March 27, 2013
Stopping the tragedy in Tibet is in the hands of the CCP.
A chalk outline in the Czech Republic in memory of Tibetan monk Tapey, one of the 114 self-immolators in protest of occupied Tibet. Photo: Ya Noya Shantie on Flickr.
This year, Tibetan blogger Tsering Woeser was among the 10 individuals that the U.S. Department of State presented with the International Women of Courage Award. Since the inception of the award in 2007, Woeser is the first Tibetan woman to receive this honor. But, as expected, she was not allowed to leave China to participate in the ceremony in Washington, DC. Two other awardees, Syrian lawyer Razan Zeitunah and Vietnamese blogger Ta Phong Tan, were absent too. Actually, Woeser’s been unsuccessfully applying for a passport for years, but this time the authorities told her, “Save your effort, you will not get it.”
According to the U.S. Department of State, Woeser was given this high honor because she “bravely persists in documenting the situation for Tibetans, noting that ‘to bear witness is to give voice to,’ and asserting that ‘the more than 100 Tibetans who have expressed their desire to resist the forces of oppression by bathing their bodies in fire are the reason why I will not give up, and why I will not compromise.’”
Woeser and her husband Wang Lixiong frequently travel to Tibet to collect information about the immolations. Then they post the biographies of these courageous Tibetans, who have committed an extraordinary sacrifice, online.
In addition to providing on-site coverage, Woeser was the first to tell the world about kin liability—the Chinese authority’s suppression of an immolated person’s family and friends—and its severity. There have been 114 cases of immolation, but hundreds of innocent people related to the dead have been investigated, arrested, and put into jail.
China’s secular culture and Machiavellian-principled rulers in Beijing can never understand the religious feeling of Tibetans. No abettor, nor separatist could ever have the power to persuade another person to set himself on fire and willingly suffer the cruel death that results. Such an act must come from the deepest conviction. It is the strongest form of expression available to demonstrate free will. The immolators hope to see freedom and peace for both his Holiness the Dalai Lama and their country, without being humiliated and suppressed by the Chinese.
In 1975, during the 29th assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) in Japan, physicians from all over the world signed the Declaration of Tokyo, which demands doctors to “refuse to participate in, condone, or give permission for torture, degradation, or cruel treatment of prisoners” and when “a prisoner who refuses to eat, [he] should not be fed artificially against his will.” This Declaration was updated again in 2005 and 2006 in France by the WMA.
For detail please visit here