opening of negotiations with the Dalai Lama,' he said.
In Ganzi, days of political campaigns at the Tongkhor monastery, including a hunt for photos of the Dalai Lama, may have helped spark last week's trouble, according to the London-based International Campaign for Tibet and other pro-Tibet groups. 'The Chinese officials told monks that they should denounce the Dalai Lama and oppose the ongoing demonstrations against Chinese rule, and the monks objected,' the International Campaign for Tibet said.
Anne Holmes, acting director of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, said a monk who was present at the monastery told her group that on April 3 around 3,000 military police surrounded the 350-year-old monastery and searched it. Two monks were arrested for having pictures of the Dalai Lama, while other monks were instructed to also denounce recent agitation in Tibetan areas, and the witness told her group that Tongkhor's chief monk, Lobsang Jamyang, said he would rather die than undergo the education, Ms. Holmes said.
In the early evening, hundreds of monks and other Tibetans marched on the town center and shots were eventually fired on the crowd, according to the overseas Tibetan organizations, which said they had sources at the scene. 'What's happened in the aftermath of the crushing of peaceful protests is that [the monks] have reached the end of their tethers,' Ms. Holmes said.
The Xinhua report on Friday quoted an unnamed official with the prefecture government as saying 'local officials exercised restraint during the riot and repeatedly told the rioters to abide by the law.' The official said that since rioters refused to stop, 'police were forced to fire warning shots to put down the violence, since local officials and people were in great danger.' It said an official was attacked and seriously injured, while local authorities are investigating the incident.
The report also described a previously unreported earlier incident in Ganzi county, on March 24, in which it said an attack on police officers by Tibetans armed with knives and stones left one person dead and several injured.
Jason Leow / James T. Areddy
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