Dalai Lama calls for Tibetan autonomy
Updated
Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has called for co-existence with China and meaningful autonomy for Tibet as he marked the 50th anniversary of his exile.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Roseann Rife, Asia Pacific Deputy Director for Amnesty International; Chemi Wangme, Tibetan exile; Labor MP, Michael Danby
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SNOWDON: China has sent a massive deployment of security forces around the Tibetan plateau.
Its ensured there's been no repeat of last year's events when peaceful protests by Buddhist monks led to a brutal crackdown and mass arrests.
But there have been protests elsewhere.
In Canberra four men were arrested and then released after about 300 protesters gathered outside Parliament House and moved to the Chinese Embassy calling for more autonomy for Tibet.
PROTESTERS: Stop torture in tibet, stop torture in tibet, stop killing in tibet.
SNOWDON: A Labor Party politician attending the same rally criticised China's ambassador to Australia, saying he'd sent a letter asking him not to attend the rally in Canberra.
The Parliamentarian Michael Danby described the ambassador's action as an undiplomatic mistake.
DANBY: Well I think its just a misunderstanding of Australia. I mean any member of parliament in Australia is allowed to speak out on any issue.
SNOWDON: In India where many Tibetans live in exile thousands gathered to mark the anniversary and hear the Dalai Lama speak.
Some expressed their hope of one day returning home.
WANGME: I feel sad, I feel sad that I am still a refugee over here in some other country. I am a Tibetan but I have never seen my land. So in this 50th. year I hope that some day there will come a day when I will be able to go back to my country.
SNOWDON: Chemi Wangme, a Tibetan born in exile and living in Dharamsala the home of the Dalai Lama.
Tibet's spiritural leader denies he wants independence but continues his campaign for autonomy and his condemnation of China's brutality in Tibet.
Several human rights groups have issued reports documenting ongoing arrests, prolonged detention and torture.
Amnesty International's Roseann Rife says while verifiable information is hard to come by, because journalists and the United Nations are barred, there are enough credible accounts getting out to raise serious alarm.
Amnesty's Asia Pacific Deputy Director says despite this, protests in Tibet continue, as many as 200 since March last year, with hundreds of arrests.
RIFE: Despite the increased security measures and escalated security presence, we still are seeing reports of peaceful protests cropping up in different parts of Tibet and the surrounding provinces.
SNOWDON: Officially 76 people have been sentenced since last year's protests thrust before the world's gaze the Tibetans determination to maintain their culture and the determination of Beijing to fight what it sees as a secessionist movement.
Amnesty International's Roseann Rife says as well as accounts of torture, there have been disappearances.
RIFE: Some organisations, Tibetan organisations are reporting hundreds and over a thousand in some cases who still remain unaccounted for. One individual case we've been following is an independent filmmaker, Dunant Quan Chan, who was detained actuallly last March. He apparently escaped detention for a brief while and called relatives, described being tortured, but then he has not been heard from since and they assume he's been detained again, but they don't know where and they have heard nothing about a charge.
SNOWDON: What's Amnesty calling for now?
RIFE: Again we're calling for an opening up of Tibet and the region to the independent monitors, the UN, so they can check into the situation. We're also absolutely calling for an accounting of all these people who have been detained, that haven't been heard from and we'd like to know the numbers.
