15. Feb 2010
Protest in Tibet during Losar
(ECCKM; IANS; ICT; RFA) A demonstration by reportedly several hundred Tibetans on the first day of the Tibetan New Year, or Losar Festival, led to a standoff between the protesters and Chinese security forces in Ngaba (Chin: Aba) county, Ngaba Q &TAP, Sichuan province. The protesters gathered with prayer wheels and rosaries for a vigil in commemoration of the victims of the protest in 2008. As a sign of mourning, they ate plain tsampa (roasted barley flour) and dry bread and wore old clothes. Tibetans normally wear their best traditional clothes for Losar. The monks protesting were from Ngaba Kirti Monastery and Sey Monastery. Chinese security personnel confiscated mobile phones of people who took video and pictures of the protest, which later dispersed. There also were reports of other, smaller, demonstrations across Tibetan areas, in Lhasa for instance, where subdued and devotional commemorations were held amid tensions as security was stepped up.
18. Feb 2010
Dalai Lama meets President Barack Obama
US President Barack Obama met with the Dalai Lama for more than an hour at the White House in Washington DC. The American president voiced support for "Tibet's unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the PRC" and encouraged the Dalai Lama to continue seeking dialogue with Beijing. Following the meeting, the Dalai Lama said Obama had been "very much supportive" and had shown real concern for Tibet. In response to the meeting, Beijing summoned the US ambassador to complain.
23. Feb 2010
China prevents Nepal from attending celebrations at Tibetan monastery
(IANS) IANS reports that senior Nepali politicians declined invitations to the celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, one of the best known Tibetan Lamas and a former leader of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The Chinese embassy in Nepal is said to have conveyed its anger over the invitations to Nepal's foreign ministry. Culture Minister Minendra Rijal, Foreign Minister and deputy prime minister Sujata Koirala, and Nepal's President Ram Baran Yadav, were reportedly among the invitees to the celebrations held at a monastery in Kathmandu valley. The president's office issued a statement, saying the president had not consented to be the chief guest at the monastery celebrations. It also hinted at action against "such organisations or persons involved in the dissemination of such false news".
24. Feb 2010
Three Tibetans sentenced in Kardze
(TCHRD) The Kardze (Chin: Ganzi) Intermediate People's Court has sentenced three Tibetans to two-year suspended death sentence, life imprisonment and 16 years term respectively on charges of "inciting separatism" and "disturbing social order" on 17 November 2009. According to a Ganzi Daily report dated 18 March 2009, Pema Yeshi, Sonam Gonpo, and Tsewang Gyatso aka Tsok Tsok, all from Thangkyi township, Nyarong county (Chin: Xinlong), Kardze TAP, Sichuan Province, had been arrested on 11 March 2009 under suspicion of setting fire to the Thangkyi township government building as well as pasting and distributing pamphlets calling for Tibet independence on 28 February 2009.
25. Feb 2010
Tibet-Nepal bus line to restart
(CER; TibetInfoNet) The suspended bus services between Lhasa in Tibet, and Kathmandu in Nepal is all set to resume. Originally started on 01 May 2005, the service was already suspended in 2006 due to disagreements about the issuance of visas to Tibet. Nepal and China agreed in 2007 to restart the service in 2008, but this did not happen. The original service was operated by a Nepali company, however the new service will be run by a Chinese operator.
26. Feb 2010
Seventeen more Tibetans arrested in Nepal
(Myrepublica) Nepali police arrested seventeen Tibetans in a border region for crossing into Nepali territory. They had come to Nepal via the Lamabagar border point. Among those arrested, 10 are women and seven men. This brings the total number of Tibetans caught clandestinely crossing into Nepali territory to 51 in seven months. Nepali authorities said they would be handed over to the department of immigration in Kathmandu. The arrested Tibetans wanted to go to India via Nepal to meet their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, police said.
26. Feb 2010
Spain drops probe into Tibet crackdown
(AFP) A Spanish judge has dropped an investigation into Beijing's crackdown on unrest in Tibet in March 2008, judicial sources said. The probe was the result of a suit filed by the Tibet Support Committee, against eight Chinese leaders, including Defence Minister Liang Guanglie and Minister for State Security Geng Huichang. Judge Santiago Pedraz had agreed to hear the case in August 2008, just before the opening of the Beijing Olympics. He was acting under Spain's principle of "universal competence" under which Spanish courts can hear cases of crimes against humanity wherever they occur. Pedraz was forced to drop the case as a result of limitations imposed on that principle by the Spanish parliament in 2009 following diplomatic pressure from a number of countries. The parliament decided to restrict such cases to those involving Spanish victims or those in which the suspects are on Spanish soil. The director of the Tibet Support Committee, Alan Cantos, expressed regret at the ruling and said his organisation planned to appeal.
