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China forcing Tibetans off land

Tibetans graze their yak in the grasslands of the high Tibetan plateau in Naqu County, Tibet, China, on July 6 last year. PHOTO: AP

China is forcing nomadic Tibetan herders to settle in towns to clear land for development, leaving many unable to earn a living, a human rights group said in a report issued yesterday.

Herders have been forced to slaughter herds of yaks, sheep and goats and Communist Party officials have paid minimal compensation and failed to protect Tibetans' legal rights, Human Rights Watch said. It said tens of thousands, and possibly hundreds of thousands, of people have been affected.

The group appealed to Beijing to suspend the resettlements until a review system is put in place and to allow Tibetans to return to their land if they were forcibly moved or received no compensation.

"They are destroying our Tibetan [herder] communities by not letting us live in our area and thus wiping out our livelihood completely," one Tibetan identified as "F.R." was quoted as saying.

Human Rights Watch said the resettlements in Tibet and in adjacent ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces are linked to Beijing's effort, launched in 1999, to develop China's poor, restive west and bind it to the bustling east.

The resettlements began in 2000 and have taken place more intensively since 2003, Human Rights Watch said.

Others were evicted to make room for public works projects, like dams and roads, it said in a report entitled No One Has the Liberty to Refuse.

"Tibet remains a source of anxiety for the Chinese government, which is eager to suppress any impulses toward independence or true autonomy, and to ensure its hold on a key strategic region," it added.

The group said it interviewed about 150 Tibetans affected by relocation between July 2004 and December 2006, but did not reveal their names to prevent the authorities going after them.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said another motive for the relocations could be to further undermine Tibetans' unique cultural identity and bring them into the Chinese mainstream, as it has also done in Muslim Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

The most extreme efforts were in Sichuan's Golok region, where authorities banned grazing in 2003 and required herders to sell their herds and move into newly built townships, Human Rights Watch said, citing interviews with Tibetans who were affected.

It quoted one as saying: "Even if we become town dwellers and try to do business, we don't have the education or the experience to succeed. We don't even know how to live from farming. So in the future we will face great difficulty."

"Many Tibetan agricultural communities have had their land confiscated, with minimal compensation, or have been evicted to make way for mining, infrastructure projects or urban development," the report said.

Overseas donors should also make sure their funds are not involved in evictions and relocations, Human Rights Watch said.

"Chinese officials claim to be promoting economic development and protecting the environment, but it is hard to see those goals actually being achieved or benefiting Tibetan herders," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Chinese authorities explained the changes as a response to overgrazing by Tibetan herds that was causing erosion and soil loss, Human Rights Watch said.
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