CHINA-TIBET: PROTEST BY TIBETAN INTELLECTUALS

117 Tibetan intellectuals published a letter on Trimleng, an important forum for discussion particularly on legal and policy issues affecting Tibetans in Tibet, on January 11, 2018, pointing out that: "The failure to use the Tibetan language by the People's courts at various Tibetan autonomous levels violates the obligation for autonomous regions to use the Tibetan language in their offices as laid out in the Constitution of the country, the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, regulations on learning and use of the Tibetan language by the Tibet Autonomous Region, and regulations of the ten Tibetan Autonomous Prefectures on the issue of Tibetan language." The Hongkong-based South China Morning Post cited the letter as saying that China's Constitution states that "all nationalities have the freedom to use and develop their own spoken and written languages."  The appeal also highlighted their concern over the case of Tashi Wangchuk and said that for "merely voicing his opinion that the judicial and administrative offices like the Yulshul People's Court and government are not using Tibetan, Tashi Wangchuk has been arrested by judicial office and levelled charges" and that "there is not a single Tibetan word on the websites of the of the Intermediate People's Court and the government of the Yulshul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture."

Separately, a group of 15 internationally known scholars and professors on Tibet, from France, the UK, US, Czech Republic, Canada and Australia called for clemency for Tashi Wangchuk in a letter published in the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong on February 8 (2018). This follows expressions of concern and support for Tashi Wangchuk from German and Latvian Parliamentarians, and an emergency resolution by the European Parliament. 

(Comment: A new generation of Tibetan intellectuals, particularly in the eastern Tibetan area of Amdo, are seeking to counter this threat, and finding new ways to do so by framing their arguments within the context of Chinese laws and regulations.  90 per cent of the Tibetans who wrote the letter are from Amdo, with 10 per cent from Kham, and none listed as being from central Tibet, or U-Tsang.) 






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