Tibetan writers find voice in Norway

Tibetan writer Dolma Kyab sentenced to ten years in prison for authoring an unpublished book, 'The Restless Himalayas',  August 30: The suppressed voices of Tibetan writers inside Tibet will find expression among world-renowned writers at the 'Bjørnson Festival of International Literature' in Molde, Norway. Organisers said that the Festival, from August 20-September 2, will feature an event focussing on the plight of Tibetan writers inside Tibet living under “difficult circumstances and without opportunities to express themselves in public.” Chungdak Koren, a member of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile and Dechen Pemba, Editor of High Peaks Pure Earth, a website that translates writings by Tibetans in Tibet and China, will be speaking at the event. London based Pemba, who was recently in the exile Tibetan headquarters of Dharamshala, said she was “excited” to be speaking at the Festival. “I’ve been invited by the organisers to talk about the current situation for Tibetan writers in Tibet and PRC,” she said. “It’s a great opportunity to speak at a literature festival and I’m very grateful to the organisers not only for inviting me but also for putting Tibetan writers in the spotlight.” Since 2008, High Peaks Pure Earth has been translating from blogs inside Tibet and China, including many by artists who have been detained and sentenced for their expressions. Earlier this month, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion was given a detailed appraisal on the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on Tibetan intellectuals in Tibet. The representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Geneva, Tseten Samdup, submitted a detailed profile of 64 Tibetan intellectuals to the UN Special Rapporteur and urged for necessary inquiry into their cases, including information on court proceedings, access to family members among others. In what Samdup called the “harshest” crackdown on Tibetan artists and intellectuals since the Cultural Revolution, he said that at least 24 Tibetans intellectuals, including monks, lay men and women, have been given sentences ranging from few months to life imprisonment for exercising their freedom of expression. “This new generation of young Tibetans born and educated under Chinese Communist rule have edited banned magazines and are tech-savvy bloggers imprisoned for gathering, expressing and sharing information about conditions in Tibet especially after the March 2008 demonstrations across Tibet,” he said. The exile Tibetan administration notes that the whereabouts of about 37 Tibetan intellectuals remain unknown, while 12 intellectuals were released on fear of custodial death after excessive torture during detention by the Chinese authorities. In her address to the European Parliament on the situation in Tibet in June this year, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Catherine Ashton had expressed her concern over the growing restrictions on expressions of Tibetan identity by the Chinese government. “Over the last three years, an increasing number of Tibetan intellectuals and cultural figures have faced criminal charges or been imprisoned,” Ashton said. “The EU is worried by restrictions on expressions of Tibetan identity and freedom of expression in Tibet.” The 'Bjørnson Festival of International Literature' is a prestigious annual event named in honour of the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson.