From DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.orgTue Aug 22 09:50:53 1995
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 1995 07:49:00 +0100
From: Debra Guzman <DEBRA@oln.comlink.apc.org>
Reply to: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
To: beijing-conf@tristram.edc.org
Subject: Tibet Women's report!
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## author : tibet@acs.ucalgary.ca
## date : 18.08.95
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Organization: TCRC, Central Tibetan Administration, Dharamsala
Foreword
This national report on Tibetan women is the first of its
kind, prepared by the Women's Issues Desk of the Department
of Information and International Relations, Tibetan
Government-in- Exile. The report documents the conditions of
Tibetan women inside occupied-Tibet as well as in exile. It
touches upon the concerns of Tibetan women.
Traditionally, Tibetan women enjoyed a higher social status
than their counterparts in many other societies. They also
played an active part in the affairs of family and society.
Since the occupation of Tibet by Chinese military forces,
Tibetan women have suffered oppression, exploitation,
subjugation and discrimination.
Women in occupied-Tibet are the innocent victims of the
policies of a powerful force that seeks to completely wipe
out the Tibetan national identity. While the world debates
the legitimacy and morality of abortions, women in Tibet are
subjected to involuntary and forced abortions and
sterilizations, designed to reduce the growth of the Tibetan
population as part of a larger strategy to destroy Tibetan
national and ethnic identity. Abortions and sterilizations
are conducted without adequate medical facilities or in
unhygienic conditions. Furthermore, Tibetan women suffer
disadvantage in areas of education, employment, health and
administrative services.
Tibetan women also played a leading role in the Tibetan
national movement and they continue to oppose the Chinese
colonial rule in Tibet as a result of which they are
subjected to arbitrary arrests, long prison sentences
without trial, severe torture and abuse in police custody.
Many women prisoners of conscience, including teenagers,
have succumbed to death from severe torture in custody.
Tibetan women in exile also suffered as a result of
displacement and dislocation of normal life. However, in
comparison with those in Tibet, women in exile enjoyed equal
opportunity in education and job. They were given special
consideration in political representation to encourage
greater role in public affairs.
We hope that this brief report on Tibetan women will give an
overall view of the status of women in Tibetan society and
in particular the true situation of women in occupied-Tibet.
When the women's conference is taking place in Beijing, it
is important to have a closer look at the actual situation
of Tibetan women living under Chinese occupation.
Tempa Tsering
Secretary
Department of Information and International Relations
Central Tibetan Administration
Dharamsala
India
Tibetan women
Peace, development and equality
Executive summary
THE Women's Desk at the Tibetan Government-in-Exile's
Department of Information and International Relations has
compiled this report to highlight the particular concerns of
Tibetan women inside Tibet and those living as refugees in
exile. In doing so, it is our hope that the deplorable
situation of Tibetan women under Chinese military domination
and exploitation will be taken into consideration whilst the
Draft Platform for Action is being discussed. This report
also includes a list of recommendations which, it is hoped,
will serve as inputs to the discussions for the Draft
Platform.
Under the Chinese Communist regime, the Tibetan people have
suffered and continue to suffer inconceivable atrocities.
Tibet and the Tibetan people are victims of military
occupation, human rights abuse, and discrimination. Reports
received from Tibet, including reports from Amnesty
International and other human rights groups, testify to
massive violation of human rights in Tibet. Discrimination
is cast large over the Chinese policy in Tibet. Violence and
torture are often used in silencing Tibetans. It is against
these larger problems of the Tibetan people that this report
concerning Tibetan women both inside occupied Tibet and in
exile must be seen.
Tibetan women suffer from two kinds of violations: those
that are shared by all Tibetans, regardless of gender; and
those that are specific to women.
As Tibetans, they are victims of occupation, arbitrary
arrest, torture, violation of freedom of speech and
assembly, restrictions on freedom of religion, and on
freedom of travel. As women they are subjected to forced
birth control, abortions and sterilization against their
wishes or without informed consent. Tibetan women are the
victims of a coercive birth-control policy aimed at reducing
the Tibetan population in Tibet into an insignificant
minority. This is done on the one hand by increasing the
number of Chinese settlers inside Tibet and on the other
hand by decreasing the number of Tibetan inhabitants through
birth-control policy. They are arbitrarily arrested,
detained and tortured in custody for peaceful expression of
their political beliefs. They suffer rape and sexual
violence while in police custody which sometimes results in
deaths. Three custodial deaths of Tibetan women have been
recorded in this year alone. Tibetan women are discriminated
in the field of education, employment, and health.
The Chinese occupation of Tibet has also placed Tibetan
women in a low socio-economic class, where before they were
economically stable. It is true that before the Chinese
occupation of Tibet, the position of women in Tibet was not
one of equality. But compared to most of our Asian
neighbours, especially China, the position of Tibetan women
was considerably good if not one of equality. There has been
some improvement in the relative position of women in Tibet
in the past forty years, but progress has been much slower
than elsewhere in the world and definitely much slower than
the Tibetan community in exile
Tibetan women's access to education is limited: first,
because the medium of education is the Chinese language, and
secondly, the price of education in Tibet is very high. In
fact, many women and girls are escaping to India, to seek
adequate education in exile. Unemployment is also a problem
as a large proportion of jobs and small businesses are
reserved for the Chinese settlers who are given economic
incentives to settle in Tibet to the disadvantage of
Tibetans.
Tibetan Women also have to face many problems in the health
care system which is discriminatory. There have been
reported cases of medical abuse of pregnant women and
inadequate medical facilities and attention for women and
girl prisoners of conscience. The absence of adequate
medical care has been the cause of several reported deaths
of women and girl political prisoners. Threats to Tibetan
women's health also exist due to health threatening toxic
materials and environmental hazards from the nuclear dumping
and testing that China conducts in certain areas of Tibet.
To tackle the issue of human rights violations suffered by
Tibetan women and all women, women all over the world need
to come together to chalk out strategic goals and their
means of implementation. There is much to be done in
upgrading the status of women in the developing countries
and countries under foreign occupation. Tibet is an occupied
country and Tibetan women continue to suffer due to this
fact.
Tibetan women under Chinese occupation
ONE. The status of Tibet before 1959
THE territory of Tibet largely corresponds to the geological
plateau of Tibet, which consists of 2.5 million square
kilometres. At different times in history, wars were fought
and treaties signed concerning the precise location of
boundaries.
The Government of Tibet was headquartered in Lhasa, the
capital city of Tibet. It consisted of the Head of State
(the Dalai Lama), a Council of Ministers (the Kashag), a
National Assembly (the Tsongdu), and an extensive
bureaucracy to administer the vast territory of Tibet. The
judicial system was based on that developed by Emperor
Songtsen Gampo (seventh century), Lama Jangchub Gyaltsen
(fourteenth century), the Fifth Dalai Lama (seventeenth
century) and the Thirteenth Dalai Lama (twentieth century),
and was administered by a magistrate appointed by the
Government.
The population of Tibet at the time of the Chinese invasion
was approximately six million. Tibetans as a people are
distinct from the Chinese and other neighbouring peoples.
Not only have the Tibetans never considered themselves to be
Chinese, the Chinese have also not regarded the Tibetans to
be Chinese.
On the eve of China's military invasion, which started at
the close of 1949, Tibet possessed all the attributes of
independent statehood recognized under international law: a
defined territory, a population inhabiting that territory, a
government, and the ability to enter into international
relations.
Nepal, Bhutan, Britain, China and India maintained
diplomatic missions in Tibet's capital, Lhasa. The Tibetan
Foreign Office also conducted limited relations with the
United States when President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent
emissaries to Lhasa to request assistance for the Allied War
effort against Japan during the Second World War. Also
during the four UN General Assembly debates on Tibet in
1959, 1960, 1961 and 1965, many countries expressly referred
to Tibet as an independent country illegally occupied by
China.
Tibet's independent foreign policy is perhaps most obviously
demonstrated by the country's neutrality during World War
II. Despite strong pressure from Britain, the U.S. and China
to allow the passage of military supplies through Tibet to
China when Japan blocked the strategically vital "Burma
Road", Tibet held fast to its declared neutrality. The
Allies were constrained to respect this.
The Chinese takeover constituted an aggression on a
sovereign state and violation of international law. The
continued occupation of Tibet by China, with the help of
several hundred thousand troops, represents an ongoing
violation of international law and of the fundamental rights
of the Tibetan people to independence.
On March 17, 1959 His Holiness the Dalai Lama left Lhasa to
seek political asylum in India. He was followed by an
unprecedented exodus of Tibetans into exile. Never before,
in the long history of Tibet, had so many Tibetans been
forced to leave their homeland and under such difficult
circumstances. There are now more than 130,000 Tibetan
refugees scattered over India and the world.
China tries to justify its occupation and repressive rule of
Tibet by pretending that it "liberated" Tibetan society from
"medieval feudal serfdom" and "slavery". Beijing trots out
this myth to counter every international pressure to review
its repressive policies in Tibet.
Traditional Tibetan society was by no means perfect. It was
in need of changes, which His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai
Lama initiated as soon as he assumed temporal authority in
Tibet. However, it was not as bad as China would have us
believe. And it certainly was not a "serfdom". As far back
as 1960, the International Commission of Jurists' Legal
Inquiry Committee reported, "Chinese allegations that the
Tibetans enjoyed no human rights before the entry of the
Chinese were found to be based on distorted and exaggerated
accounts of life in Tibet."
Whatever the case may be, the Chinese justification for
"liberation" are invalid. First of all, international law
does not accept justifications of this type. No country is
allowed to invade, occupy, annex and colonize another
country just because its social structure does not please
it. Secondly, China is responsible for bringing more
suffering in the name of liberation. Thirdly, necessary
reforms were initiated by the Tibetan themselves, who were
quite capable of carrying them through.
1.1 Tibetan women: Impact of population transfer and
military exploitation
THE transfer of civilians by an occupying power into the
territory it occupies is a violation of international law,
according to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949. However,
it is a practice which many occupying powers, colonial
administrations and totalitarian rulers have used and still
use to break resistance to their rule and consolidate
control over the territory. China is implementing the same
policy in Tibet. Begun as early as 1949, when China started
the invasion of Tibet, this policy poses the greatest threat
to the survival of the Tibetan nation and people.
In Lhasa alone, there were 50,000 to 60,000 ordinary Chinese
residents in 1985. From 1988 additional Chinese immigrants
doubled the population of Lhasa. That this development
created problems for the Tibetan population was also
recognized by the " of four in China. Why should Tibet spend
its money to feed them?... Tibet has suffered greatly
because of the policy of sending a large number of useless
people. The Chinese population in Tibet started with a few
thousand and today it has multiplied manifold".
Besides the influx of Chinese settlers into Tibet, the
presence of a large military force in Tibet poses a serious
threat to the Tibetan people's human rights and freedom.
Tibetan women are being subjected to a major security
operation to crush the independence movement and all
manifestations of so-called "splittist activities". The
government, the police, the army, the judicial system and
the legal system are collaborating in the crackdown. The
number of PLA troops in Tibet is estimated to be around
300,000, though accurate figures are difficult to obtain.
The armed police and other special forces are responsible
for arbitrarily arresting, beating and obstructing Tibetan
women from exercising their fundamental freedoms such as
freedom of assembly and expression. The Public Security
Bureau and the People's Armed Police also engage in sexual
abuse of Tibetan women whilst they are in their custody.
Two. The status of Tibetan women before the Chinese
occupation
TIBETAN women before the Chinese occupation belonged to a
distinct culture which has been preserved in exile. Today
the Chinese law dictates that Tibetan culture can only be
exercised within the parameters of Chinese rule.
It is necessary gain an understanding of the history of
Tibetan women to understand the situation and plight of
Tibetan women today.
In the annals of Suishu and T'ang shu-Sui and T'ang dynasty
(around the second century AD), there is a reference to the
existence of a "women's kingdom" in southeastern Tibet. In
this kingdom, the society is described as being matriarchal
and matrilineal where political power appeared to have been
in the hands of women. Matriliny is also suggested in a
Tibetan text of aphorisms from Tun-huang that may be
connected to a female-dominated society of the fifth century
Sum-pa people. In Tibetan history one also finds that there
were times when certain individual women played prominent
roles in determining the social development of the Tibetan
nation. The mothers of the Tibetan emperors in the period
between the seventh and the ninth centuries AD, for
instance, are believed to have played active roles in the
polity of the state.
In the recent past also Tibetan women have proved themselves
to be able administrators and courageous warriors. Miu
Gyalmo Palchen Tso took over the work of her ailing husband
and governed the province of Amdo with amazing energy. She
was a great warrior and shrewd administrator. Similarly Jago
Tsewang Dolma was an influential woman and far-sighted
administrator in the court of Derge, Kham. Khangsar Yangchen
Dolma was a brilliant warrior and chief of the Karze area in
Kham, eastern Tibet. Ngarong Chime Dolma was another
powerful and brave officer who personally led her soldiers
into battlefields with great success. However, she was later
captured and killed by the Chinese forces.
Before 1949, Tibetans engaged in a mixed economy consisting
of agriculture, animal husbandry and trade. Both men and
women engaged in all three activities. Women contributed
significantly to agricultural and pastoral pursuits and also
engaged in trading activities, in which they held the major
decision-making authority. There was some division of labor
along gender lines. It was, however, not rigid. A woman's
economic contribution to the household was considered
significant. Because of the tendency towards extensive
social and economic equality in our society, there was no
sharply defined division between the kind of work to be done
by men and women. In fact, a certain flexibility was
prevalent and the division of labor was seen as
complementary rather than exploitative.
We can also gain an insight into the position of women by
looking at the patterns of marriage and household
organization. Marriage arrangements included monogamous,
polyandrous and polygamous alliances. Divorce and remarriage
(including widow marriage) were acceptable. Polygamy was
just as common as polyandry, though both were by no means
widespread. They were accepted in some regions to sustain
family and social networks and to keep estates undivided,
without infringing the rights to which men and women were
accustomed. Arranged marriages were the norm but only the
daughter, upon marriage, would remain with her family. Her
husband would enter her family. Then, upon the death of the
household head, the daughter, and not her husband, would
head the family estate. At the same time, the possibility of
remaining unmarried was open to both men and women.
Buddhism played a significant role in the lives of Tibetan
women. Although the number of monks is greater than that of
nuns, becoming a nun provided an alternative and positive
role for women in society. Becoming a nun was a matter of
choice. Prior to 1959, there were 270 nunneries with over
15,600 nuns throughout Tibet. Besides, many nuns lived in
small groups in retreat communities or hermitages.
The Chinese authorities have time and again tried to portray
traditional Tibetan society in a negative light to
legitimize their "liberation of a nation which endured in
backwardness even in this modern age". It is true that in
the past Tibetan women did not feature prominently in the
political and administrative aspects of Tibetan history.
However, all the great nations of today went through periods
of feudalism, slavery, casteism and other medieval evils. At
no point of history were the Tibetan women subjected to
foot-binding, veiling, dowry or concubinage. It is not fair
to compare the status of Tibetan women in the past to that
of present under Chinese occupation. It is more justified to
compare Tibetan women in Tibet with their counterparts in
exile. The women in Tibet enjoy none of the human rights and
freedom that are taken for granted in exile.
THREE. The status of Tibetan women under Chinese
occupation
3.1 China's lack of commitment to
internationally-recognized standards of women's human rights
THE status of Tibetan women must be seen in terms of human
rights dimensions of gender violence and inequality. The
Chinese are violating the fundamental human rights of
Tibetan women, such as the reproductive rights, right to
education, right to be free from discrimination, coercion
and violence.
China is bound by the objectives and obligations arising
from its accession to the convention on the Elimination of
all Forms of Discrimination against Women [1979] (CEDAW)
which it signed on November 4, 1980. Upon signing CEDAW
China became bound to recognize its objectives, one being
"Emphasizing that the eradication of apartheid, all forms of
racism, racial discrimination, colonialism, neo-colonialism,
aggression, foreign accupation and domination and
interference in the internal affairs of states is essential
to the full enjoyment of the rights of men and women."
China often quotes the laws that it has passed to establish
the argument that it is protecting the fundamental rights of
Tibetan women. A Chinese report on Tibetan women even stated
recently that:
"The basic principles underlying legislation for women in
China are: Equal rights for men and women, protecting
women's special rights and interests, and banning
discriminating against, maltreating, injuring, and killing
women. Women in Tibet, a provincial level autonomous region
in China, are certainly protected by Chinese laws enacted
for all women in China."
A study of the manner in which these laws are implemented
highlights the great discrepancy between law in theory and
law in practice. The continued discrimination of Tibetan
women in the fields of health and education, their arbitrary
arrests, detention and torture without fair trials are the
indicators of this discrepancy. In addition, Tibetan women
also suffer physically and mentally under a stringent and
irrational birth-control policy which dictates how women's
lives and their reproductive roles will be determined. Human
rights are also women's right and should apply to Tibetan
women as well.
3.2 Claims of the equality: Discrepancy between theory and
practice
IN addition to the great discrepancy between law in theory
and in practice (which this report will serve to highlight),
law in theory, itself, reveals its discriminatory attitudes
towards women.
A Chinese report on Tibetan women recently stated that:
"Freedom of marriage has become the general concept of
contemporary Tibetan women. Women's right to divorce and
remarry is duly guaranteed, thus improving the quality of
marriage and the stability of the family, and laying the
foundation for equal rights between husband and wife". In
October 1994 the 'Mother and Child Health Law' was passed by
the National People's Congress, to take effect from June
1995. The law delegates discretionary power to Chinese
officials who can prevent marriages and births from
occurring on certain grounds. Besides, these grounds involve
a determination of the mental and physical health of the
parents. The official can decide not to grant the relevant
couple approval if one is suffering from a mental or
hereditary disease which is serious and likely to affect
others.
"Therefore, a couple who wishes to marry must first go
through a medical examination. If the doctor concludes that
one or both of the couple have either a mental disorder or
hereditary disease, then the couple will be denied
permission to marry. The aim of the regulations is to ensure
that the couples that procreate will have healthy babies.
"If there is a risk of the couple producing deformed or
unhealthy babies then they must divorce. This law also
dictates the abortion of all foetuses identified as mentally
or physically handicapped, as well as abortions for and/or
sterilization of women suffering from mental instability,
hereditary or infectious diseases."
FOUR. Occupation and its impact on the political rights of
Tibetan girls and women
4.1 The persecution of Tibetan women for the exercise of
their fundamental civil and political rights:
CHINA has imprisoned hundreds of Tibetan political activists
since the invasion and occupation of Tibet, many of them
being women and young girls. Amnesty International said, in
a report released in June this year, that there were 628
prisoners held in the "TAR" jails by the end of 1994 for
their political beliefs, including 182 women and forty five
persons under the age of eighteen and some as young as
twelve. A 1994 report by Tibet Information Network, a
London-based independent news monitor, stated that out of
255 political prisoners in Lhasa's Drapchi Prison, sixty
eight were women; in 1991 this prison held only twenty three
women prisoners. (See Appendix I for a partial list of
Tibetan women political prisoners).
Fifty nuns were reportedly arrested in connection with
peaceful independence activities in Tibet during the first
quarter of 1995. More arrests were made during the first
three months of the year than in the whole of 1994.
The majority of these women political prisoners were
sexually abused via torture techniques, and received no
medical attention for injuries suffered. The following are
the stories of some Tibetan girl and women prisoners of
conscience:
4.1.a. Women prisoners of conscience
WOMEN make up nearly a third of the hundreds of political
prisoners held in Tibet. Many have been tortured. Amnesty
International's report "Women in China" states that by far
the largest group of female political prisoners known to
Amnesty International in China is imprisoned in the Tibet
Autonomous Region.
Ven. Phuntsog Nyidron (nun), at the time of her arrest was
twenty four years old. She was arrested on October 14, 1989
along with fourteen other nuns for participating in the
peaceful demonstration held in the Bakhor area, in the old
town of Lhasa. The demonstration called for an end to the
Chinese occupation in Tibet. On October 8, 1993, she, along
with thirteen other nun inmates, sang a song for the
independence of Tibet and His Holiness the Dalai Lama in
front of the prison guards. The authorities reacted to the
song by extending her prison sentence by eight more years.
Serving a total of seventeen years in Drapchi prison,
Phuntsog Nyidron is now the longest serving, known woman
political prisoner in Tibet. Phuntsog Nyidron, incidentally,
was a nominee for the 1995 Reebok Human Rights Award.
Fourteen nuns from Garu nunnery were sentenced to prison
terms ranging from two to seven years for their alleged
participation in a demonstration, which, unofficial sources
in Tibet claim, never actually took place. The nuns were
arrested on June 14, 1993, a day when no demonstration in or
near Lhasa was reported. Sources from the city believe the
nuns were arrested before they managed to begin a protest.
Among the nuns arrested that day was the thirteen-year-old
Gyaltsen Pelsang, who died in February 1995, shortly after
her parole for medical treatment. Informed sources attribute
her death to constant torture in captivity.
4.2 Young girls as political prisoners: abuse of human
rights
IN May 1995 Amnesty International released a report
expressing its particular concern about the number of youths
that were being detained and imprisoned for taking part in
peaceful demonstrations -- "some of them were only twelve
years old".
Among the female political prisoners arrested between 1991
and 1994, at least eleven, under the age of eighteen at the
time of their arrests, were reportedly still in detention in
December 1994. Of them, seven were under eighteen in 1994.
Amnesty International recently stated in a report on human
rights violations in Tibet that:
"..youths, like adults, have been subjected to beatings,
electric shocks, solitary confinement and deprivation of
sleep, food or drink as punishment. Beatings by the police
are reported to be particularly common."
4.2.a. Documented abuses of Tibetan girl prisoners
WOMEN prisoners of conscience are particularly vulnerable to
torture or ill-treatment as police officials attempt to
extract information or confessions from them in order to
formalize the arrest or justify their detention. There have
been frequent reports from prisons of degrading methods of
torture for the purpose of extracting confessions. These
include setting of guard dogs on prisoners, use of electric
batons especially on women prisoners in extremely perverted
and degrading manners, inflicting cigarette burns,
administration of shock, etc. One recent refugee from
eastern Tibet, who was a member of the Chinese Public
Security Bureau, described thirty-three methods of torture
of prisoners.
Below are several accounts of Tibetan girls who have been
reported tortured or ill-treated.
At least a dozen Tibetans, aged fifteen or younger, most of
the them nuns, have been imprisoned for political offenses.
Many, like Gyaltsen Pelsang, never received sentences and
were held without any indication as to when they would be
released. Gyaltsen Pelsang was reported to have been aged
fifteen at the time of her arrest but it is now believed
that she was aged thirteen when she was detained. According
to our sources, she was held in Gurtsa Detention Center,
outside Lhasa, where the majority of young Tibetan Political
prisoners are held, often without charge or trial.
Three nuns from Michungri nunnery near Lhasa _ Jampa Dedrol,
Tenzin Dekyong and Ngawang Drolma, all of them aged fourteen
or fifteen _ spent up to a year without trial in Gurtsa in
1993 after staging a demonstration on March 13, 1993.
The youngest of the recent prisoners is Sherab Ngawang, a
Michungri nun who was formally sentenced by the
"Re-education-Through-Reform" Committee to three years in
detention. She was only twelve years old at the time of her
arrest. She died recently due to torture in police custody.
Three years was the maximum sentence that could be imposed
by the committee. Under the Chinese law Sherab was too young
to be sentenced, and it has been suggested that the Chinese
authorities were unaware of her age. However, a court
document obtained by the Tibet Information Network in
London, suggests otherwise. It says that she was too young
to be tried with the other demonstrators, meaning the
authorities knew she was under sixteen.
Jampa Dedrol was fifteen at the time of her arrest on June
14, 1993. She had been a novice at Michungri nunnery near
Lhasa. She was reportedly arrested for peacefully
demonstrating in Lhasa, and taken to Gurtsa Detention
Centre. There has been no recent news of her whereabouts.
Tenzin Dekyong, a novice at Michungri nunnery near Lhasa,
was sixteen at the time of her arrest during a peaceful
demonstration in Lhasa on March 13, 1993. Reports suggest
that she was beaten at the time of her arrest and
subsequently taken to Gurtsa Detention centre. According to
China's laws, "abuse", "corporal punishment" and
"maltreatment" of "offenders" are "strictly forbidden".
4.2.b. Violations of Chinese law and international human
rights law
THE ill-treatment meted out to young detainees in Tibet
violates international human rights treaties which China is
legally bound to observe. The People's Republic of China
signed the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child on
August 29, 1990 and ratified it on March 2, 1992. Article
37(b) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states
that:
"No child shall be deprived of his/her liberty unlawfully or
arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a
child shall be in conformity with the law and shall be used
only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest
appropriate period of time"
Article 37(a) also states that:
"No child shall be subjected to torture, or other inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. Neither Capital
punishment nor life imprisonment without possibility of
release shall be imposed for offenses committed by persons
below 18 years of age".
On the Face of it, Chinese law also seeks to protect the
physical and mental safety of minors. The Constitution of
the People's Republic of China [1982], in Article 49 states
that Children need special protection and should never be
maltreated. The Law on the Protection of Minors, Article 52
also states that:
"Agents of the legal administration who infringe the
regulations of surveillance in custody, who commit corporal
punishment and ill-treatment against juveniles, shall bear
criminal responsibility in accordance with Article 189 of
the Criminal Law". There are also other legal protections in
Chinese law that exist to protect the interests of minors.
As reported above, the treatment of young female prisoners
violates both the international obigations that the Chinese
Government has agreed to observe by ratifying the relevant
international conventions and also its own law that it has
created to protect minors, especially young female
prisoners.
4.3 Violence against Tibetan women: Torture and sexual
abuse of women activists and those in custody
TIBETAN women are being sexually assaulted in an organized
and systematic way by the Chinese authorities. Reports and
allegations of physical assault, sexual abuse and harassment
in Chinese prisons in Tibet filter across the Himalayas. The
Chinese authorities have themselves acknowledged the use of
torture in obtaining confessions. This torture and sexual
abuse have led thousands of women to flee Tibet. However it
is extremely difficult to assess the full extent of sexual
abuse and violence against women in Tibet. The humiliation
and social stigma discourage many women from reporting such
abuses.
A report issued jointly by LawAsia and TIN in March 1991
stated that:
"Written and oral accounts by nuns of their experiences in
prison, particularly in Gurtsa, are strikingly consistent
and indicate that nuns have been singled out for special
treatment. Torture apparently reserved for nuns include the
use of dogs to bite prisoners; lighted cigarettes being
applied to the torso and face, and the use of electric
batons in the genitals".
The People's Republic of China has ratified the Convention
against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment. The Criminal Law of the PRC also
stipulates that "it is strictly forbidden to extort
confession by torture" (Article 136). The Criminal Procedure
Law repeats the prohibition of "extortion of confessions by
torture" or by other "unlawful means". The Regulations on
Detention Centers which came into force in March 1990
provide that "beating and verbal abuse, corporal punishment"
and "maltreatment" of "offenders" are "strictly forbidden".
The following are details of specific instances where
Tibetan women have been tortured and have lived to tell
their stories.
Dawa Langzom, a nun, was arrested in 1989 in Lhasa, after
shouting independence slogans during a demonstration. On the
police jeep, which took her to Gurtsa Detention Centre, the
arresting officers cut off one of her nipples with a pair of
scissors, according to nuns who have now fled Tibet.
Ngawang Kyizom was arrested for shouting slogans like "Long
live the Dalai Lama" and "Free Tibet" at the entrance of the
Jokhang (the main cathedral in Lhasa). For this outburst, in
September 1990, Chinese secret police kicked and beat her,
jabbed her with an electric cattle prod on her tongue,
breasts and thighs and then jailed her for three years
without a proper trial.
Another Tibetan woman, the twenty-six-year old Sonam Dolkar,
was arrested in July 1990 on suspicion of her involvement in
independence activities. Although she denied any political
connections, she was interrogated under torture every other
day for six months. She endured a fearsome range of torture
techniques. She was stripped naked, slapped and punched. She
was wrapped in electric wires and given electric shocks
until she fainted. She was prodded with electric batons all
over her body and on the face. Electric batons were also
pushed into her genitals. She was restrained in handcuffs
and leg-irons throughout her ordeal and held in solitary
confinement on the days she was not tortured. By early 1991
she was vomiting and urinating blood every day and was in
such a condition that a doctor was finally called to see
her. She was eventually transferred to a police hospital
from where she managed to escape. She left the country
clandestinely during the second half of 1991.
Damchoe Pemo, a Lhasa businesswoman in her mid-twenties, was
arrested in Lhasa on May 20, 1993. According to unofficial
reports, she miscarried her baby a week after police forced
her to remain standing for at least twelve hours and beat
her with electric batons. At the time of arrest, she was
reportedly four or five months into pregnancy. According to
one source, she was tortured for refusing to reveal the
names of Tibetan underground activists. She was apparently
arrested on suspicion of being a member of an independence
organization. Her release was officially announced on
October 29, 1994 to European ambassadors during a meeting in
Beijing.
4.4. Death in custody
ACCORDING to reports received, since 1991 five Tibetan women
have died in custody or shortly after being released. These
women are no doubt the victims of mistreatment and abuse in
custody.
Most recently a nun political prisoner, Gyaltsen Kelsang,
died, apparently as a result of maltreatment and poor living
conditions in custody. She was the tenth known political
prisoner since 1987 to die shortly after leaving prison, and
the fourth woman to die in four years. At least two other
prisoners have been hospitalized in serious conditions in
the last five months. In October 1994 European diplomats
visiting Lhasa raised the case of Gyaltsen Kelsang and
fourteen other Garu nuns with the Vice-chairman of the Tibet
Autonomous Region. The Vice-chairman told the diplomats that
the nuns had been convicted of "separatist activities". The
diplomats appeal for clemency and further information about
the nuns' condition remains unfulfilled.
In its May 1995 report Amnesty International said:
"In the recent past, three young Tibetan women have died
shortly after release from prison, and that the Chinese
Government's accounts of the reasons for, and circumstances
of, their death are inadequate and did not respond to
allegations of ill-treatment".
An eighteen-year-old girl, Sherap Wangmo, died as a result
of severe torture which she received whilst in Drapchi
prison. She was imprisoned for three years for taking part
in an independence demonstration.
A fifteen-year-old girl, Sherap Ngawang, also died in 1995
whilst serving a prison sentence for shouting independence
slogans. The Tibet Information Network (TIN) reported on 30
May 1995 that:
"A Tibetan nun believed to have been the youngest political
prisoner in Tibet died two weeks ago just after release from
prison, apparently as a result of being beaten for pulling a
face at prison guards, or through lack of medical treatment,
according to unofficial reports from Tibet... Sherab
Ngawang, thought to have been 15 years old when she died,
was released from detention in February 1995 after
completing a three year sentence for joining a
pro-independence demonstration in 1992. Five women were
involved in that protest, and Sherab's death means that two
of those five women have now died either in custody or just
after being released".
On June 4, 1994 Phuntsog Yangki, a twenty-year-old Tibetan
nun and prisoner of conscience serving her sentence in
Drapchi prison, died in a police hospital in Lhasa. She was
serving a five-year prison sentence for taking part in a
brief independence demonstration in February 1992. According
to unofficial reports, she was beaten by prison guards after
she and other nuns sang nationalist songs on February 11,
1994.
FIVE. Birth-control policy in Tibet: Physical violation of
Tibetan women
THE Chinese government, by implementing its birth control
policy in Tibet, continues to violate Tibetan women's
reproductive choices.
Tibetans are devout Buddhists who hold reverence for all
life forms and specially so for human life which is believed
to be very precious. This is because of their belief that to
be born a human being is to get a chance to attain
enlightenment. To practice abortion is to deprive a human
being of that opportunity and to submit to sterilization is
to prevent a person who deserves to be born from being so
born. Therefore, the act of performing abortions and
sterilizations is considered sinful and it is particularly
offensive to Tibetan women, since the killing of a sentient
being is a sin. So, the forced implementation of
birth-control and abortion not only deprives Tibetan women
of their reproductive rights but this policy is a serious
infringement of their religious rights as well.
In 1984 China announced a new policy, restricting the number
of children per family to two. Orders were issued for the
imposition of fines (ranging from 1,500 to 3,000 yuan or US
$ 400 to 800) for the birth of a third child. Extra children
were denied ration cards, and workers violating the rule had
their pay cut to the extent of fifty percent, or withheld
altogether for three to six months in some cases.
According to the Civil Affairs Department of Shigatse, in
July 1990 a team from Shigatse Child and Maternity Hospital
visited a remote and poor area of Bhuchung district to carry
out examinations. It was found that 387 women in this
sparesly populated rural area had been sterilized. The team
had gone to ten districts to propagate family planning,
resulting in the sterilization of 1,092 women out of 2,419.
Birth-control policy is forced more repressively on the
poluation of Kham and Amdo. For example, in "Gansu Parig
Tibetan Autonomous County" 2,415 women were sterilized in
1983 of whom eighty two percent were Tibetans. In 1987, 764
women of child bearing age were sterilized in Zachu district
in "Karze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture": 660 were Tibetans.
Mobile birth-control teams comb the countryside and pastoral
areas where they round up women for abortion and
sterilization. Even women well advanced in their pregnancy
are forced to undergo abortion, followed by sterilization.
On November 5, 1987, the "TAR' Family Planning Department
head, Tsering Dolkar, stated at a meeting:
"There are 104,024 women of child-bearing age, of whom
76,220 are married. Of them, 22,634 have already undergone
birth-control operations, constituting thirty percent of
women of child-bearing age in the TAR. In 1985, after the
science of family planning was announced in the countryside
and pastoral areas, there has been a perceptible change in
the mental outlook and birth rates in these areas. In 1986,
nineteen percent of women in Nyingtri, Lhokha and Shigatse
were sterilized."
Tibetan women, like women all over the world, should have
the inalienable right to control their bodies. Their right
to privacy should be protected. Although China officially
claims that its one-child birth control policy does not
apply to "China's Minorities", evidence shows that the
policy implemented China is applied in Tibet as well. Young
women with one or no children are routinely sterilized.
Vasectomies are forced on Tibetan men. No women under twenty
two years of age are allowed to have children. Thereafter,
they can have a child only with a birth permit from the
authorities. Then there are various subtle birth-control
policies such as restrictions on who may give birth, at what
age and where, and fines of up to 2,000 yuan (U.S.$ 400) for
"illegal" children, and incentives for one-child families,
etc.
According to Pema, a Tibetan doctor who worked in a Chinese
hospital in Amdo (Northeastern Tibet) prior to her recent
escape to India, Chinese birth-control teams operate in
hospitals, villages and nomadic areas.
She states: "The teams have a monetary incentive to do
abortions and sterilizations on as many women as possible.
"The more names the Chinese doctors collect the more money
they get from their government as well as from the unwilling
victims."
According to Mrs. Lhankar, a 37-year-old Tibetan woman born
in eastern Tibet:
"The Chinese policy is one child per family and we have to
pay heavy fines for each extra child. In a sense we are
paying a `human tax'. In 1988 the Chinese took me by force
and sterilized me. Since I had had more children than was
officially allowed, my children were designated as illegal
and deprived of all rights of citizenship as dictated by
Chinese ideology. We were no longer eligible for ration
cards, resident registration or travel permits. In reality,
my children became non-entities.
"Along with me, nearly thirty other women were sterilized at
the same time. I can say that seventy percent of the women,
aged eighteen and above, in my village have been sterilized.
They (the Chinese) treat us like animals and use crude
methods. My sister-in-law was aborted before her husband's
eyes. She was four months into pregnancy when they took her
to the clinic by force. They bound her hands and legs. A
doctor, wearing gloves, put his hand into her vagina and
seemed to squeeze the foetus. She became delirious and bled
profusely. Many other pregnant women, some at seven months,
were given injections in the stomach. The women wailed in
agony and delivered dead foetuses. While operating, medical
staff often made incisions without anaesthesia and with
little consideration for the pain that was being inflicted.
I have witnessed these terrible things with my own eyes"
According to another source from Amdo, in Huangnan (Tibetan:
Malho) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a Chinese government
announcement at a public meeting stated that
birth-prevention operations should be carried out to such an
extent that two families would become one. In Awar village
of the Henan Mongol Autonomous County (an area of Tibetans
with Mongolian ancestry), the family of Dhondup, in 1992,
was imposed a fine of 3,000 Yuan for exceeding the official
limit on birth; and as he did not have such a hugh sum of
money, the family's grain stock and other properties were
confiscated. In the same village, the family of Dolma was
fined 1,500 yuan for exceeding the official limit on birth.
The source stated that there had been many other such cases.
Another report of forced birth-control implementation comes
from Nagchu, northern Tibet. According to a source, a new
"child care" hospital had been set up in Nagchu town by the
Chinese authorities. It had some Tibetan medical personnel
from Nagchu, too. With its establishment, the situation had
become a nightmare to pregnant Tibetan women. Women becoming
pregnant without the official permit would have their
foetuses killed. This was done by inserting a small electric
device into the womb, through the vagina. The electric
device minced up the foetus. Following this, the woman was
made to take a pill and the foetus taken out in bits and
pieces. The Chinese authorities do not talk publicly about
this method of foetus-killing, the source said. Such a crude
method of pre-natal termination of pregnancy had been
reported earlier from the northwestern Tibetan area of
Qinghai too.
SIX. Increasing poverty and its consequence on Tibetan women
YEAR after year, the Chinese Government claims great
economic advancement in Tibet: bumper crops, industrial
growth, improvement of infrastructure and so forth. These
claims were made even in 1961-1964 and 1968-1973, when Tibet
was suffering its only famines in history.
6.1 An overview of the political-economic situation in
Tibet
THE pattern of development in Tibet is intended to control
the Tibetan economy rather than stimulate initiative
enterprises and production. In the past four decades, there
has been some economic progress in Tibet in certain areas
like transportation, tele-communications, electricity, etc.
However, these developments have tended only to support the
Chinese population in Tibet. For instance, the beneficiaries
of the World Food Programme's Agricultural Project Number
3357 in the Lhasa valley are the Chinese settlers, although
it is meant for Tibetan villagers. Similarly, industrial
development in Tibet has been in the field of mining for the
exploitation of Tibet's natural resources for the benefit of
China, while Tibet has to import all its needs for
manufactured goods from China.
The late Panchen Lama, in his last speech in 1989, remarked,
"The price Tibet paid for this development was higher than
the gains". This speech was reported in China Daily, by its
staff reporter Guo Zhongshi.
There is increasing evidence to suggest that the economic
rewards of China's development policies in Tibet are not
distributed equitably amongst the population of Tibet, and
that in fact the main beneficiaries are Chinese settlers.
Tibet's utilitarian role in China's economic progress is
explicitly spelled out in the eighth Five Year Plan
(1991-1995). The difference in the standard of living
between China and Tibet is striking: whilst China has a
rating of 94 in UNDP's HD index in 1994, the rating for
Tibet is 131.
Whilst Tibet remains under foreign occupation, Tibetans, the
custodians of Tibet for millennia, have no control over the
development which is taking place in their country. As a
people under foreign occupation, Tibetan women are deprived
of the opportunity to voice their opinions as to whether the
development program being implemented in Tibet is necessary
or desirable. An examination of current development projects
and policies in Tibet reveals that the largest proportion of
investment activity is focused on large scale industrial and
infrastructural projects and the exploitation of natural
resources, and strengthening of China's control in Tibet.
The Chinese frequently emphasize Tibetan people's
"backwardness" as a factor inhibiting Tibet's economic
progress. This overtly colonialist attitude is used to
justify the importation from China of Chinese "specialists"
and "technicians" to work on and administer development
initiatives in Tibet.
In December 1994 Tibetan delegates to the Chinese People's
Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body to the
Government and Party, charged that in spite of the glowing
reports of economic improvements in Tibet, Tibetans in some
areas are now weak with hunger, and poverty is increasing.
They also stated that rampant inflation, widespread
corruption, poor education and high illiteracy are plaguing
Tibet. In Sog County, Nagchu, located in the northern rim of
the Tibet Autonomous Region, 4,446 people are said to be in
a state of severe hunger and forty percent of the population
lives below the poverty line. The documents written by these
delegates provide some of the most stinging criticisms and
details of social and economic policies in Tibet and are
evidence of divisions and bitterness amongst a core of
people who were thought to be loyal and supportive of the
government.
The following is a direct translation of excerpts from some
of these documents:
"Inflation, poverty, and starvation
"On May 13, 1994 deputies from Nyangchi, Ngari, Shigatse,
Lhoka and Nagchu prefectures held a meeting in which they
complained that due to rampant inflation, a great many of
farmers and nomads, including residents of cities and
suburban areas are having an extremely hard time. Households
under the poverty line are increasing significantly, they
complained.
"Tulku Ngawang Jigdrol, vice-chairman of the local Chinese
People's Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) in Sog
county, and Athar, vice-chairman of CPPCC in Nagchu
prefecture, reported to the meeting that in the three
eastern counties of Nagchu area (Sog, Biru, Bhachen),
poverty is so devastating that households falling under the
poverty line are increasing significantly. In the last two
years snowstorms and hail have already reduced the
production to fifty percent and this year's rampant
inflation on food-grain put most of the farmers and nomads
in almost unbearable difficulties."
The general economic impact of the Chinese settlers on
Tibetans may be gauged from the following example: Of the
12,827 shops and restaurants in Lhasa city (excluding the
ones in the Barkhor area) only 300 are owned by Tibetans. In
Tsawa Pasho, southern Kham, Chinese own 133 business
enterprises whereas Tibetans own only 15. The ownership
ratio is similar in other Tibetan towns: 748 to 92 in
Chamdo, 229 to 3 in Powo Tramo. The situation is far worse
in the urban centres of Amdo, where, according to one
British journalist, Tibetans are reduced to "tourist
curios".
6.2 Poverty and women
THE Fourth World Conference on Women will be placing the
feminization of poverty high on its agenda. The conference,
whilst discussing these problems, should also take into
account the feminization of poverty from the perspective of
women in occupied countries who are being discriminated
against on the basis of both their sex and race.
Tibetan women experience poverty different from that of
their male counterparts. Tibetan women need social support
systems for health, family planning and education. Abject
poverty exposes Tibetan women to extreme hardship in gaining
employment and educational opportunities. As household
members, women find it difficult to obtain even the most
basic amenities for sustaining their families. So much so
that the third Tibetan official fact-finding mission from
Dharamsala was told by a woman in Tibet that she had to feed
her baby with the soup made of her own blood.
As long as China controls Tibetan economy to serve the
interest of the Chinese, Tibetan women will not be able to
participate in in economic decision-making processes that
affect their future lives. They will continue to be
hamstrung by the lack of access to education, health
services, employment and participation in development
projects.
6.2.a. Tibetan women and education
EDUCATION in Tibet today is neither free nor universally
available. Overwhelming numbers of Tibetan girls still do
not go to school either because there are no schools or,
where they are available, parents cannot afford the fees.
6.2.b. Education before the Chinese invasion IN independent
Tibet there were over 6,259 monasteries and nunneries which
served as schools and universities, fulfilling Tibet's
unique education needs. Drepung monastery in Lhasa alone had
at any given time over 10,000 students coming mostly from
the peasantry. In addition there was a sizable network of
private and government schools all over Tibet.
6.2.b.i. Education in Tibet today
OF the over six thousand traditional institutes of learning,
only thirteen survived the Chinese destruction. An
overwhelming number of them are still heaps of rubble and
their rebuilding or renovation is strictly under Chinese
censorship. Similarly, almost all the learned scholars and
teachers, the human repositories of Tibet's rich religious
philosophical, intellectual and literary heritage, were
persecuted. Most of them were executed or died under various
forms of torture or incarceration.
Education policies inside Tibet today serve to favour
Chinese as the medium for teaching. The cost of education is
high and many places are reserved for Chinese settlers as a
part of the incentive package to encourage more Chinese to
move into Tibet. Tibetan women and girls are, therefore,
escaping Tibet everyday to seek an adequate education in
India, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
According to UNICEF, illiteracy rate is seventy three
percent in Tibet as against thirty one percent in China.
Amnesty International in a recently published report stated
that:
"Only sixty percent of school age children attend schools in
the TAR, according to Chinese Press reports". Members of
the Tibetan Government-in-Exile's third fact-finding
delegation (on education) to Tibet were told by the Chinese
Government that there were 2,511 schools in Tibet. However,
Mrs Jetsun Pema, leader of the delegation says:
"Wherever we went it was extremely difficult to arrange a
visit to a school. "The school is closed for summer
vacation, the headmaster is away, the children have gone for
lunch" (at 10:am), were some of the excuses. After one such
excuse the delegation looked into the classrooms and found
them stacked from floor to ceiling with timber. Another
time, on being shown a rural tent classroom, the delegates
lifted the groundsheet and found the grass still green
underneath".
While the Chinese in Tibet study English right from the
Primary school stage, Tibetans are taught this language only
when they reach the third year at Upper Middle School level.
John Billington, Director of studies at Repton School in
England, travelled extensively through Tibet in 1988 and
reported the following :
"In rural areas especially, a large number of children can
be seen working in the fields cutting grass, herding sheep,
collecting yak dung and working at stalls. Enquiry reveals
that they do not go to school, in most cases because no
schools exist. It was sad to hear older people say that
there had been schools in the past attached to a monastery,
but that when the monasteries were destroyed the little
rural schools have not been replaced. Well off the beaten
track, I met elderly nomads who could read and write; it was
too often a brutal reminder of Chinese neglect that their
grandchildren could not".
There have been several demonstrations staged by the
students in Tibet in recent years to protest against the
high costs of education, discrimination against Tibetan
students and Tibetan studies, poor educational facilities
and the lack of basic sanitation in the existing schools.
The medium of teaching from Middle School level upwards is
Chinese even in an area where the Chinese Government claims
by its 1990 census that 95.46 percent of the population is
Tibetan.
The first Australian Human Rights Delegation to China in
July 1991 stated in its report:
"Though the delegation noted an official determination to
raise educational standards for Tibetans, many Tibetan
children appear to still go without formal education.
Tibetan children in Lhasa area seemingly have access to a
very limited syllabus at both primary and secondary levels.
Some testified to never having been at school, or having to
leave for economic reasons as early as ten years old".
In a petition, dated February 20, 1986, submitted to the
Chinese authorities, Tashi Tsering, an English teacher at
Lhasa's Tibet University, stated:
"In 1979, 600 students from the Tibet Autonomous Region were
pursuing university education in Tibet and China. Of them,
only 60 were Tibetans. In 1984 Tibet's three big schools had
1,984 students on their rolls, out of which only 666 were
Tibetans. In the same year 250 students from Tibet may have
been sent to universities in the Mainland. But only 60 to 70
of them were Tibetans... Most of the government outlay meant
for Tibetan education is used on Chinese students. Even
today, 70 per cent of Tibetans are illiterate.
"Out of 28 classes in Lhasa's Middle School No. 1, 12 are
for Tibetans.... Out of 1,451 students, 933 are Tibetans and
518 Chinese. Not only are the Chinese students not learning
Tibetan, 387 of the Tibetan students are not learning
Tibetan either. Only 546 Tibetans are learning their
language. Of the 111 teachers, only 30 are Tibetans and
seven teach Tibetan. I have heard that the best qualified
teachers are assigned to teach the Chinese classes whereas
unqualified teachers teach the Tibetan classes.
"In Lhasa's Tibet University, there are 413 Tibetan students
and 258 Chinese. 251 Tibetans are in the Tibetan language
and Literature stream and 27 in the Tibetan Medical Studies
Stream. Only 135 Tibetan students get to study modern
subjects... The Tibetan departments are generally known as
the 'Departments of Political Manipulation'. This is
because, while the authorities have fixed 60 percent of
seats for Tibetan students and 40 per cent for Chinese
students, most of the Tibetan students are absorbed into
these two Tibetan departments, leaving the majority of the
seats in modern education streams to the Chinese.... The
English Department of this University has two Tibetan
students and fourteen Chinese".
Tibetan women are denied their basic cultural rights to
learn and speak their own language. On the Tibetan new year
day of 1993, women prisoners in Lhasa's Drapchi prison were
not allowed to wear the traditional Tibetan dress. When the
prisoners complained about this, they were subjected to
brutal beatings.
>From 1966 onwards complete sinicization became the
watchword. The Tibetan language was labelled as the language
of religion and the teaching of the Tibetan language was
forbidden. Some time in the 1960s monk and nun teachers as
well as qualified lay Tibetan teachers were nearly all
ordered to leave their teaching jobs. "Fluency in the
Chinese language has become a prerequisite for obtaining
employment, even for unskilled positions. This provides
little incentive for young Tibetans to become proficient in
their own language. In fact, opportunities to learn Tibetan
are limited, as entrance examinations to upper level schools
are conducted in the Chinese language.
Every year a certain number of university seats in Tibet and
China are officially reserved for "Tibetan" students and
this financial allocation forms part of the budget for
Tibetan education. However, the majority of these seats go
to Chinese students due only to the fact that they have
finished school in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), or
owing to their Tibet residency registration. Thus the real
beneficiaries of educational opportunities are the Tibet-
resident Chinese. Even scholarships to study abroad, meant
for Tibetan students, go to Chinese residents in Tibet
because they are deemed Tibetan due to their residential
status. Since the early 1980s well over 6,000 children have
risked everything to journey across the Himalayas to India
in the hope that they may receive in exile what they have
been denied back home: education. Many children escaping
across the Himalayas have been unaccompanied minors. The
UNHCR office in Kathmandu registered thirty such minors in
the first two months of 1995 alone. These children are
lucky; many such minors have been reported missing along
the escape route. During their arduous journey many children
have suffered frostbite; others have been drowned while
trying to negotiate dangerous rivers along the escape route.
Some children have succeeded in their escape only after
several failed attempts.
In order to reverse the tide of escaping Tibetan youngsters,
the Chinese authorities in Lhasa issued orders in August
1994 to Tibetan government officials and employees
instructing them to recall their children to Tibet. Warnings
were issued that those who failed to obey the order would be
demoted or possibly expelled from their jobs, that their
promotions and pay increments would be withheld, and cadres
would be expelled from the party. The ban is not restricted
to cadres and government employees alone, the order also
stated that students presently being educated in India would
lose their right to a residence permit if they did not
return to Tibet within the stipulated time.
The Women's desk of the Department of Information and
International Relations recently interviewed women who have
just escaped from Tibet. All those interviewed cited the
absence of educational opportunities and freedom as
thereason for their escape.
6.2.c. Tibetan women and health
TIBETAN women, like women in many other countries, suffer
from low levels of health care as a result of economic,
social and political factors such as foreign occupation. In
occupied Tibet, the health service is not only urban-biased,
but also serves the Chinese colonists and the rich better
than the predominantly poor Tibetans. Only ten percent of
financial outlay for health goes to rural areas: ninety
percent goes to urban centers where Chinese settlers are
concentrated and where most hospitals are located. Even when
available, medical facilities are prohibitively expensive
for most Tibetans.
Admission to a hospital as an in-patient requires a deposit
from 300 to 500 yuan (U.S.$ 80 to 133), an impossible fee
for a population whose average per capita income is 200
yuan. Likewise, surgery and blood transfusions are reserved
only for those who can pay. The average Tibetan is
economically disadvantaged against Chinese who receive
"hardship posting" subsidies.
A swedish delegation to Tibet reported in 1994 that:
"There were only 10,000 trained doctors in the whole of
Tibet and there was a considerable shortage of staff in the
rural areas and small communities. The number of doctors was
just over two per thousand inhabitants."
That mortality rate for Tibetans is much higher than Chinese
is a pointer to the poor health service and the low
standards of public hygiene in Tibet. In 1981 crude death
rates per thousand were 7.48 in the Tibet Autonomous Region
and 9.92 in Amdo, as against an average of 6.6 in China,
according to the report of the World Bank in 1984 and the
UNDP in 1991. Child mortality rates are also high: 150 per
thousand in Tibet against forty three for China. The
tuberculosis morbidity rate, according to the World Bank, is
120.2 per 1,000 in Tibet Autonomous Region and 647 per 1,000
in Amdo.
6.2.c.i. Pregnancy and medical abuse:
THERE have been numerous reports of Chinese doctors and
health personnel using Tibetan patients as guinea pigs to
practice their skills. It is commonplace that Chinese
medical graduates sent to Tibet for internship are given
independent charge of Tibetan patients whom they are free to
treat in any way they wish. There are widespread allegations
of common Tibetan patients being subjected to examination
for diseases other than those they complained of.
Especially, operations are being carried out without any
obvious or actual need.
In August 1978, Kalsang (from eastern Tibet) and his wife
Youdon took their 21-year old daughter, who was three months
pregnant, to the "TAR Hospital No.2" (then known as Worker's
Hospital)&for an examination. The Chinese doctor carried out
an apparently unnecessary operation on her. She died two
hours later, crying in great physical agony.
Again, around the same period, when a worker named Migmar of
the Lhasa Electric Power Station took his 25-year old wife
to Lhasa City Hospital for delivery, both the mother and
child died after a failed attempt at a caesarian delivery.
When the mother's body was dismembered at her "sky burial"
(an ancient Tibetan practice of feeding the dismembered
parts of the deceased to vultures) a pair of scissors were
discovered in her body.
Sometime in August 1994, Pasang, 23, went to the People's
Hospital in Lhasa to give birth. A doctor reportedly told
Pasang's mother that because the expectant mother was too
weak and the child too big, delivery was impossible without
operating. After about three hours the doctor announced to
the mother that Pasang died due to hypertension. While
preparing for sky burial, the family instructed the 'tobden'
(men who dispose bodies) to find out the cause of death. The
'tobden' reported to the family that the heart, liver and
womb of the deceased were quite clearly missing. On hearing
this, Pasang's family reportedly took the matter to court.
To date there is no report of the judicial fate of this
case.
6.2.c.ii. Medical neglect in Chinese prisons
MANY former Tibetan women political prisoners have reported
suffering injuries due to beatings and illness from the
generally poor conditions in prison. Injuries sustained
include broken ribs, partial deafness, broken arms, chronic
headaches and nausea. When women are sexually violated with
electric cattle prods, the consequences for women can be
severe both in the short and long term. A report jointly
issued by LawAsia and TIN in 1991, stated that: "reports
consistently suggest that medical care in the prisons is
inadequate, limited to very basic first aid for what are
sometimes serious injuries or illnesses. "When a doctor was
allowed to visit", said a forty-two-year old man who spent
nine months at Gurtsa in 1988, "one or two tablets were
given. They said we were reactionaries, that we were enemies
of the people and deserved no treatment".
6.2.c.iii. Threats to women's health due to
life-threatening toxic materials, environmental hazards
DURING the 1960s and 1970s, nuclear waste from the "Ninth
Academy", China's primary nuclear weapons research and
design facility site on the Tibetan Plateau in Haibei
Province, was disposed of in a haphazard and unregulated
way, posing enormous danger to those who lived nearby.
Reports from areas of Amdo describe the mysterious pollution
of land and water and widespread human and animal deaths. In
Jampakok and Kharkok, over fifty Tibetans have died
inexplicably since 1987 after being affected by severe
fever, vomiting and dysentery. Significantly large numbers
of deformed births are also reported from areas around
Qinghai in Amdo and Nagchu in U-Tsang.
Nuclear dumping poses a serious threat to human life and
ecological environment. Child-bearing women and children are
specially susceptible. The effects of nuclear dumping range
from mild sickness to death and deformity at birth. At the
time, when the international community is making all efforts
in creating and maintaining a clean environment, China is
conveniently dumping its nuclear wastes in Tibet without the
least care for its ill effects on life and environment in
Tibet.
A high proportion of Tibetan villagers living near the mine
in Ngaba Prefecture have reportedly died after drinking
water polluted by waste by the uranium mines, according to
information gathered by the London-based Tibet Information
Network. In the past three years at least thirty five of the
approximately 500 people in the village have died within a
few hours of developing fever, followed by a distinctive
form of diarrhea; six victims died within three days of each
other. There have reportedly not been such deaths in the
villages located farther away from the mines, a villager
said.
The most likely sites for such dumps are in the northern
plateau of Chang Thang, where large areas have been closed
off by the Chinese army, and near Nyakchuka where China has
set up a nuclear test facility. The method of storage is not
known, although surface storage is suspected since China has
no proper underground storage facility.
6.2.d. Tibetan women and unemployment
THE increased economic activity in Tibet has not
substantially increased employment opportunities for
Tibetans. To the contrary, Chinese workers are encouraged,
via a system of incentives such as attractive subsidies,
relaxation of the one-child policy, and higher wages to come
to Tibet to work on development projects. These workers are
comprised not only of technicians and specialized personnel,
but include unskilled laborers. As a consequence,
unemployment is becoming endemic amongst Tibetans,
especially for Tibetan women who face double discrimination.
Refugee women
Tibetan Women in exile
IT has been estimated by the United Nations that there are
currently 123 million refugees in the world. More than
eighty percent of refugees are women and children. Amnesty
International, in a recently published report on the world's
women, stated that: "There is no doubt that refugee women,
particularly those on their own, are more vulnerable to
exploitation and deprivation of rights, at every stage of
flight, than are refugee men, according to Anne
Howarth-Wiles, UNHCR Senior Co-ordinator for refugee women".
There are 130,000 Tibetan refugees residing in over thirty
countries outside Tibet. During the year 1989-1993, about
10,626 refugees escaped from Tibet. The 1992 survey,
conducted by the Planning Council of the Tibetan
Government-in-Exile, Dharamsala, shows that the male/female
ratio among the Tibetan exile population in India is roughly
51:49. This composition of the Tibetan population also
reveals the socio-cultural status of our women.
The Tibetan refugee community in India and Nepal has done so
well that it is not only able to look after itself, but also
provide educational opportunities to thousands of new
refugees from Tibet to whom the Chinese government has not
been able to give any educational opportunity. The success
of the refugee community suggests that Tibetans in Tibet
could do much better for themselves if they had the freedom
to live their lives they deem fit. In 1995, the United
Nations' Friends have recognized the Tibetan refugees as one
of the fifty exemplary communities.
ONE. Women refugees in flight: A perilous journey
THE plight of Tibetan women escaping from Tibet and their
vulnerability to exploitation and violence has been
documented by various independent sources. Some of these
Tibetan women are fleeing Tibet with "a well-founded fear"
of political persecution, others are escaping poverty and
seeking better social and economic opportunities outside
Tibet.
Since the occupation of Tibet by Chinese military forces,
thousands of Tibetans have escaped from Tibet and continue
to do so each year by travelling over high mountains, high
passes and dangerous terrains. For these Tibetans, the
journey to freedom is a perilous one and often ends in the
loss of lives on the way. Women and children suffer the most
during these difficult journeys. Besides the fear of being
caught by Chinese military personnel, there is a fear for
life and property. Often half way through the journey, the
tired travellers find themselves short of food and have to
go on for days without food. The most common complaint of
all those who escape by road is frostbites. In many cases,
frostbites have resulted in amputation of hands and legs
thus causing scars for life. These experiences have proved
very traumatic for women and children who are innocent
victims of circumstances.
TWO. Economic displacement and women in exile
2.1 Employment
THE population of thirty eight Tibetan settlements in exile
is 56,084 (29,686 males and 26,686 females). This represents
eighty one percent of the total population in the
settlements.
The unemployment (defined as not having any gainful work for
over six months in a year) rate among the settlement
population between the ages of sixteen and fifty is 18.5
percent. This figure, although high, corresponds to the fact
that only 79.7 percent of the adult population is engaged in
primary employment.
In the scattered communities, unemployment rate of 1.3
percent was recorded. This figure is clearly too low;
however, it is to be expected that the unemployment rate
would be less in scattered communities than in the
settlements because many live in scattered communities
because of better job opportunities there.
2.1.a. Primary employment
AMONG the exile population, 52.4 percent is engaged in
primary employment, defined as being engaged in gainful work
for more than six months of the year. Data on primary
employment covering 29,368 working persons (15,524 males and
13,844 females) indicates that the ratio of the work force
is 52.9 percent male and 47.1 percent female.
In exile, agriculture continues to be the primary occupation
for a little less than half of the working population. This
is expected as life in many settlements is organized around
land cultivation. Other settlements have handicraft
production as their focus, which explains the high
percentage of the working population employed in carpet
weaving. Carpet weaving is important as an occupation for
women in particular. It is striking that the participation
of women in the work force in the Tibetan refugee community
is almost as high as that of men: 51.8 percent of the female
population is employed as against 52.8 percent of the male
population.
2.1.b Secondary employment
Data on secondary employment, covering 12,041 working
persons (6352 males and 5689 females), indicate the profile
of secondary occupations. Once again, female participation
rate in secondary employment is almost as high as that for
males. Among secondary occupations, agriculture is also the
largest activity. This is partly because the lack of
irrigation facilities confines agriculture to single crop
cultivation.
Sweater-selling in autumn and winter seasons is the next
largest activity _ just under a third of all women
participate in it. This is a statistical corroboration of a
well-known fact of life in the settlements.
2.1.c Affirmative action in exile
THE Tibetan Government-in-Exile has ensured the high
participation rate of female workers in the government by
ensuring that their rights are protected, and by adopting an
affirmative action policy aimed at increasing the number of
female government workers. At present Tibetan women
constitute one-third of the total employees.
As provided under the Civil Service Code of the Tibetan
Government-in-Exile, Tibetan women employed in the
administrative field receive equal pay for equal work.
The right to leave in connection with birth is laid down in
the Civil Service Code, Clause 28 of Article 6. It states
that a female employee may be granted from one to three
months maternity leave with full pay.
2.2 Education
THE education of Tibetan refugee children is always a major
source of concern for the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. His
Holiness the Dalai Lama started the first school for Tibetan
refugee children at Mussoorie on March 3, 1960. The Council
for Tibetan Education was established to look after
educational needs of refugee children. In May 1960, His
Holiness the Dalai Lama started a nursery for orphaned and
semi-orphaned children in Dharamsala, India. This nursery
was placed under the care of his elder sister, the late Mrs
Tsering Dolma. The following year the Tibetan Homes
Foundation was started in Mussoorie for older orphans.
Traditionally, on account of the existing social set up,
girls in Tibet received fewer educational opportunities than
boys. However, in exile universal education has been an
important priority and has influenced the lives of a great
number of women, opening equal opportunities to them.
Tibetan women have now made unprecedented strides in
assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in
exile.
In the field of religious education too, women are given
equal opportunities to study and obtain the highest degree
if they so wish to. Facilities and opportunities for the
study of religion are being made avaivable by the Department
of Culture and Religion and NGOs like Tibetan Nun's Project.
2.2.a School enrollment ratio
ACCORDING to the 1993-1994 school enrollment data collected
by the Department of Education, there were 22,886 students
in the eighty five Tibetan schools in India, Nepal and
Bhutan. Female students constituted fifty one per cent of
the total number of students.
2.2.b. School graduates
BETWEEN the years 1990 and 1993, a total of 1,642 Tibetan
students completed their school. For every 100 male school
graduates, there were 117 female school graduates. The
choice of subjects however differed between male and female
students. More male students chose commerce and science,
while more female students opted for arts (humanity) and
vocational studies. See Table 1.
School graduates (1990-1993)
Table 1
1990 1991 1992 1993
Subject M F M F M F M F
Arts 93 128 114 166 123 168 116 147
Commerce 13 11 16 13 10 18 34 17
Science 31 14 33 18 65 33 48 37
Vocation 4 12 27 43 10 31 19 30
141 165 190 240 208 250 217 231
Choice of Subject at college level (1994-1993)
Table 1.1
Subject Field Male Female
Arts & Social Sciences 53 44
Education 12 28
Legal & Business 32 15
Science and Technology 38 16
Vocational 2 14
137 117
2.2.c.Further education/technical educationHowever, more men
than women went on to pursue universityeducation. Most
female students tend to enroll in education andvocational
studies. A few of them choose arts and social sciences,
legal and business studies and science and technology. See
Table 1.1 2.2.d. Scholarships for further education During
the four-year period between 1990 and 1993, the Department
of Education of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile alone
provided scholarships to 286 students who left or completed
schooling to pursue further education. 121 (or 42%) of the
total number of scholarship recipients were female.
Education has helped in changing existing gender roles as
Tibetan women are now more educated and informed and are
increasingly becoming more optimistic about their prospects.
The participation rate of women in the public life has
risen; women are now working in government service as civil
servants, welfare workers, and teachers. They work as
doctors, nurses, administrators and artists. Today two of
the biggest educational institutions of the Tibetan
Government-in-Exile are headed by two very capable women who
have shown their strength and capability in various other
capacities too.
2.3 Health
HEALTH care is a basic need for the overall welfare and
development of a community. Recognizing the need for good
health care for the Tibetan refugee community, the Tibetan
Government-in-Exile has taken consistent steps towards
creating curative and preventive health care services. The
earliest rehabilitation projects included some health care
centers which were funded by non-governmental organizations.
When these organizations handed over the administration of
the health centers to the respective settlements, there was
a need to establish an apex body within the Tibetan
Government-in-Exile to finance and manage the health centers
as well as to plan a comprehensive health care system for
the Tibetan refugee community. The Department of Health was
thus established in 1981.
Due to financial constraints, the overall health situation
of the Tibetan refugee community in India and Nepal,
especially for women, is still not satisfactory. This is
mainly due to the stress and tension of refugee life,
economic constraints, poor nutrition, poor hygiene, poor
sanitation, illiteracy among the older generation, the
language barrier, and an overall low level of health
awareness in the community.
According to the Department of Health, the life expectancy
for both men and women is above sixty. Infant mortality
rates for both male and female infants under one year of age
is twenty seven deaths per thousand live births. Child
mortality rates for both boys and girls aged from one to
four years is twenty five deaths per thousand.
According to medical reports, fifty percent of pregnant
women were found to be with haemoglobin level below
11grams/dl. As of September 1994, ninety percent of pregnant
women were fully immunized against tetanus, and other
infections. Sixty percent of births were attended by trained
personnel/midwives in clinics and forty percent of births
were attended by experienced elder women or community health
workers.
Tuberculosis is a major problem. Over 33,000 cases within
the Tibetan refugee community have been reported since 1959.
A concerted effort with international assistance has greatly
improved TB detection and treatment. Other health problems
include dysentery, diarrhoea, hepatitis, skin disorders, and
respiratory diseases resulting from unhygienic conditions,
malnutrition, and the change of environment after the purity
of the Tibetan plateau.
THREE. Power sharing and decision making
HIS Holiness the Dalai Lama has always encouraged women to
participate in the administration at all level.
Today Tibetan women in exile comprise one-third of the
workforce in the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. The status of
Tibetan women was given a further boost in 1988, when a
Tibetan woman was appointed as one of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama's overseas representatives. The ultimate pointer to the
full assertion of the role of women in political office came
in 1990 when a Tibetan woman was elected as a Cabinet
Minister.
A gradual yet distinct increase of women in administrative
service has been observed over the years. It is expected
that by the year 2000, the number of women employees in the
administrative service will equal the number of male
employees. Some of the finest institutions of education set
up for refugee children are being run successfully by women.
Between 1990 and 1994 two women have been elected to the
highest post of Cabinet Ministers.
Although women in the past had received less representation
in the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies, the major
reforms in Article 37 of the Charter for Tibetan in Exile
ensures a minimum of six female parliamentarians in the
current 11th Assembly. With the kind of encouragement and
opportunities that Tibetan women have received from all
sectors of the Tibetan community in exile, it is expected
that women will play a major role in shaping the political
and socio-economic destiny of future independent Tibet.
The Eleventh Assembly (Tibetan parliament in exile) is
composed of 46 members, of whom nine are women. In fact
women candidates from the province of Amdo and U-Tsang
received the maximum votes from their respective
constituencies.
Conclusion
WHILE women all over the world suffer discrimination,
violence and other violations, the struggle they are voicing
is largely one of women's liberation. Tibet's own struggle
embodies another element _ national survival, reversal of
genocide, the fight to return to our own occupied homeland.
Tibetan women are innocent victims of forced military
occupation. Inside Tibet, Tibetan women are discriminated as
minorities, tortured as prisoners of conscience,
involuntarily subjected to the Chinese policy of birth
control, whereby pregnant women are aborted and women of
child-bearing age are sterilized under painful and
unhygienic conditions. Women in Tibet are the silent
spectators of cultural genocide which the Chinese policy of
population transfer is aimed at. Their views and thoughts
could forever be ignored and forgotten with the passage of
time, for these women have lost their right to freedom of
speech and expression.
As refugees, Tibetan women are displaced people who cannot
return home for fear of persecution. Tibetan women refugees
have had to adapt to a new way of life and at the same time
struggle to maintain our culture and identity.
As a peace-loving people committed to "ahimsa"
(non-violence), we Tibetans do not take up arms. Our voices
are our only weapons. We raise our voices in exile for our
sisters suffering in prisons in Tibet, undergoing
forced-abortion and sterilization, discriminated against in
health, education and employment opportunities. But our
voices are not enough. We need international support and
consistent international pressure on China so that Tibet is
not silenced in history.
Recommendations for the Draft Platform for Action
1. Tibetan women have suffered immensely under the Chinese
occupation. Many have been forced to flee their country so
that they can freely practice their culture without fear of
persecution. We urge actions to be taken which take into
consideration the plight of Tibetan women and to adopt
strategies which will eliminate the suffering of all Tibetan
women and restore our basic human dignity.
2. We encourage delegates to pressurize countries such as
China to ensure respect for the right of all women to
control their own fertility and to be protected from unsafe
and involuntary abortions.
3. We recommend that strategies that seek to eliminate all
forms of repression, be they political, religious or
cultural, that exclude women from internationally-accepted
norms of human rights and make women targets of extreme
violence be initiated at the conference on behalf of Tibetan
women.
4. We urge that the Draft Platform for Action take into
consideration the perspectives of Tibetan women when
discussing strategies for increasing the participation of
women in peace-making processes. Without this input the
platform for action is in danger of becoming too narrowly
focused.
5. We encourage the participants to persuade the
international community to document military abuses against
women so as to promote peace in the world.
6. We advocate the creation of social, economic, legal and
political conditions under which women's reproductive rights
are protected, including the right to freely decide the
number and spacing of their children and the eradication and
condemnation of all forms of coercion in reproductive health
laws, policies and practices.
7. We encourage the conference to focus on the rights of
the girl child particularly those rights that protect the
girl child from being arbitrarily arrested, detained and
tortured and that the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child be considered when discussing the rights of the girl
child.