By B.Raman
The Tibetan independence
(Rangzen) movement, started on November 23, 2001, by Thubten Jigme Norbu,
former Abbot of the Kumbum monastery and Professor Emeritus at the Indiana
University in the US, has been slowly spreading.
B. Raman |
The movement, which was launched by a group of
Tibetans who constituted themselves into what was called the Rangzen Alliance,
describes its objectives as follows: “The Rangzen Alliance is a movement of
committed Tibetans and friends, world-over, who have joined together to provide
a common platform of action for the realization of three goals:
a. The restoration of
Tibetan independence.
b. The return of His
Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet as the sovereign head-of-state of an
independent nation.
c. The establishment of a
fully democratic system of government in exile Tibetan society and in free
Tibet – based on the rule of law and the primacy of individual freedom.”
The Rangzen movement enjoys
the support of the Tibetan Youth League (TYC) and many members of the Tibetan
diaspora spread across the world. While the movement has reservations about the
middle road policy advocated by His Holiness the Dalai Lama envisaging autonomy
for all the Tibetan areas of China in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Gansu,
Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan, it has been strongly backing the leadership of His
Holiness.
The movement, which had
lost some momentum after the brutal suppression of the Tibetans by the People’s
Liberation Army after the anti-Chinese riots of March 2008, is again showing
signs of gathering strength as resentment builds up among the Tibetans of China
and the diaspora over the Chinese indifference to the continuing
self-immolation of Tibetan monks and others in the Tibetan areas since March
2009. 108 Tibetans have so far committed self-immolation, the majority of them
in the Sichuan province.
The total Chinese
indifference to the self-immolations and their attempts to arrest and persecute
relatives and friends of those committing self-immolation on charges of
complicity have added to the resentment and injected fresh oxygen into the
Rangzen movement. On February 13, 2013, the TYC organised a two-day Rangzen
Conference, which was attended by around 35 independence activists.
The Rangzen Conference also
marked 100 years of His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama’s Proclamation of Tibetan
Independence. Speaking at the Conference, Dhondup Lhadar, vice-president of
TYC, stressed that every Tibetan had the responsibility to “preserve the legacy
of the 13th Dalai Lama and uphold the truth of an independent and sovereign
Tibet.”
“More than a hundred Tibetans have given the
ultimate non-violent sacrifice of setting themselves on fire protesting China’s
occupation,” Lhadar said. “It is our sacred duty to repeat history a 100 years
later and realise the return of our most beloved leader His Holiness the Dalai
Lama.”
The same day, activists of
the Tibetan diaspora in New York and Paris announced the formation of a Tibetan
National Congress (TNC) to disseminate the views of independence-minded
Tibetans in the Tibetan community and in Tibet’s democratic government in
exile.
A spokesman of the TNC
Jigme Ugen told Radio Free Asia in an interview as follows: “Naturally there
will be different viewpoints about what is the best course to take, but I
believe that Tibetan democracy is ready at this point for those viewpoints to
be respectfully and openly debated through constructive political
participation.”
“We expect more members to come out from other
organizations and from the broader Tibetan society who really believe not just
in Rangzen [independence] but in democracy. TNC will help form a common
platform.”
The supporters of the TNC
plan to hold a global conference in September next to work out their programme
of action. The total silence of Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the
Communist Party of China, who took over as the President of China on March 14,
2013, on the Tibetan issue has added to the determination of the independence
activists to strengthen their movement even if its goals are at variance with
the Middle Road policy of His Holiness.
His Holiness has not yet
expressed his views on the emergence of the TNC, but he may not discourage any
movement that uses non-violent means for asserting the rights of the
Tibetans—whether the rights are for autonomy or independence. The Chinese
calculations that somehow the Tibetan struggle will peter out as they forge
ahead with their programme for economic development have been belied so far.
The fact that the new generation of Tibetans is even more determined than the
older generation to assert Tibetan rights indicates that the Chinese may not be
able to suppress the Tibetans.
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