The future of the Tibetan people is at a crossroads. With the collaboration of three prominent Canadian companies, the Chinese government is now in the process of finalising the launch of a railway which could have disastrous consequences for the future of Tibetans. Power Corporation, Bombardier and Nortel, in partnership with Sifang Locomotive, a Chinese State enterprise, are involved with a railway project that that will connect Golmud, in the west of China to Lhasa the capital of Tibet. Many Tibetans fear that this first railroad to Tibet represents the final phase in the cultural genocide of the Tibetan people.
For more than 50 years, Tibetan culture has barely survived under extremely difficult conditions imposed by the Chinese occupation. The brutal occupation of Tibet which began in 1949 has resulted in up to 1.2 million deaths. But today, the greatest threat to the survival of the Tibetan people is the population transfer of Chinese into Tibet. Tibetans are already a minority in their homeland. When the railway will be fully operational, Chinese migration to Tibet will likely accelerate and crush the last hopes of Tibetan cultural survival as similar projects have done in Easter Turkestan and Inner Mongolia.
Today China continues to maintain a climate of repression over Tibet. This week’s annual report by Amnesty International has said that the Chinese authorities continued to severely restrict the freedom of religion, expression and association of the Tibetan people. It said arbitrary arrests and unfair trials of Tibetans continued and referred to the case of some monks from Amdo who were sentenced for writing what were dubbed politically sensitive materials.
The Golmud-Lhasa railway is expected to strengthen the iron grip that China has over Tibet and increase the militarization of the region. It would allow the rapid deployment of Chinese troops and facilitate the deployment of missiles, including nuclear weapons. The environment in Tibet will also suffer. The railway will be also facilitate the exploitation of Tibet’s natural resources, which are already plundered without any concern for the ecological impact and without collective benefit for Tibetans.
Canadian mining firms are already are the forefront of international investment for mining joint ventures in Tibet…working hand in hand with the Chinese regime.
Three of Canada’s top companies are attempting to disassociate themselves from their responsibilities by claiming that they do not get involved in political affairs. But Jiang Zemin, then president of China, was quoted by the New York Times in August 2001, as saying that even though the railway project would not necessarily be commercially viable, this did not matter much because the construction of the railway was a “political decision”.
One CEO went even as far as to misquote the Dalai Lama to justify their involvement in the project. The Dalai Lama’s position is clear regarding the economic development of Tibet. It is only justifiable if it doesn’t harm Tibetans. The Dalai Lama, like Tibetans in general, is not opposed to economic development when it improves the well being of Tibetans. But clearly, the railway is a project with political motivation and traditionally Beijing-planned economic development has benefited first and and foremost the regime and its colonisers. For instance, the jobs created with the construction of the railway have been given almost exclusively to Chinese people. Chinese media recently reported that Chinese are being hired to learn Tibetan so that they can greet tourists.
On May 30th the shareholders of Bombardier will be formally invited to reflect on their involvement in this project. The Franciscans submitted a resolution to Bombardier requesting that the company draft and adopt a human rights policy and as well as produce an independent report on the progress made in this regard. At the general assembly of Power Corp on May 11th, a similar resolution received 10% of the votes representing about half of the shareholders votes that are not owned by the Desmarais family.
Like Power Corp, Bombardier has asked the shareholders to reject this resolution, affirming that Bombardier already respects international principles that respect human rights and that the company “it will never tolerate any action against any one of these principles˝. Why then does Bombardier not formalize their respect of these principles? Many large companies including Siemens, the European competitor of Bombardier have already adopted human rights policies.
Companies, such as Holiday Inn, BP and the Australian mining company Sino Gold have chosen to divest questionable investment in Tibet instead of taking the risks of ruining their reputation and their image. Even the World Bank cancelled a loan that would have been used to facilitate Chinese migration to Tibet because they found it impossible to conduct an impact assessment in the climate of fear that reigns over Tibet. To date neither Bombardier, Power nor Nortel has conducted human rights, environmental or socio-cultural impact assessments as promoted by international standards of corporate social responsibility
The globalization of the economy clearly offers some enticing business opportunities. But it also offers an opportunity to exercise an influence on the worst regimes of the world and to make it clear that the most fundamental human rights are not negotiable. Power Corp, Bombardier and Nortel, if they choose to ponder their responsibility toward the Tibetan people in this sinister project, could choose to send this message. Inaction clearly amounts to complicity with the cultural genocide of Tibet.
Tenzin Dargyal
National Coordinator, Canada Tibet Committee
