Source: tibet.net, 25-08-2012

DHARAMSHALA: Dr Bob Brown has said he would continue to work for the Tibetan cause till the end of his life even after he resigned as the leader of the Australian Greens and Senator.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Representative in Australia, Mr Sonam Norbu Dagpo and Secretary for International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration, Tenzin Phuntsok Atisha, recently made a courtesy call to Dr Brown when he resigned from the Senate.

The Office of Tibet in Australia said in a statement: “Dr Bob Brown has always listened with deep interest and concern to our detail briefings in the Parliament on the critical situation in Tibet. He worked as a long-time co-chair of the Australian Parliamentary Group for Tibet, and he has used his good office to raise the issue of Tibet by presenting motions in the Parliament on various occasions.

NEW DELHI: Kalon Dicki Chhoyang, responsible for the Department of Information and International Relations, concluded her visit to South Africa on 22 August with a press briefing on the current situation inside Tibet which was broadcast on nationwide South African public broadcasting network.

During her stay in the country, she met with members of parliament, different levels of government as well as members of the community. Throughout her meetings, Kalon Chhoyang reiterated the urgency of the current situation in Tibet and the Tibetan people’s hope that the South Africans, through their first-hand experience with apartheid, will understand the importance of having the international community stand in solidarity with its peaceful struggle against Chinese oppression.

The Central Tibetan Administration maintains a permanent presence on the African continent through the Office of Tibet based in Pretoria.

(View full press statement)

DHARAMSHALA, August 21: Chinese authorities issued a notice barring Tibetans from setting themselves on fire and deployed hundreds of armed forces during a recently concluded horse racing festival in eastern Tibet.

With the wave of self-immolations continuing to burn across Tibet, local Chinese authorities took stringent measures ahead of the annual horse racing festival at Machu (Chinese: Maqu) in Kanlho, Gansu on August 12 to prevent public protests.

The Dharamshala based rights group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in a release Monday said that in addition to deploying an unprecedented number of People’s Armed Police personnel at the popular festival, local Chinese authorities also issued a 11-point public notice asking Tibetans to refrain from using the annual event to express their grievances in public.

DHARAMSHALA: A leading Tibetan monk of Khashi monastery in Ngaba who has invested his efforts in the preservation of Tibetan language and culture, and keeping unity among Tibetans, was sentenced to 7 years in prison on trumped-up charges on 18 June.

The Intermediate People’s Court in Ngaba allegedly charged Lho Yonten Gyatso, 37, over sending information to the United Nations Human Rights Council about the political situation in Tibet since the 2008 protest and releasing information and photo of Tenzin Wangmo after she set herself on fire on 17 October last year.  He is currently lodged in a jail in Mianyang in China’s Sichuan Province.

DHARAMSHALA, August 17: Amidst growing concerns over the safety of Tibetans, especially in south Indian cities, after a Tibetan youth was stabbed in Mysore on August 14, the exile Tibetan cabinet has directed Tibetan representatives to meet Muslim leaders and appraise them with factual information.

Although reports indicate that the youth in out of danger, but the real motive of the attack, by the two motorbike-borne assailants, is not fully known.

Police suspect the Tibetan youth may have been a victim of random attacks targeted against people from northeast India following the recent ethnic clashes in the state of Assam.

DHARAMSHALA, August 17: With the wave of self-immolations continuing to rage across the Tibetan plateau, Tibetans and supporters carried out a mock funeral procession in New York City demanding global intervention to end China’s failed policies in Tibet.

The procession was carried out on Wednesday to mark one year since the self-immolation of a Tibetan monk named Tsewang Norbu and in memory of the 49 other Tibetans who have torched their bodies demanding freedom in Tibet and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile.

Within the last two weeks as many as five Tibetans set themselves on fire in separate incidents, followed by protests which resulted in the death of Tibetan protester as a result of severe beating by Chinese forces.