Austria: Central Tibetan Administration’s President Dr Lobsang Sangay delivered the keynote address on the topic “Middle Way and Genuine Autonomy for Tibetans” at the opening ceremony of the University of Innsbruck’s Winter School. President Dr Sangay spoke at length on the Middle Way Approach adopted by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) for genuine autonomy in Tibet and how China does not respect its own constitutional provisions granting genuine autonomy and minority rights to Tibetans.
Highlighting the need for language protection, President Dr Sangay remarked, “China is not implementing its own bilingual policy of promoting both Mandarin and Tibetan languages. The recent case of Tashi Wangchuk is a classic example of this. He asked for a Tibetan school in his province and marched to Beijing asking for the rights enshrined in the constitution of China. This was documented by the New York Times. But instead, he was arrested and imprisoned on the charges of ‘separatism.’ Destroying someone’s language is destroying a part of a person’s identity.”
President Dr Sangay highlighted how the CTA has been taking various measures and implementing education policy to ensure preservation and promotion of Tibetan language.
Informing the researchers about the Central Tibetan Administration, he remarked that “it is one of the most frugally run administration in the world with a high level of transparency and honesty. The objective of the administration is to find a peaceful resolution for the issue of Tibet and until then to look after the welfare of Tibetans to preserve and promote the Tibetan culture and identity. When Tibet achieves genuine autonomy, the administration will be dissolved. Our goal is not to restore the Central Tibetan Administration back in Tibet. Our goal is to restore freedom in Tibet, give the Tibetans their rights and let them run the administration.”
Discussing how China has been meddling with the international human rights system, Dr Sangay noted that, “China despite its economic might continue to receive billions of dollars of loans from World Bank. Using this loan money, China is donating money to the United Nations and also pressing the UN to prioritize the right to development over all the other rights. This is dismantling the international human rights system and changing the very concept of human rights.”
President Dr Sangay later held private meetings with the Rector of the University of Innsbruck Prof. Dr H.C. Mult Tilmann Mark and other professors of the University.
-Filed by Tibet Bureau Geneva