Peace plan in five points for Tibet

Peace plan in five points for Tibet The September 21st 1987, the Dalaï LAMA presents a Peace plan in five points for Tibet to the Congrès from the United States in Washington. He will reformulate it on June 15th 1988 with the the European Parliament of Strasbourg, thus officializing a proposal for a negotiation, which, he hoped for it, would be used as a basis for the resolution of the question of the Tibet. The Dalaï LAMA declared: “My proposal, which was then known under the name “of approach of the center gate” or of “proposal of Strasbourg” consists in considering for the Tibet a true autonomy within the framework of the Popular republic of China. It should not be a question, however, of autonomy on paper which had been imposed to us there is fifty years in the agreement in 17 points, but of a real autonomy, of a Tibet which autogouverne truly, with Tibetans fully responsible for their own interior matters, including the education of their children, the questions religious, the cultural questions, the protection of their delicate and invaluable environment and the local economy. Beijing would continue to assume the responsibility for the control of the foreign affairs and defense”.

Short speech of the Dalaï LAMA with the Congress of the United States on September 21st 1987.

The world evolves to an interdependence increasingly larger; consequently, we will be able to obtain a durable peace, as well with the national plan, only regional or total, as if we think in very broad terms of interests rather than in egoistic terms of needs. Today, it is crucial that all together, the forts and the weak ones, we contribute our personal share. I address to you here at the same time as a chief of the people Tibetan and that simple buddhist monk won over to the principles of a religion based on the love and the compassion. But above all, I am here as an human being, an human being which must divide this planet with you and all the others of our brothers and sisters. As the world is done smaller, we have a need increasingly larger from/to each other. This is true in the whole world, including in the continent from where I come.

Today in Asia, just like elsewhere, the tensions are strong. Open conflicts burst in the Middle East, in Southeast Asia and in my own country, Tibet. To a large extent, these problems are the symptoms of the subjacent tensions which divide the great powers of this part of the world. To bring solutions to the regional conflicts, an approach should be adopted taking account of the interests of all the countries and all the people concerned, large and small. Overall solutions must be formulated, which will take into account the aspirations of people most directly concerned; specific measurements or simple expédients would do nothing but create new problems. The people Tibetan ardently wish to contribute to peace in the area and in the world and I believe that it is in an exceptional position enabling him to achieve this goal. By tradition, the Tibetans are non-violent people and liking peace.

Since the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet there is more than thousand years, they practice non-violence with respect to any form of life. In our country, this frame of mind also found to apply in the field of the international relations. The highly strategic position which Tibet in the middle of Asia occupies - it separates the great powers, India, China and the USSR - conferred to him throughout the history a crucial role in the safeguarding of peace and stability. This is precisely the reason for which in the past the empires of Asia so much gave each other difficulty to prevent all and sundry from settling in Tibet. The importance of Tibet as independent State-plug was crucial for the stability of this part of the world. When the Popular republic of China, lately made up, invades Tibet into 1949/50, that created a new source of conflict. This point appeared obvious when, following the national rising of the Tibetans against the Chinese and of my escape in India in 1959, the tensions between China and India worsened until leading to a frontier war in 1962.

Today, of the important troops are again massed on the two sides of the Himalayan border and the tension is again dangerously strong. The true question, of course, is not the line of demarcation of the border indo-Tibetan, but the illegal occupation of Tibet by China, which gave him an direct access in the Indian sub-continent. The Chinese authorities tried to scramble the charts by claiming that Tibet always belonged to China. This is false. Tibet was a completely independent state when the popular Army of Release invades it into 1949/50. Since the unification of Tibet by the emperors Tibetans there is more than thousand years, our country succeeded in preserving its independence until the middle of this century. Sometimes, Tibet extended its influence on the neighbouring countries and people; other times, Tibet fell itself under the yoke from powerful foreign sovereigns, Khans of Mongolia, Gurkhas of Nepal, the emperors manchous or the English of India. It is of course not rare that states are subjected to an influence or foreign interventions. Although the most obvious example of this is undoubtedly the relations established with countries known as satellite, the majority of the great powers exert their influence on allied countries or neighbors less powerful than they. As showed it research tasks of most reliable in the field of the international law, in the case of Tibet, occasional constraint of the country to the foreign influence forever involved a loss of its independence. Moreover, there is not any doubt that when the communist armies of Beijing penetrated in Tibet, this last was from all points of view an independent state.

The Chinese aggression, practically condemned by all the nations of the free world, constituted an obvious violation of the international law. Whereas the military occupation of Tibet by China continues, the world must keep present at the spirit that, although the Tibetans lost their freedom, from the point of view of the international law, Tibet remains today an independent state subjected to an illegal occupation. I at all do not intend to start here a politico-legal discussion concerning the statute of Tibet. I only wish to insist on the obvious and uncontested fact that we, Tibetans, are distinct people having our own culture, language, religion and history. Released of the Chinese occupation, Tibet would continue to fulfill today its natural role of State-plug, preserving and supporting peace in Asia. My desire expensive, with me like with the people Tibetan, is to return in Tibet this invaluable role, by transforming the entire country again, i.e. all Amdo and Kham, three province of U-Tsang, zone where stability, peaces and harmony would reign. In the best of the Buddhist traditions, Tibet would offer its services and its hospitality to all those which work for the cause of peace in the world, for the wellbeing of humanity and for the environmental protection naturalness which is our community property. In spite of the holocaust from which our people during the decades spent under the occupation suffered, I always got busy to find a solution by direct and sincere discussions with the Chinese. In 1982, following the change of management with the head of the party in China and the establishment of direct contacts with the government of Beijing, I sent my representatives to Beijing to engage an open dialog in connection with the future of my country and my people.

We opened the dialog in a sincere and positive spirit, with the will to take into account the legitimate needs for the Popular republic of China. I hoped that this attitude would be reciprocal and that it was possible to lead to a solution which would satisfy and would preserve the aspirations and the interests of the two parties. Unfortunately, China does not cease answering our efforts in a defensive way, as if our inventory of the quite real difficulties encountered by Tibet were anything else only one critical pure and simple. Still more disturbing was the fact that the Chinese government let escape the occasion from a true exchange by diverting the dialog. Instead of tackling the true questions concerning the six million Tibetans, China tried to reduce the problem of Tibet to a discussion in connection with my personal status. It is in this context and in response to the support and the extraordinary encouragements that I have you and other people met during this voyage which I wish today to put at light the principal aspects of the question and to propose, in a spirit of opening and conciliation, to take a first step towards a long-term solution. I hope that this will be able to contribute to a made future of friendship and co-operation with all our neighbors, including with the Chinese people.

This peace plan contains five basic elements:

1. Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a peace zone;

2. Abandonment by China of its policy of transfer of population which endangers the existence of the Tibetans as people;

3. Respect of the basic rights and the democratic liberties of the people Tibetan;

4. Restoration and environmental protection naturalness of Tibet, like suspension by China of its policy of use of Tibet in the production of nuclear weapons and to bury nuclear waste there;

5. Engagement of serious negotiations in connection with the future status of Tibet and the relations between the people Tibetan and Chinese.

Now allow me to develop these five elements.

Transformation of the whole of Tibet into a peace zone I propose that entire Tibet, including the Eastern provinces of Kham and of 1' Amdo, becomes a zone of Ahimsa, Hindi vocabulary used to indicate a state of peace and non-violence. The establishment of such a peace zone would correspond well to the part historically played by Tibet, that of a peaceful and neutral Buddhist nation and of a State-plug separating the great powers from the continent. That would also correspond to the proposal of Nepal to proclaim peace zone and to the declared support of China for such a proposal. The peace zone suggested by Nepal would take an influence much larger if it were to include Tibet as well as other surrounding areas. Creation dune peace zone in Tibet would require the withdrawal of the troops and the Chinese installations military, which would at the same time make it possible India to withdraw its troops and its military installations of the Himalayan areas located in edge of Tibet. This would be carried out within the framework of an international agreement which would take account of the legitimate needs for China as regards safety and would contribute to develop confidence between the people, Tibetan, Indian, Chinese and others, installed in the area. Such a project is interest of all, in particular of China and India, because it would make it possible to ensure a greater safety, while reducing the economic weight which represents requires it to maintain of the troops along the Himalayan border, object of dispute. Historically, the relations sino-Indians were never tended. The tensions between the two powers started only as from the moment when the Chinese armies penetrated in Tibet, creating for the first time a common border between the two countries; this had as a result to bring the war of 1962. Since then, of many potentially dangerous incidents did not cease occurring. The re-establishment of good relationships between the two countries most populated in the world would be largely facilitated if they were separated, as they always were during the history, by a vast and friendly area which would play the part of plug. So that the relations between Tibetans and Chinese improve, the first of the conditions is the creation of a feeling of confidence after the holocaust of the last decades, during which more than one million Tibetans, is a sixth of the population, lost the life and an at least equal number was placed in detention in prisons because of their religious beliefs and their love of freedom, only a withdrawal of the Chinese troops could engage an authentic process of reconciliation. The important occupying forces present at Tibet daily recall to the Tibetans oppression and the suffering of which they are all the victims. A withdrawal of the troops would be the essential sign indicating that from now on relations positive with the Chinese can develop, based on the friendship and confidence.

Abandonment by China of its policy of transfer of population which endangers the existence of the Tibetans as people The transfers of Chinese population to Tibet, that the government of Beijing continues to carry out with an aim of imposing a “final solution” on the problem Tibetan by reducing the population Tibetan to an unimportant minority, private of its civic rights, must cease. The massive transfer of Chinese civilians to Tibet in infringment of the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 threatens the existence even of the Tibetans as distinct people. In the Eastern areas of our country, the Chinese now exceed very largely the Tibetans by the number. For example, in the province of Amdo where I was born, one counts according to the Chinese statistics 25 million Chinese for only 750.000 Tibetans. Even in the so-called Autonomous region of Tibet, i.e. in central and Western Tibet, the Chinese government sources confirm that the Chinese are now more numerous than the Tibetans. The Chinese policy of transfer of population is not new. It already was systematically applied in other areas. At the beginning of this century, Manchou formed a distinct race, with a clean culture and traditions. Today, there remain nothing any more but 2 or 3 million Manchou in Manchuria, against 75 million Chinese who came to settle there.

To Eastern Turkestan, renamed Sinkiang by the Chinese, the Chinese population passed from 200.000 in 1949 to 7 million, that is to say more half of a total population of 13 million. Following the Chinese colonization of the Inner Mongolia, one counts 8,5 million Chinese in this area for 2,5 million Mongols. Today, on the whole of the territory Tibetan, 7,5 million Chinese colonists was already dispatched, exceeding a population Tibetan of 6 million. In central and Western Tibet, now indicated under name “Autonomous region of Tibet” by the Chinese, the Chinese sources recognize that the 1,9 million Tibetans constitutes now a minority within the population. Moreover, these figures do not take account of the military occupation estimated between 300.000 and 500.000, including 250.000 in the so-called Autonomous region of Tibet.

So that the Tibetans can survive as people, it is imperative which the transfers of population cease and which the Chinese colonists return to China. Otherwise, the Tibetans will be soon nothing any more but one attraction for tourists and the relic testifying to noble last.

Respect of the basic rights and the democratic liberties of the people Tibetan The basic rights and the democratic liberties must be respected in Tibet The people Tibetan must again be free to develop culturally, intellectually, economically and spiritually and to enjoy the fundamental democratic liberties. The violations of the rights of 1' man to Tibet are among the most serious cases in the world. Discrimination is practiced there in the form of a policy of apartheid, that the Chinese call “segregation and assimilation”. The Tibetans are, at best, of the citizens of second class in their own country. Deprived of all their fundamental rights and democratic liberties, they are placed under a colonial administration within which the real capacity is exerted by the Chinese leaders of the Communist party and the army. Although the Chinese government allows the Tibetans to rebuild certain Buddhist monasteries and to practice their worship there, it still prohibits a formal study and a teaching of the religion. Only a small number of individuals approved by the Communist party has the right to go to live in the monasteries.

Whereas the Tibetans in exile fully exert their democratic rights thanks to a constitution promulgated by myself in 1963, from the thousands of their compatriots suffer in prisons and camps from work in Tibet because of their political and religious convictions.

Restoration and environmental protection naturalness of Tibet, like suspension by China of its policy of use of Tibet in the production of nuclear weapons and to bury nuclear waste there Serious efforts must be undertaken in order to restore natural environment in Tibet. Tibet should not be used to manufacture nuclear weapons, nor to bury nuclear waste there. The Tibetans have a large respect for any form of life. This feeling deeply anchored in them is reinforced by their Buddhist faith, which prohibits to make evil with any creature, human or animal. Before the Chinese invasion, Tibet was an intact wild sanctuary in a single natural environment. Sadly, during the recent decades, the animal life and the forests of Tibet were almost entirely destroyed by the Chinese. The effects on the fragile environment Tibetan were devastators. The little which remainder must be protected and of the efforts must be made to bring back a balance within this environment. China exploits Tibet in its production of nuclear weapons and perhaps started to hide its nuclear waste in the basement Tibetan. It intends not only to bring its own nuclear waste to Tibet, but also those of other countries which were already appropriate to pay Beijing so that it removes them from their toxic matters.

The dangers that this presents are obvious. Not only the current population, but as the generations to come, is threatened by the little of case as China makes this single and fragile environment of Tibet.

Engagement of serious negotiations in connection with the future status of Tibet and the relations between the people Tibetan and Chinese Serious negotiations concerning the future status of Tibet and the relations between the two people, Chinese and Tibetan, should be started. We wish to tackle this subject in a reasonable and realistic attitude, in a spirit of frankness and conciliation and with a view to lead to a solution which in the long run will satisfy the interests of all, Tibetans, Chinese, like all the other people concerned. The Tibetans and the Chinese constitute two distinct people, each one having his country, its history, its culture, its language and its lifestyle.

The differences between people must be recognized and respected. They should not however represent obstacles with a true co-operation when the latter is interest of the two people. I believe sincerely that if the parts concerned could meet and discuss their future with an open-minded and the sincere desire to lead to a satisfactory and equitable solution, one could carry out an considerable advance. We all must employ us to exert our direction of the reason and our wisdom and to meet us in a spirit of opening and comprehension.

Allow me to finish on a personal note.

I wish to thank you for the interest and the support that you and so much of your colleagues and fellow-citizens express for the sufferings endured by the people oppressed everywhere in the world. The fact that you publicly testified to your sympathy in our connection, us Tibetans, already had a positive effect on the life of our people in Tibet. I ask you to continue to support us during this critical period of the history of our country.

The dalaï LAMA

Random links: