12 Feb 88
FE/0073 B2/2
central leading comrades and officials in the departments concerned discussed the Tibet situation, Comrade Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme said that the riots occurred in Lhasa not because we went too far in relaxing the policies in Tibet and pursuing too relaxed policies there. On the contrary, it was precisely because the regional party committee headed by Comrade Wu Jinghua seriously implemented the established policies and successfully removed some negative factors that the riots were limited to only a small sphere in Lhasa.
I completely agree with Comrade Ngapoi's point of view. The central leading comrades also supported and appreciated Comrade Ngapoi's opinion. In the future, our policies towards Tibet should be more relaxed and better; our religous, nationality, United Front and intellectual policies, and our economic policies for the rural pastoral areas should all be more relaxed and flexible. We should not change the current policies and backtrack to the old practices of the past. If we change our current policies or tighten the policies, serious consequences will certainly be caused. We must soberly realise this and pay serious attention to it. Some comrades do not agree with this opinion. I sincerely hope that comrades who hold a different point of view will seriously review our past experience and seriously set aright their thinking. This is good for their personal lives and their work.
As we all know, social stability and unity, the people's peaceful lives and satisfactory work, and the unity between all nationalities, especially between the Han and Tibetan nationalities, and unity among the people of the Tibetan nationality are of great importance to us. All people who uphold justice will make contributions to the maintenance of such unity, and will certainly hope that all people can be united. We shall not be able to advance our work.
We all personally felt that the Lhasa riots of some time ago caused tension and unrest in the people in Lhasa. People's fears and nervousness also caused a rise in prices. Take butter as an example. Because the riots occurred, fewer people from the An-Duo and Kang areas made pilgrimages to the Lhasa temples, and the price of butter rose for a time from five to six yuan a jin to seven to eight yuan. This showed that in the final analysis it was the people of Lhasa who incurred losses and suffered from the riots. Recently I heard that some Lamas feared that fewer people, and especially people from the An- Duo and Kang areas, would attend the Buddhist ceremonies, and this would reduce the temples' income from religious donations. Therefore, we must very carefully maintain social stability and unity, the same way as we protect our eyes. In Tibet, nationality unity certain involves many different nationalities, but the main thing is the unity between the Han and Tibetan nationalities. This is of great importance to our work and to everything.
The Han and Tibetan nationalities cannot be separated from one another. Living together harmoniously is beneficial to both nationalities. However, this time when we arrived in Tibet, we found that comrades of the Han nationality were angry, as were comrades of the Tibetan nationality. This was not good and we were also worried about this situation. It is our hope that all of us will give consideration to our overall and common interests, and calm down and become really united.
SWB
The internal unity among the Tibetan people is also of great importance. Without internal unity among the Tibetan people nothing will be successfully accomplished in Tibet. This would be greatly unfavourable to Tibet. We have learned some profound lessons from our past experience in this regard. As we all know, over a period of several hundred years after Lang Lama, due to the split condition inside Tibet, Tibet became stagnant and backward in various fields. Today, many people in Tibet cherish narrow-minded localist sentiments and remain antagonistic towards each other. They like to comment on unpleasant things about the An-duo people, or the Kang-ba people, or the A-Bao-Hur people, or unpleasant things concerning the people living in the Qianzang or Houzang areas. Are the Kang-ba people, the A-Bao-Hur people, and the people in the Houzang area not Zang people. I am not a Tibetan person, and the Dalai Lama is not a Tibetan person [as heard]. We Tibetan people are all descendants of the monkey saint. Why should we divide ourselves into antagonistic groups according to the areas in which we live. In short, it is never a good thing to comment on the unpleasant things about each other and find fault with each other by proceeding from localist sentiments. It is hoped that all of us will really pay attention to this problem and correct it.
We must maintain unity, especially the unity between the Han and Tibetan nationalities and the internal unity among the Tibetan people, as we cherish our eyes. People attending today's [19th January] meeting include leading cadres at various levels in various localities, and representatives of various social circles. I sincerely hope that you will play a leading and exemplary role in maintaining unity and will convey my sincere request to your relatives and friends so that all people can really be united.
In coping with the riots in Lhasa the regional party committee and the regional government, and our cadres and policemen, firmly carried out the central instructions of "holding a resolute attitude and taking prudent and reliable measures" in the struggle to safeguard the motherland's unification and to oppose a split. This good practice should be affirmed. Precisely because of this people throughout the country, including those in Tibet, all agreed that our handling of the Lhasa incidents was correct and good and should be affirmed.
It was hard to prevent some minor errors in our specific work which caused some complaints among the masses. The main issue was the argument about whether shots were fired during the riots. I made some investigations into this issue. At that time, the central authorities did issue an order prohibiting the police from opening fire. The regional party committee and the regional public security authorities also issued strict orders to prohibit opening fire. However, because dozens of Lamas from Sala Temple who were involved in the riots, were detained in the Bajiao Street police station, the masses demanded the release of these Lamas and even set fires to burn the police station. At that critical moment, a number of policemen fired warning shots in the air or in the ground. As a result, some ricochets injured or killed people. Only one person was hit and killed directly by a bullet. The truth as regards this issue will be explained in detail by the comrades in the department concerned.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.