Tsering Dhundup
DHARAMSHALA, April, 5: Research and advocacy group,Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) released two major reports documenting extensive human rights abuses in Tibet, particularly in Driru County under Chinese illegal occupation, released on Friday in Dharamshala.
The organisation’s annual report for 2024 revealed that Tibet received a Global Freedom Score of 0 out of 100 from Freedom House, with a political rights score of -2/40. According to the findings, Tibetans face arbitrary detention for acts like possessing photos of the Tibetan spiritual Leader His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, and working to preserve their language, or engaging in peaceful protests.
One incident highlighted in the report involves approximately 1,000 Tibetans who were reportedly detained and tortured after protesting against the construction of the Kamtok Dam in Derge on February 23, 2024.
Alongside its annual assessment, Dharamshala-based TCHRD released a special 89-page report focusing on Driru County in the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region, an area under particularly severe repression. Titled “If Gyalmo Ngulchu Could Feel: Crimes Against Humanity in Driru”, the special report documents abuses that amount to crimes against humanity, including persecution, arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killings between 2012 and 2022.
The report details a violent crackdown that began on September 28, 2013, when local Tibetans dumped Chinese flags into the Gyalmo Ngulchu river in protest against a coercive flag-flying campaign. Chinese security forces reportedly opened fire on unarmed protesters on October 6, 2013, injuring at least 60 people, with four critically wounded.
Speaking with Phayul, Tenzin Dawa, Director of TCHRD, stated that conditions in Driru constitute potential crimes against humanity under international law. “The information that we have documented since 2013 to this date, 11 human rights violations that have occurred. The TCHRD is calling for international intervention, urging governments, civil societies, and human rights organisations to pressure China to allow independent investigators and journalists into the region.
“With the launch of this report we want to pressure the Chinese government to allow independent researchers and experts, and also journalists, to investigate and tell the real story of the situation in terms of the human rights conditions in Driru,” Dawa said.
The reports also highlight China’s alleged forced assimilation policies, including the separation of nearly a million Tibetan children from their homes and placement in state-run boarding schools, which critics say are designed to eradicate Tibetan identity.
