Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], April 6 (ANI): The Tibetans in-exile strongly condemned China's recent white paper on human rights. A new report published by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and democracy (TCHRD) argues that Chinese authorities committed egregious human rights abuses that amount to crimes against humanity in Driru county, one of the most tightly controlled areas in Tibet.

The report titled 'If Gyalmo Ngulchu Could Feel: Crimes against Humanity in Driru' details widespread and systematic human rights violations committed by Chinese authorities between 2012 and 2022.

Executive Director of TCHRD, Tenzin Dawa told ANI, 'The report presents extensive evidence of crimes against humanity, including persecution, arbitrary detention, torture and extrajudicial killings as part of a state-led policy to suppress resistance and identity.'

The report highlights the violent crackdown that began on 28 September 2013, when local Tibetans in Driru dumped a five-starred Chinese flag into the Gyalmo Ngulchu (Nujiang/ Salween) river in protest against a coercive flag-flying campaign. The findings in this report make it clear that the situation in Driru is a human rights crisis that demands immediate international attention.

Tenzin Lekshay, spokesperson of Tibetan government in-exile told ANI, 'China came up with the white paper on human rights this time and the so-called white paper is not a white paper actually because what they have been talking about, it's all about developments for the sake of China's stability. So if they are really concerned about the Tibetan people and their rights, they should have talked about the universal human rights as freedom of expression, freedom of movement, freedom of belief, which is not allowed to be seen in this so-called white paper.'

'China is talking about developments and this development induced human rights which they have been talking about has so many things which were not been covered. We still say that there are so many political restrictions, civil rights are not being there, and we can say that the situation inside Tibet is more than critical right now under Xi Jinping's rule. So the white paper does not really talk about the rights for the Tibetan people, rather they talk more about their own stability,' he added.

Tenzin Tsundue, a Tibetan activist in exile, has strongly criticized China's recent white paper on Tibet, calling it an attempt to legitimize China's 75-year occupation of the region.

He further argues that the document distorts the truth, claiming Tibetans benefit from Chinese development and human rights protection.

Tsundue said, 'I went through the entire documents, there are eight chapters and all the eight chapters constantly try to do only one thing, tried to buy legitimacy of the 75 years of invasion and occupation of Tibet... They are talking about the developments in Tibet, and they keep on saying that Tibetans love those developments in Tibet. They are trying to say that they are protecting the human rights in Tibet. So the question is from whom ? It's been a dictatorial regime for 75 years, if the Chinese government has to protect the human rights in Tibet, from whom? from Xi Jinping? Then they say that they are protecting the environment of Tibet, so again, from whom? From the Chinese miners? From the Chinese government who is mining and cutting the trees and damming in Tibet.'

'The white paper recently launched is saying that the United States government and his Holiness the Dalai Lama are making human right cases against China. But that's exactly what China has been doing. In 75 years of Chinese occupation of Tibet, more than 1 million Tibetans were killed by China, over 6000 monasteries were destroyed, the environment was plundered, and Tibetan monks and nuns were thrown out from their traditional monastic institutions. Tibetan nomads and farmers have been thrown out of their ancestral lands. These lands are being used by China for mining. Glaciers are melting in the Tibet in Himalayas so it's all because China is exploiting the natural resources in Tibet and with this white paper that China launched recently, China is only trying to protect its own skin,' he added. (ANI)