August 9: "International Day for the World's Indigenous Peoples"
 

China policy to forcibly resettle hundreds of thousands of Tibetan nomads

The future of one of the world’s most neglected indigenous communities – Tibet’s nomadic herdsmen - is under grave threat as the UN prepares to mark “International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples”(1) on August 9.

In March 1998 the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, quoted Qi Jingfa, China’s then Vice-Minister of Agriculture, as saying that government policy was “to end the nomadic way of life for all herdsmen by the end of the century”. The policy represents more than a determined assault on one of the most distinctive forms of Tibetan culture and identity: Tibetan nomads have long exercised expert, long-term and sustainable stewardship over the Tibetan Plateau, source to many of Asia’s rivers including the Indus, Bhramaputra, Yellow, Yangtse, Mekong and Salween: the policy to forcibly resettle nomads means that this fragile environment is being deprived of its expert stewardship at precisely the time when such responsible stewardship has never mattered more, both regionally and globally.

The scale of resettlement

Resettlement has been more extensive in some regions of the Tibetan Plateau than in others. Official Chinese government statistics cited in a 2007 report (2) reveal that resettlement has been particularly extensive in Qinghai Province where the resettlement rate in 2005 was 89%, equating to approximately 100,000 families which is almost half the provincial Tibetan population. In August 2008 Xinhua(3) announced that more than 73,700 nomadic Tibetans would be resettled from their ancestral homelands by the headwaters of the Yellow River in Gannan Prefecture (Gansu Province) into permanent brick houses. And in October 2008 Xinhua(4) reported the launch of a huge resettlement programme by the authorities in Sichuan Province, totalling 470,000 nomads over a 5 year period.

The Chinese government’s ulterior motives for resettlement

Until now the Tibetan Plateau has remained a vast, but untapped, source of natural resources, including minerals and water. The opening of the Tibet Railway in 2006 provided the Chinese government with means for the first time of plundering more efficiently and effectively Tibet’s vast natural resources; but the Chinese government first had to clear large numbers of nomads from their ancestral lands before mines, dams and other large infrastructure projects could be established on the Plateau. China’s claim that resettlement is being carried out to protect the environment from over population is highly questionable: extremely pollutive projects such as open face mines are often situated in precisely the areas from which the nomads have been resettled.

The policy of forcible resettlement also represents a thinly-veiled assault on one of the most distinctive forms of Tibetan culture and identity. The political importance of diminishing Tibetan identity as a source of separatist sentiment has become more apparent still to the Chinese government since the 2008 Tibet protests. In 2007 the Chinese government openly admitted the political motivation to resettlement when Tibet’s Party Secretary, Zhang Qingli, stated that the restructuring of Tibetan farming and grazing communities was not only to promote economic development, but to counteract the Dalai Lama’s influence.

A nomad from the Amdo region of eastern Tibet told Free Tibet:

“The Chinese government intends to remove Tibetan nomads from their grasslands….because if nomads are forced to quit their traditional livelihoods and skills they will be forced to depend on the Chinese government, making it easier for the government, making it easier for the government to control Tibetans.”

The human cost of resettlement

Many of the nomads have been torn from their grasslands and resettled in anonymous urban settlements. Their yak herds, which are intrinsic both to their survival and identity, are often slaughtered with little compensation, according to testimony received by Free Tibet. Unable to compete in Tibet’s increasingly competitive urban labour market, the nomads are facing a bleak future with many of them becoming trapped in poverty. Free Tibet has learned from eyewitnesses to resettlement and its effects that, unable to find employment opportunities in the towns where they have been resettled, nomads are increasingly subject to mental health problems, alcohol misuse and other social problems.

Free Tibet Director, Stephanie Brigden, said:

“China’s forcible resettlement of Tibet’s nomads on such a vast scale represents much more than an assault on the existence of one of the world’s few remaining nomadic communities; its determination to plunder the Tibetan Plateau, regardless of the ecological consequences to one of the world’s most crucial environments and water sources, will have a potentially catastrophic impact on all of us. World governments must act now, before it’s too late, to protect the Tibetan Plateau. Calling on China to halt its vast resettlement of Tibetan nomads would be a good first step.”

Ends

For further information:

Matt Whitticase, External Communications: t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456 or email: matt@freetibet.org

Stephanie Brigden, Director: t +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7530 528264 or email stephanie@freetibet.org

Notes to Editor:

(1) Information on the UN’s International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples is available at: http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/indigenous/

(2) “Qinghai: Settling the Nomads” by Dr Susette Cooke is available at: http://www.case.edu/affil/tibet/tibetanNomads/documents/Qinghai.PDF

(3) The Xinhua report is available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/15/content_9343243.htm

(4) The Xinhua report was cited in a Reuters report which is available at: http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/10/11/asia/OUKWD-UK-CHINA-TIBETANS.php

(5) name withheld to protect the interviewee’s identity