Newsbriefs


Compiled By Tashi Choedon Bidhartsang*

Dalai Lama cites ecological concerns in drive for Tibetan autonomytc "Dalai Lama cites ecological concerns in drive for Tibetan autonomy"

VIENNA, June 10 1998(AFP) - Tibetan spiritual and political leader, the Dalai Lama, who is on a four-day visit to Austria, said on Wednesday that his drive for Tibetan autonomy was also motivated by concern for environmental protection in his homeland, the APA news agency reported.

In a speech at a pro-Tibetan gala in Vienna, the Dalai Lama said human rights were not his only concern in seeking autonomy from China. He said Chinese repression was not just a threat to Tibetan culture and its religion but also to the environment. He said the ecological balance in the region was under threat from over-exploitation by the Chinese of Tibet's natural resources. The Tibetan spiritual leader who arrived Tuesday after visiting Germany for three days, thanked Austrians for their solidarity with the Tibetans.


Chinese brothels in the holy city of Tibet

According to an interview given by a recent arrival from Tibet to Mr. Ngawang Choephel, Voice of America correspondent on 15 May 1998, total number of shops, restaurants and bars is 1592 in Chamdo region. From this total, 1433 (90 percent) belongs to Chinese and only 159 (10 percent) to Tibetans. Lhasa, the capital and holiest city of Tibet now has more than 1,806 Chinese brothels. Mr. Tenzin, deputy secretary, Communist Party of ėTibet Autonomous Region', in his earlier statement said that he would eradicate these brothels in Lhasa, but no action has been taken so far as the Chinese brothel owners have good relation with Chinese officials to carry out their shameful activities.


Destruction of Tibet's forests

31 July, 1997 (HR Update): Tibet is China's largest source of timber with 7.6 million hectares of forests. Forest production accounts for 14 percent of the region's gross domestic product. Tsawa Pashoe, Zogon, Markham, Chamdo, Kongpo, Dromo, Nangchen and Bathang are only some of the mentioned areas in Tibet where major deforestation takes place.

A newly arrived refugee, Jigme Loyang, from Gonjo in Kham, reports that there is a brand new highway in Gonjo to transport logs to China. The road shortens the route for the Chinese and logging trucks are able to travel from Lhasa or Chamdo through Gonjo, Derge, Karze, Serdo and finally China.

Since his village lies on the new highway, he has witnessed between 200-500 trucks full of logs on their way to China each day. He estimates that around 2,000 trucks a day are using this road to transport wood, minerals and other products to and from China.


Earthquakes were fewer but deadlier in 1997

January 1, 1998 (AP) The US Geological Survey reports that there were fewer earthquakes than usual in 1997, but they killed more people. The agency said on Wednesday, it recorded 17 major tremors during the year meaning those with a magnitude of 7.0 or more and thus capable of widespread heavy damage. The annual average major quakes in the year 1996 and 1997 are 21 and 20 respectively.

It said the epicenter of the quake which recorded a preliminary magnitude of 6.5 was about 65 miles southwest of Iwo Jima and was unlikely to have been felt because of the isolated location in the Pacific Ocean. There were no reports of damage.

Despite the decline in tremors, the 1997 death toll was at least 2,913, up from 449 in 1996, according to figures compiled by the Survey's National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo.

The year's deadliest earthquake struck in northern Iran on May 10 with a magnitude of 7.1. It caused at least 1,567 deaths, 2,300 injuries and left 50,000 homeless. In the United States the year's strongest quake had a magnitude of 4.9 and struck the state of Washington in June, causing slight damage at Bremerton and Poulsbo.

Other significant earthquakes for the year occurred near the east coast of Kamchatka, Russia and near the coast of central Chile. The strongest earthquake in the world in 1997 struck in Tibet about 520 miles north-northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal, on Nov. 8.


China says "no" to conditional aid for Tibet

The official China Daily on 19 April 1997 thanked overseas humanitarian organisations for their help in Tibet, but stressed that all foreign aid had to be "unconditional and non-political." The irony behind this is that just a few days earlier, a senior Chinese official had said that material support to Tibet was an essential weapon in the fight against separatism. On 16 April Li Ruihuan, a member of the Permanent Committee of the Politburo, was quoted by state television as saying material aid was crucial to the fight against Tibetan separatism and the Dalai Lama.

Conditional humanitarian aid for Tibet has always been a problem for China. For example, the UN development aid programme, code number 3357, had insisted that the programme employ and benefit Tibetan farmers. But widespread allegations emerged that the programme was being used to attract and benefit Chinese immigrants. Most conditional aid for Tibet requires implementation of programmes to be eco-friendly with their primary beneficiary being the ethnic Tibetan population.

Secretary-general of the Tibet Development Fund (TDF), Mr. Sonam Norbu, is reported to have said, "Since 1987, TDF has maintained close links with dozens of friendly overseas charity organisations including the Swiss Red Cross Society, the Rotary Club of Hong Kong and UNESCO." "Overseas donors are satisfied with TDF's success in implementing projects in disaster relief, culture and education, medical and social welfare," the report has added. The report said the TDF received nearly 38 million yuan (US$4.75 million) last year, compared to 15.6 million yuan (US$1.95 million) in 1995.


Tourism in Tibet

June 1997 (Tibetan Review): With more than 100,000 foreign tourists having visited Tibet over the last seven years, bringing in foreign exchange earnings over US$48 million, and an annual growth rate of 97%, tourism in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) is becoming one of the pillar industries to support the local economy, reported the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. It cited unspecified sources as saying that more than 100 companies and agencies in Tibet deal with tourism-related businesses, with a total of more than 580 million yuan (US$72.5 million) of fixed assets. The news report also stated that more tourist routes connecting Lhasa, the capital city, with sightseeing spots scattered on the Tibetan Plateau had been developed, while new tourism programmes were being added, including mountaineering, field exploration, cycle racing and scientific research. With the rather disconcerting news recently emerging from Tibet stating that Tibetan tour operators educated in exile, numbering over 60, having had their licences cancelled by the Chinese authorities, and the influx of Chinese immigrants continuing unabated, the question remains whether it is not the Chinese who gain more from it.


TAR had highest population growth

China has claimed that the population growth in what it calls its Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has been the highest in all of China during last year. TAR's population grew by 24.7 per thousand, which was more than twice the national growth rate at 10.42 people per thousand, reported the official Xinhua News agency 18 April, citing State Statistics Bureau.

It is not explained, however, whether the growth was due to the high birth rate or other factors. Reports from unofficial sources in Tibet continue to allege that while, on the one hand, a coercive birth control policy is being systematically implemented on the Tibetan population, an active policy of encouraging Chinese people to settle in the region continue to tilt the demographic balance against the ethnic Tibetan population of the region.


Tibet to meet China's copper shortage

September 1997 (Tibetan Review): China is to develop a mine containing 7.14 million tons of copper in eastern Tibet's Chamdo prefecture, reported the official Chinese news agency Xinhua (English) 4 August, citing the Science and Technology Daily. The mine, called the Yulong (Jade Dragon) Copper Mine is located at an elevation of about 5,000 metres above sea level. The first phase of the development plan envisages a production of 515,000 tons.

The agency cites Gyamtso, vice chairman of Tibet's regional people's government, as saying that the construction of the copper mine will prove to be a pillar for the Tibetan economy. Xinhua has also cited the daily as reporting the discovery of a large copper reserve in Qinghai Province. The agency cites experts as saying that opening up of these two huge reserves will help alleviate China's copper shortage. China has relied heavily on imports for copper. The two mines are expected to begin operations by the turn of the century.


Tibet will become Asia's largest oil belt

Tibet was a vast ocean 200 million years ago, an area referred to by geologists as the Ancient Mediterranean Sea. With the rise of the Himalaya 30 million years ago, the ocean receded to give way to the Changthang Basin, 4,500 metres above sea level.

Two sedimentary layers beneath the basin offer high prospects for the discovery of oil and gas reserves: An upper level representing deposits 70 million years and a lower level representing deposits 135 million years old. Two regions, the Tuboco Lake-Paitan Lake area and the Tumain-area are identified as the most likely to contain oil and gas.

According to an article in a recent issue of China's Tibet, a Chinese government propaganda magazine, oil and gas exploration began in the 1970s but only gained momentum when Zhao and a group of geologists were sent to Tibet in 1995. A prospecting team of 2,000 was sent in April of 1996 when the likelihood of significant finds became evident. The team is exploring in a 400,000 square kilometre area.

After years of exploration, oil reserves estimated at 200 million tons have been found in northern Tibet. Chinese scientists forecast that Tibet will become Asia's last and largest oil belt.


Tibet's first goldmine starts production

The first largest modern gold mine in Tibet, recently passed national acceptance tests and officially went into operation, reported the official Chinese news agency Xinhua (Chinese domestic service) 7 October.

Its two gold-mining shafts conducted more than 100 days of trial production. The gold mine is one of the highly publicised 62 Chinese development projects in the TAR. In 1993, the fifth geological team of the Tibetan mining department completed prospecting and submitted its feasibility study report. Construction began in 1995. After two years of efforts, the gold mining shafts and auxillary ground projects were fully completed in July 1997.


Snow Disasters in Tibet

January 8, 1998 (TIN): A team of top Chinese officials flew into Lhasa yesterday to assess relief measures for Tibetans trapped by severe snowstorms amid varying reports about the gravity of the situation.

The local government authorities in Lhasa said that their aid efforts have been extensive and that there have been no casualties in Nagchu prefecture, the focus of the relief effort 250 km north of Lhasa, but unofficial sources say the situation there is increasingly serious, and in neighbouring Qinghai province, officials are reported to be seeking outside assistance.

"Things are well under control thanks to the rapidity of the government's disaster relief efforts," said Tsering Samdrub, a vice-governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region, about the situation in Nagchu, according to the China Daily last week. He was convinced that the region will win the fight with the help of the central government and people from across the country, reported Xinhua on 30 December.

"Official figures show that Nagchu has received and distributed vast quantities of grain and fodder, as well as some 30,000 pieces of clothing, quilts and other necessities, thanks to extensive efforts of the central and local governments," said a Xinhua report on Monday, 5 January.

The TAR government has allocated 27.25 million yuan (US$3.4 million) in relief funds, and on Tuesday, the army distributed 8,000 coats and 4,000 quilts in the prefectures of Nagchu, Ngari and Shigatse, all of which have been affected by the "exceedingly grave snowstorm" said Xinhua.

On Wednesday, an 11-member team of high-ranking officials from the State Council, China's cabinet, arrived in Lhasa "to assess the situation and assist the local government in relief efforts", said Xinhua yesterday, in its fifth article on the subject in four days. It was unclear if the team's arrival was a publicity move or a response to concern about local provisions for handling the disaster.


China to open one of world's largest nature parks with US help

According to AFP on July 16, 1998, China plans to set up one of the world's largest national parks on the eastern slopes of the Himalayas with help from a US environmental protection group, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The Nature Conservancy will pump two million dollars into constructing the park, which at 60,000 square kilometres (24,000 square miles) will be seven times the size of Yellowstone Park in the western United States.

The site in part of southwestern Yunnan province (Dechen Tibet Autonomous Prefecture) is home to diverse wildlife including endangered species such as the snub-nosed monkey and the giant panda.

It includes the headwaters of three major rivers the Yangtze, Mekong and Salween and protection of the area's natural ecosystem will also benefit communities living downstream in the three river valleys, the report said.

The area also features the snow-covered Yulong Mountains, the Nujiang Great Canyon which has a 4,000-meter (13,200-foot) drop and Hutiao Canyon in the upper reaches of the Yangtze.

Visitors will also be able to enjoy cultural heritage sights, as the colourful traditions of local Tibetan, Naxi, Bai and Lisu ethnic groups in the proposed parkland have been well perserved, it said.

More than three million people live in the area and about half are expected to benefit from tourism, Xinhua said.


SOS School in TAR

According to Tibet TV, Lhasa (July 12 1998) report, the International SOS Children's Villages, an internatoinal non governmental charitable organisation, plans to establish its eight children's village in China in the Tibet Autonomous Region. A team from the International SOS Children's Villages, led by Chairman Helmut Kutin, arrived in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, to make preparations for establishment of the village.

Tsering Topgyal, vice-chairperson of the people's government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, noted that Tibet, a region subject to severe natural conditions and frequent natural disasters, has over 100,000 disabled people and nearly 1,000 orphans. He expressed his belief that SOS villages will provide an education for Tibetan orphans, and pledged that governments at each level in the region will support the programme.

*Tashi Choedon Bidhartsang is a Research Officer at the EDD. She has done her masters in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Central European University, Budapest

[ Homepage ] [ Environmental Situation ] [ Green Tibet 1998 ]



This site is maintained and updated by The Office of Tibet, the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London. This Web page may be linked to any other Web sites. Contents may not be altered.
Last updated: 9-Oct-1998