Tibet activists: China downplaying floods
Exiled Tibetans and advocacy groups have accused China of heavily underreporting the death toll from devastating flooding in border regions with Nepal, claims Beijing rejected as “malicious smearing and sensationalism.”
Beijing, which in 1950 sent troops to the vast high-altitude plateau it describes as an integral part of China, has long opposed international activities it sees as challenging its sovereignty.
Foreign journalists are restricted from reporting from Tibet and Chinese authorities have a tight grip on information sources on the region.
Beijing’s state media reports that 16 people died in Tibet with 546 missing, and the foreign ministry insists that the release of information has been “open, transparent, and timely.”
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday that emergency workers were trying to find survivors and working to reopen a major highway. State broadcaster CCTV showed excavators scooping up debris next to a swollen, muddy river.
Chinese authorities penalized 10 people accused of spreading misinformation online, suggesting that the number of missing or dead was vastly more than officially reported figures, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
Exile-run Tibet Radio, in neighboring India, said it had gathered reports of about 25 deaths of Tibetans inside Tibet—15 from the border and 10 visiting for trade and work purposes.
Mourning rituals
Tibetans in exile in India, in contact with family in the hard-hit area of Gyirong, said five villages were primarily affected.
Asking not to be named in fear for the safety of relatives, they said mourning rituals were being held, estimating that at least 24 people had died.
The exiled Tibetans said relatives told them a large number of laborers from Lhasa and Shigatse had been at a bridge construction project in the area. Their whereabouts remain unknown.
Advocacy groups also voiced skepticism about the numbers reported by China.
Tencho Gyatso, president of the International Campaign for Tibet, called for China to disclose “complete and verifiable information about the damage and casualties.”
The campaign group said that its sources inside Tibet reported at least four villages were hardest hit, with “over 300 homes destroyed and a large number of residents still unaccounted for.”
The group said sources in Tibet had told them that the casualty count was likely “much higher.”
In Nepal, the wave of freezing water and debris unleashed by a glacial collapse on the China-Nepal border on Aug. 26 killed at least 939 people and left nearly 4,500 missing.
Wider issues
Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, in India, has said he is praying for all those killed—but also warned of wider issues.
“Since this region has seen calamities in the past as well, these are certainly symptoms of a deeper underlying cause—whether climate change or other factors,” he said on Thursday.
The Dalai Lama was just 23 when he fled the Tibetan capital Lhasa in fear for his life after Chinese troops crushed an uprising in 1959. He has never returned. Beijing condemns the Dalai Lama as a rebel and separatist.
Beata Tikos of Tibet House in New York a cultural center founded by Dalai Lama, said it was not surprising that there “may be confusion” around Beijing’s messaging.
China’s hydrodam construction in Tibet, and manipulation of rivers, were among the chief causes of the disaster, Tikos charged.
“There is an overwhelming amount of firsthand documentation indicating that dam-building compounds the glacial melt and permafrost melt already underway from warming,” Tikos added.
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