The First Chinese Interpol President

China’s Vice-Minister for Public Security Meng Hongwei was elected Interpol President

By: Amber Sonam

On 10 November 2016, two days after Donald Trump’s astonishing victory in the American Presidential elections, the International Criminal Police Organization commonly known as INTERPOL announced its newly and democratically elected President for 2016-2020, at the 85th session of INTERPOL’s General Assembly held in Bali. INTERPOL was founded in 1914, is now headquartered in Lyon, France and has 190 members around the world. It is the second largest international organization after the United Nations (UN).

While the election of a new INTERPOL head itself is not particularly exciting news, what is noteworthy is that fact that the new head who now has access to the largest surveillance network in the world and who’s privy to large databases of vital global information is an official in the Chinese government. INTERPOL is empowered by a collective of the world’s police forces and charged with a duty to make the world a safer place in the spirit and vein of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, abiding by its Constitution that prohibits ‘any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’. This signals a shift towards global confidence and trust in China.

The President of the INTERPOL heads its Executive Committee and is elected by the General Assembly for a period of four years

The new President of INTERPOL is 62-year-old Mr Meng Hongwei, who took over from Mireille Ballestrazzi. Meng is a native of Harbin City, Heilongjiang Province. He was born in 1953, and joined the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) in 1975. He graduated from the Law Department of Beijing University with a Bachelor Degree in Law, and from Central South University with a Master Degree.

Meng Hongwei is also the Vice Minister of Public Security of China, and brings to his new role close to 40 years of experience in criminal justice and policing. Meng’s expertise covers counter-terrorism, international cooperation, border control, legal institutions, immigration and narcotics control.

His proficiency in these areas were accumulated through the various positions Meng held in the Ministry of Public Security such as Director-General of the Traffic Control Department, Director of the Patrol Police Division, Director of the National Counter-Terrorism Office, Director-General of the China Coast Guard, Vice Chairman of the National Narcotics Control Commission and Member of the Chinese Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure, and finally as Assistant Minister and Vice Minister. Mr. Meng is also the Head of the INTERPOL National Central Bureau of China.

Meng Hongwei during his campaign speech in Bali, Indonesia

 

Good news or bad news?

This news came as a jarring shock to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) who have much to be concerned about these days. For starters, the Tibetan leadership made fun of Donald Trump when the latter was running for President of the United States of America, not expecting him to win. However once Trump became President-elect, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay was quick with his congratulations and request for continued American support for his exiled government and the Tibetans-in-exile. Donald Trump is well known for his stance on immigrants and refugees and so far has been silent on the subject of Tibetans-in-exile.

The CTA has no plans or policies for growth and progress of the Tibetan nation and instead hinges all its hopes on the gullibility and generosity of global governments and the world community. Ironically, the CTA’s pitch to the world, which it has been peddling for over half a century, is that it is a democracy and therefore it becomes the duty of all liberal nations around the world to support its campaign against its enemy, the People’s Republic of China. And yet, the CTA is infamous for not practicing democracy and upholding even the most basic human rights itself.

Interpol logo

Even today, the CTA practices faith-based discrimination against a group of Buddhists who are Dorje Shugden practitioners. There is indisputable evidence of how they incite and coerce the Tibetan people to discriminate against Shugden Buddhists whose only ‘crime’ is to refuse to denounce their respective teachers to who they are loyal. As a mark of loyalty to the Dalai Lama or to put it in a different way, as a sign that they are not traitors of the Tibetan people, private businesses and government institutions are required to put up signs denying entry and service to Dorje Shugden practitioners within the Tibetan settlements, and even refuse them basic medical needs. In fact Shugden Buddhists are marginalized and even denied identity papers so they cannot vote nor travel abroad. For whatever reasons the CTA has held out in attempting to justify its illegal actions, it cannot explain away why it is committing crimes against democracy and why it conducts purges and promotes discrimination against a religious community while pretending to upholding freedom of religion.

Interpol Headquarter in Lyon France

But the CTA’s failures are more dire than that. It has also shown gross incompetence and corruption. Fifty-seven years after the Tibetans followed the Dalai Lama into exile in India, the CTA still demonstrates incapability in improving the welfare and living conditions of the 27 Tibetan refugee settlements in India that are homes to an estimated 150,000 Tibetans. All this time, the Tibetan leadership bask in comfort and ride on their well-oiled propaganda machine against China. The CTA has also failed to show proof of propriety in managing aid and funds they have collected from around the world over decades. This has pushed American Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher to highlight in a letter his concerns about the manipulations and dishonesty of the Tibetan leadership. Most Tibetans who have hoped all their lives to return to their homeland do not realize that it is the CTA that undermines the people’s march to freedom.

190 member countries of interpol

Interpol has 190 members

While waiting anxiously for Trump’s ‘favourable’ reply, the new INTERPOL appointment creates more anxiety for the CTA. The CTA has benefitted from propaganda that demonized China but the appointment of Meng as top police chief of the world signals a change in global attitudes towards China. Whilst critics of China remain vocal, the nations who are constituents of INTERPOL have voted.

The CTA is now more isolated than ever and has no independent capabilities to match a rising China in spite of half a century of global support. There are obvious signs that the world leaders are turning their heads away from the CTA and instead prefer to cooperate with China for both political and economic reasons. After all, China has so much more to offer compared to the CTA who have taken so much from the world, without contributing back.

 

Meng Hongwei

What is in store for the CTA?

Considering the abysmal record of the CTA in improving the welfare of Tibetans-in-exile and not even hesitating to ban a religion and incite hatred against their own people, the CTA faces a bleak future as the world turns away and the enemy that they have demonized is now the head of INTERPOL, capable of investigating all the CTA’s illegal activities.

At the cost of their people’s welfare and unity, as well as the communities of Tibetan Buddhists around the world, the CTA created a scapegoat for their failures, blaming Dorje Shugden for their woes, all the while collecting millions in aid around the world. The impact of these negatives actions, has now born its results in the form of disharmony. Donald Trump’s recent win in the United States election and the appointment of Meng Hongwei as the new INTERPOL Chief would most likely result in an increase of unfavorable situations for the CTA.


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  1. Police is within space, police can’t escape space as well as the government and law of space or fact of this basic freedom of lastingness and non-existence that is reality and that nobody can escape from.

    All the eternalism and nihilism is illusion and not goverment nor law at all but criminality.

    How to prevent and overcome criminality within public hand and economy in order to prevent problems, frustration, criminality, terror and war within mankind?

    Movements like interpol and the police of any nation should force politics to improve the quality of their education system by cultivating wisdom and compassion in order to prevent and overcome harmful actions (criminality) of mind, speech and body around the world in any part of society.

    Also police should force politics to improve the international and national law of all nations to get rid of all the eternalism and nihilism (extremism – criminality of public hand and economy) within the international and national law that is criminality and one cause of many problems, suffering, frustration, criminality, terror and war.

    To be clear, eternalism and nihilism within international or national law is criminality and won’t help a nation nor mankind, because reality is free of lastingness and non-existence and illusions (eternalism and nihilism) never worked and will not work.

    Economy and goverment is confronted with all the problems, suffering, terror and war due to lack of wisdom and compassion (dignity). But they still ignore wisdom and compassion or even fight against and thereby they harm themself instead of helping themself by using wisdom and compassion to prevent and overcome their problems that can’t be stopped by violence. More illusions (eternalism and nihilism) equals less dignity with the cause and effect of more criminality, terror and war.

    To correct people is to overcome illusions within concioiusness and only can be caused and effected by wisdom and compassion, to blame and punish (violence) someone can’t help someone nor societies/nations/mankind at all!

    To overcome illusions you just need to put your mindfulness towards non-duality, you confront yourself or others with non-duality/wisdom and compassion again and again until the illusion has dissolved and liberation/transformation happens. This can’t be effected by violence and if law is based on duality, then wellbeing is not the path nor the fruition but criminality or dualistic betray system the program that will lead one nation into problems, suffering, frustration, criminality, terror and war.

    That’s why violence can’t be the answer and a violence monopoly won’t help mankind at all and government can and should be a source of wisdom and compassion that teaches wisdom and compassion and helps people to study and practice wisdom and compassion to prevent and overcome illusions and violence for their own benifit and the benifit of their nation and all beings.

    Let’s destroy all illusions with wisdom and compassion for the benifit of all beings.

  2. i see a new China unlike the China of Mao Tse Tung’s era.China has moved forward though not fully democratic. CTA , though loudly declaring that they are democratic still practices autocratic rule in discriminating and rule by oppression.

    The CTA has kept the Tibetans lock in stasis in the years of 1959. They are mired in something that is no longer there but that has evolved into a different animal.The CTA better clean up their act or they may not only lose support form the west but attract unwanted attention into their, oh not so democratic actions over the years.

    So, secularly, everyone need to keep up with the times. and spiritually, everything is impermanent except enlightenment.

  3. Karma coming back to bite? After so many years of ineptitude and self serving policies, finally the world platform is changing to show up their failures. Its incredible that CTA were able to get away with misappropriating the millions of sponsorship funds without proper accounting to show. What did they spend on? Their high flying lifestyles and propaganda against China and Dorje Shugden practitioners. I am just amazed that CTA recently could spend so much monies on 400 pages long propaganda booklets of Dorje Shugden and advertisement in the media whilst majority of their people are suffering severe drought in South India. So what do they do? They sent out international appeals for funds to help the drought victims. Will the world be fooled yet again by these freeloaders? We will just have to wait and see.

    Well, the current situation is certainly not going the way CTA wishes for. With Trump against foreigners, the sponsorships of millions from America may just be cut-off. And now with China heading the Interpol, well, things is looking stark. CTA had started a group to be trained to get to know Chinese better and yet I personally think it may be useless in face of the mechanism in place to insult China being still very much alive. Weird that they should link Shugden practitioners with China. Receiving CCP monies? Maybe some do receive and why not? Its charity just as CTA receives from America. What makes American dollar any better than Chinese Yuan? Ask all those powerful countries and see how they lean towards China as she opens up her economy to the world.

    Besides, what has religious freedom got to do with politics? Whether monies were exchanged or not, one should still be allowed to practice one’s religion with freedom, not be segregated, ostracised, persecuted and denied human rights. How does CTA lump all Shugden practitioners as Chinese supporters? Does that mean the millions of Shugden practitioners including non-Tibetans are Chinese spies? Wonder how did they derive at this assumption? After more than 50 years in Exile and they are still in their glass bubble which will break anytime.

    My advice to CTA will be to swiftly lift the ban on Dorje Shugden and you not only unite Tibetans but all the millions of Tibetan Buddhists who practices Dorje Shugden will be in your camp too. Wonder if they are able to realise that?

    Anyway, I wish to congratulate Mr. Meng Hongwei on his appointment as President of Interpol and China on her growing acceptance internationally.

  4. In normal circumstances, this news is an impartial reading and would had quickly be treated as daily titbits and be removed from the thought process, except for this particular paragraph:
    “What is in store for the CTA?
    Considering the abysmal record of the CTA in improving the welfare of Tibetans-in-exile and not even hesitating to ban a religion and incite hatred against their own people, the CTA faces a bleak future as the world turns away and the enemy that they have demonized is now the head of INTERPOL, capable of investigating all the CTA’s illegal activities.”

    Now, there might be some real motivation for CTA to finally stop their anti-China stance and commence thinking about how to make peace; perhaps start by lifting Dorje Shugden ban that created so much negative rhetoric against the Chinese.

  5. It is a very good move for Interpol to elect a Chinese to this role. With regards to the Tibetan issue, due to the long sympathy towards the Tibetan cause CTA have operated with impunity, it is time they are reigned in, as CTA’s benefit is little and the corruption and misuse of funds meant for Tibetas community.

    I hope Interpol will step in to stop the discrimination and bias towards Dorje Shugden people, its about time.

  6. So what will Mr. Sangay and Mr. Penpa do now? Karma is going to get you. All your corruption going to be expose soon I hope. You two have been cheating so many people, your own people and also the Western people. Telling them it is to fund free Tibet, what free Tibet? Where free Tibet?

    How can Tibet ever be free with a non-exiting government that is so deep in corruption. You guys keep telling us we will be going back to Tibet so we should not become citizens of India and pay them all this tax money for what? The real criminal is not Dorje Shugden and their supporters, stop using them as scapegoat for your failure. There is no way China will ever talk to you Mr. Sangay because you guys keep shouting human rights which irritates China more.

    You guys are corrupt and power hungry we all know, Tibetan government Gaden Podrang. You the ones who murdered Tulku Drakpa Gyeltsen and many other high lamas like Nyari Tulku and many others wrongly accused and arrested. Karma will come back to haunt you, cannot escape. Now China getting bigger and bigger, soon Tibet’s cause will be lost if you don’t find right way and keep using your old tricks. If you don’t want China to use Shugden as an issue against you, then you stop using Shugden as an issue like it will harm your cause which we all know is big lie. Please time is running out soon, stop your games, you already lost.

  7. Roses are red, violets are blue, CTA and Dharamsala, time’s up for you!

    No one wants to be friends with you, and now Lobsang Sangay has to go around the world begging for support because people are starting to realise there is no reason and benefit to being friends with the Tibetan leadership.

    Lobsang Sangay, on the verge of losing American support thanks to the Dalai Lama’s comments about Trump, has to beg Canada for help. Sorry, but Canada has dealt with Tibetans for 60 years and now Trudeau is too busy dealing with Syrian refugees.

    And now a Chinese minister is the head of the world’s largest intelligence-gathering service with the largest network. Dharamsala really, really wasted 60 years making friends with the wrong people!

    China is cutting ties with anyone who invites the Dalai Lama to their country. Slovakia then Mongolia. One by one, this house of cards falls down and pretty soon, there will be nothing left for you but to go back to Tibet, tail between your legs. Lobsang Sangay and Penpa Tsering, start packing. Your homes in Massachusetts and Minnesota are waiting for you!

  8. The Shugden groups can dare defy the Dalai Lama because they do not have a country. The Tibetans are scattered all over the world and they have their various power basis from their various countries. I have spoken to Ms. Dhardon Sharling about this. If all the Tibetans were back in Tibet, they would have no chance to defy the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama’s government would crush them into silence. How dare they defy the Dalai Lama. Democracy is not for the backwards and illiterate Tibetans. They need a strong, smart and able ruler like the Dalai Lama and his ministers to tell them what is good or bad for them. The Dorje Shugden practice should be banned completely from the Tibetans and Tibetan nation because it is a harmful practice. And no religious freedom should be allowed to let this Dorje Shugden religion arise. In history, many other harmful religions were suppressed for the good of mankind. Shugden should be suppressed and all people who practice him should be forced to give up the practice.

  9. Everyone should be seen with and take a picture with the Dalai Lama and post it. It will boost ‘business’. It’s made me look really valid and more people trust what I am saying simply because I had my picture taken with the Dalai Lama. I’ve roped in Carole MccQuirre and gang to do the same things. You see because I am from East Germany and we don’t believe in any sort of religious freedom. Whatever the regime in the past told you to do, you do it without question. The Shugden groups should not be allowed to practice their religion because the Dalai lama says so. We shouldn’t question the Dalai Lama or defy him. After all he is not human but a god. So if Dalai Lama says don’t practice Dorje Shugden, just follow along without question because why should there be religious freedom. The populace are too stupid to see what religion is good and what is harmful.

  10. I agree with you Tenzin Paljor. The Tibetans do not need democracy, but a strong firm hand to tell them what to do. They are not like us educated English people who can handle and know what to do with democracy. The fact that Tibetans have no real elected leaders and the leader is really the Dalai Lama for the last 60 years is good news. Tibetans cannot elect their own leaders. When the Dalai Lama dies, we wait for him to reincarnate back and take over again because he is the only leader that can handle Tibetans.

  11. Nechung is ZUMA 👎 before I m think he is one of d best when I m watch dis video By Geshe Dorjee la but now I m think is not d truth n he is lie to Tibet people we r not back to Tibet yt https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIDZLzXIgW8 Chithue Tenpa Yarphel la tq for talk about truth of Nechung . I m watch to this video many time la https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=if2dFMKIr_8 n after I hear you talk I m not belief to Nechung

  12. What will the all the people around the world and in Tibet do now? Dalai Lama says he is happy that Tibet is a part of China and should remain a part of China. So many Tibetans self-immolated for Tibet to be independent and now Dalai Lama did a 360 degree turn and says he wants to go back to Tibet and China and Tibet should be a part of China. So unbelievable. So many are angry and disappointed.

    Tibetans ready to be part of China: Dalai Lama
    Organised by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the event was a part of “Thank You India – 2018″ held by the Tibetan community across India to mark 60 years of its exile in the country.
    Indo-Asian News Service
    Bengaluru
    Tibetans are ready to be a part of China if guaranteed full rights to preserve their culture, the Dalai Lama said on Friday.
    “Tibetans are not asking for independence. We are okay with remaining with the People’s Republic of China, provided we have full rights to preserve our culture,” the 83-year-old spiritual leader said at “Thank You Karnataka” event here in the city.
    Organised by the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the event was a part of “Thank You India – 2018″ held by the Tibetan community across India to mark 60 years of its exile in the country.
    “Several of Chinese citizens practicing Buddhism are keen on Tibetan Buddhism as it is considered scientific,” the Nobel laureate said.
    Born in Taktser hamlet in northeastern Tibet, the Dalai Lama was recognized at the age of two as the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. He fled to India from Tibet after a failed uprising against the Chinese rule in 1959.
    China annexed Tibet in 1950, forcing thousands of Tibetans, including monks, to flee the mountain country and settle in India as refugees.
    Since then, India has been home to over 100,000 Tibetans majorly settled in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh among other states.
    https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/india/tibetans-ready-to-be-part-of-china-dalai-lama/293109.html

    d

  13. Dear Dalai Lama,

    Since you started the cruel ban against the 350 year Dorje Shugden practice, how has it benefit your Tibetan society and Buddhism in the world? Things have become worse and most educated Tibetans can see this. They don’t speak out not because they don’t see your ban as wrong, but you instill fear in them and not respect. It is like fear of a dictator. I am sorry to say so. Everyone is divided. There is no harmony. Before your ban there was more harmony and unity.

    By enacting the ban, you split the monasteries, split so many families, split regions in Tibet apart, split your disciples from you, split your own gurus from you, split Tibetan Buddhism apart. You have created so much disharmony.

    It is not democratic what you have done to ban a religion within your community. You always talk of tolerance and acceptance and democracy and yet you do not accept and tolerate something different from your beliefs. When people practice Dorje Shugden you ostracize them, ban them from seeing you, ban them from using Tibetan facilities. You know you have done that. There are videos that capture your speech and prove this point. You even had people expelled from monasteries just because they practice Dorje Shugden. Some of the monks you expelled have been in the monastery for over 40 years. Many older monks shed tears because of this.

    Many young educated Tibetans lost confidence in you as they saw the damage the Dorje Shugden ban created and they lose hope. Many have become free thinkers. They reject what you have done. So many people in the west left Buddhism because of the confusion you created with this ban against Dorje Shugden which is immoral.

    You could of had millions of people who practice Dorje Shugden to support, love and follow you, but you scared them away. They are hurt and very disappointed. They loved you and respected you deeply before the ban. It has been 60 years and you have failed to get Tibet back. Your biggest failure is not getting Tibet back after 57 years in exile. Now you are begging China to allow you to return to Tibet to the disappointment of thousands of people who fought for a free Tibet believing in you. So many self-immolated for a free Tibet and now you want Tibet to be a part of China with no referendum from Tibetans. Just like a dictator, you decide on your own. It was your government and you that lost Tibet in the first place. Your policies and style of doing things do not benefit Tibet and Buddhism. You have been the sole ruler of Tibet your whole life and you still have not gotten our country of Tibet back for us. Our families and us are separated. Yet you create more pain by creating a ban to further divide people. Please have compassion.

    No other Buddhist leader has banned or condemned any religion except for you. It looks very bad. You are a Nobel laureate and this is not fitting of a laureate. You should unite people and not separate them by religious differences.

    You said Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi did not do right to the Rohingya people in Myanmar due to religious differences, but you are doing the same thing to the Shugden Buddhists within your own society. There is a parallel in this. You separate the Shugden Buddhists from the others in Tibetan society.

    You have lost so many people who would have loved and supported you. You have lost so much support around the world. The Shugden Buddhists who love you number in the millions. When you are fast losing support from governments and private people, it will not do you well to lose more.

    After you are passed away in the future, the rift you created between the Dorje Shugden and non-Dorje Shugden people will remain for a while and that will be your legacy. Disharmony. You will be remembered for this. Not as a hero but a disharmony creator.

    Dorje Shugden will spread and further grow, but you will be no more as you are a human. No one wishes you bad and in fact we hope you have a long and healthy life, but we have lost so much hope and have so much despair because of you. All the hundreds of Dorje Shugden lamas, tulkus and geshes are maturing and there are hundreds of Dorje Shugden monasteries in Tibet who will not give up Dorje Shugden. You have made a mistake. These hundreds of teachers and teachers to be will spread Dorje Shugden further in the future.

    The gurus that gave us Dorje Shugden as a spiritual practice and you have called these holy gurus wrong and they are mistaken in giving us Dorje Shugden. How can you insult our gurus whom we respect so much? If they can be wrong, then you can be wrong. Then all gurus can be wrong. So no one needs to listen to any guru? You have created this trend. It is not healthy. Your own gurus practiced Dorje Shugden their whole lives. Your own gurus were exemplary and highly learned.

    Dalai Lama you have created so much pain with this ban against so many people due to religion. You are ageing fast. Are you going to do anything about it or stay stubborn, hard and un-moving. You show a smile and preach peace and harmony wherever you go. But will you do the same to your own people? Please rectify the wrong you have done. Please before it is too late. You can create harmony again or you can pass away in the future with this legacy of peace. May you live long and think carefully and admit what was a mistake in having this unethical ban against Dorje Shugden religion.

  14. Why doesn’t the United States and its allies end Refugee Status for the useless Tibetans? They have been refugees for 60 years now and don’t tell me they still cannot get their lives back in order?

    Tibetans really know how to put on a good show and use people, take their money and do nothing in return.

    Trump and Allies Seek End to Refugee Status for Millions of Palestinians
    In internal emails, Jared Kushner advocated a “sincere effort to disrupt” the U.N.’s relief agency for Palestinians.
    BY COLUM LYNCH, ROBBIE GRAMER | AUGUST 3, 2018, 2:12 PM
    Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, has quietly been trying to do away with the U.N. relief agency that has provided food and essential services to millions of Palestinian refugees for decades, according to internal emails obtained by Foreign Policy.
    His initiative is part of a broader push by the Trump administration and its allies in Congress to strip these Palestinians of their refugee status in the region and take their issue off the table in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, according to both American and Palestinian officials. At least two bills now making their way through Congress address the issue.
    Kushner, whom Trump has charged with solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, has been reluctant to speak publicly about any aspect of his Middle East diplomacy. A peace plan he’s been working on with other U.S. officials for some 18 months has been one of Washington’s most closely held documents.
    But his position on the refugee issue and his animus toward the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is evident in internal emails written by Kushner and others earlier this year.
    “It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” Kushner wrote about the agency in one of those emails, dated Jan. 11 and addressed to several other senior officials, including Trump’s Middle East peace envoy, Jason Greenblatt.
    “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” he wrote.
    The United States has helped fund UNRWA since it was formed in 1949 to provide relief for Palestinians displaced from their homes following the establishment of the State of Israel and ensuing international war. Previous administrations have viewed the agency as a critical contributor to stability in the region.
    But many Israel supporters in the United States today see UNRWA as part of an international infrastructure that has artificially kept the refugee issue alive and kindled hopes among the exiled Palestinians that they might someday return home—a possibility Israel flatly rules out.
    Critics of the agency point in particular to its policy of granting refugee status not just to those who fled Mandatory Palestine 70 years ago but to their descendants as well—accounting that puts the refugee population at around 5 million, nearly one-third of whom live in camps across Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and Gaza.
    By trying to unwind UNRWA, the Trump administration appears ready to reset the terms of the Palestinian refugee issue in Israel’s favor—as it did on another key issue in December, when Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
    In the same January email, Kushner wrote: “Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are. … Sometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there.”
    Kushner raised the refugee issue with officials in Jordan during a visit to the region in June, along with Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt. According to Palestinian officials, he pressed the Jordan to strip its more than 2 million registered Palestinians of their refugee status so that UNRWA would no longer need to operate there.
    “[Kushner said] the resettlement has to take place in the host countries and these governments can do the job that UNRWA was doing,” said Hanan Ashrawi, a member of Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
    She said the Trump administration wanted rich Arab Gulf states to cover the costs Jordan might incur in the process.
    “They want to take a really irresponsible, dangerous decision and the whole region will suffer,” Ashrawi said.
    Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, told reporters in June that Kushner’s delegation had said it was ready to stop funding UNRWA altogether and instead direct the money—$300 million annually—to Jordan and other countries that host Palestinian refugees.
    “All this is actually aimed at liquidating the issue of the Palestinian refugees,” hesaid.
    The White House declined to comment on the record for this story. A senior executive branch official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said U.S. policy regarding the U.N.’s Palestinian refugee program “has been under frequent evaluation and internal discussion. The administration will announce its policy in due course.”
    Jordanian officials in New York and Washington did not respond to queries about the initiative.
    Kushner and Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, both proposed ending funding for UNRWA back in January. But the State Department, the Pentagon, and the U.S. intelligence community all opposed the idea, fearing in part that it could fuel violence in the region.
    The following week, the State Department announced that that United States would cut the first $125 million installment of its annual payment to UNRWA by more than half, to $60 million.
    “UNRWA has been threatening us for six months that if they don’t get a check they will close schools. Nothing has happened,” Kushner wrote in the same email.
    State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said at the time that the U.S. had no intention of eliminating funding for Palestinian refugees, and that it was taking time to explore ways to reform UNRWA and to convince other countries to help Washington shoulder the financial burden of aiding the Palestinians.
    But the following day, Victoria Coates, a senior advisor to Greenblatt, sent an email to the White House’s national security staff indicating that the White House was mulling a way to eliminate the U.N.’s agency for Palestinian refugees.
    “UNRWA should come up with a plan to unwind itself and become part of the UNHCR by the time its charter comes up again in 2019,” Coates wrote.
    She noted that the proposal was one of a number of “spitball ideas that I’ve had that are also informed by some thoughts I’ve picked up from Jared, Jason and Nikki.”
    Other ideas included a suggestion that the U.N. relief agency be asked to operate on a month-to-month budget and devise “a plan to remove all anti-Semitism from educational materials.”
    The ideas seemed to track closely with proposals Israel has been making for some time.
    “We believe that UNRWA needs to pass from the world as it is an organization that advocates politically against Israel and perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem,” said Elad Strohmayer, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
    Strohmayer said that Palestinians are the only population that is able to transfer its refugee status down through generations.
    The claim, though long advanced by Israel, is not entirely true.
    In an internal report from 2015, the State Department noted that the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees “recognizes descendants of refugees as refugees for purposes of their operations.” The report, which was recently declassified, said the descendants of Afghan, Bhutanese, Burmese, Somali, and Tibetan refugees are all recognized by the U.N. as refugees themselves.
    Of the roughly 700,000 original Palestinian refugees, only a few tens of thousands are still alive, according to estimates.
    The push to deny the status to most Palestinians refugees is also gaining traction in Congress.
    Last week, Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado, introduced a bill that would limit the United States to assisting only the original refugees. Most savings in U.N. contributions would be directed to the U.S. Agency for International Development, the United States’ principal international development agency. But USAID is currently constrained by the Taylor Force Act, which restricts the provision of humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian Authority until it ends a policy of providing aid to families of fallen terrorists.
    “Instead of resettling Palestinian refugees displaced as a result of the Arab-Israeli Conflict of 1948, UNRWA provides aid to those they define as Palestinian refugees until there is a solution they deem acceptable to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” Lamborn’s bill states.
    “This policy does not help resettle the refugees from 1948 but instead maintains a refugee population in perpetuity.”
    A congressional aide familiar with the legislation said its intent isn’t to gut UNRWA funding, but redirect assistance to descendants through USAID.
    “The people that are suffering should still get assistance, but through appropriately defined humanitarian channels and aid programs,” the aide said.
    Similarly, Sen. James Lankford, (R-Okla.), has drafted legislation that would redirect U.S. funding away from UNRWA and to other local and international agencies.
    The bill, which has not yet officially been introduced, would require the U.S. secretary of state certify by 2020 that the United Nations has ended its recognition of Palestinian descendants as refugees.
    “The United Nations should provide assistance to the Palestinians in a way that makes clear that the United Nations does not recognize the vast majority of Palestinians currently registered by UNRWA as refugees deserving refugee status,” reads a draft obtained by Foreign Policy.
    Previous U.S. administrations have maintained that the vast majority of Palestinian refugees will ultimately have to be absorbed in a new Palestinian state or naturalized in the countries that have hosted them for generations.
    But the fate of the refugee issue was expected to be agreed to as part of a comprehensive peace pact that resulted in the establishment of a Palestinian state.
    “It’s very clear that the overarching goal here is to eliminate the Palestinian refugees as an issue by defining them out of existence,” said Lara Friedman, the president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace.
    “This isn’t going to make peace any easier. It’s going to make it harder.”
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/03/trump-palestinians-israel-refugees-unrwaand-allies-seek-end-to-refugee-status-for-millions-of-palestinians-united-nations-relief-and-works-agency-unrwa-israel-palestine-peace-plan-jared-kushner-greenb/

    DS.com Trump and Allies Seek End to Refugee Status for Millions of Palestinians (1)

  15. Supreme Court of India JUSTICE Mr. MARKANDEY KATJU (RETD) writes that Tibet is much better under the Chinese than it was under the lamas who only wanted to make the populace slaves. It was feudal and it will never return to the backwardness again.

    Time has come to acknowledge that Tibet has vastly improved under Chinese rule
    JUSTICE MARKANDEY KATJU (RETD) | 12 August, 2018
    From a terribly poor state hinged on a feudal system, Tibet has modernised and grows faster than the rest of China
    This article has been prompted by Jyoti Malhotra’s article in ThePrint ‘Tibetan government quietly changed its PM’s designation. India won’t be unhappy about it‘.
    China’s annexation of Tibet in 1959, ousting the Dalai Lama, had attracted it worldwide criticism. The Dalai Lama fled and was granted asylum in India, where he set up a government-in-exile with its headquarters in Dharamshala.
    The Chinese claim Tibet on the grounds that it has been part of the country since the Yuan dynasty of the 13th century, which is disputed by the government-in-exile. But let us leave this that matter aside.
    The more important question is whether Chinese rule has benefited Tibet.
    The answer is that it undoubtedly has. As the Reuters’ Ben Blanchard writes: “Today Tibet is richer and more developed than it has ever been, its people healthier, more literate, better dressed and fed”.
    Although Ben goes on to argue that this development masks “a deep sense of unhappiness among many Tibetans”, I will disagree. How can anyone be unhappy if s/he is healthier, better fed and better clothed?
    Under the rule of the Dalai Lamas (Buddhist priests), the people of Tibet were terribly poor, almost entirely illiterate, and lived like feudal serfs.
    Today, Tibet presents a totally different picture. The illiteracy rate in Tibet has gone down from 95 per cent in the 1950s to 42 per cent in 2000. It has modern schools, universities, engineering and medical colleges, modern hospitals, freeways, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, mobile stores and apartment buildings. The capital Lhasa is like any other modern city.
    While the economic growth in the rest of China has slowed down to about 7 per cent, Tibet has had a 10 per cent growth rate in the last two decades.
    Tibet has huge mineral wealth, which was only awaiting Chinese technology to be tapped. Nowadays, it has numerous hydro and solar power plants and industries running with Chinese help.
    Tibetan literature is flourishing, contrary to claims that the Chinese want to crush Tibetan culture.
    Of course, now the lamas cannot treat their people as slaves.
    The so-called ‘government-in-exile’, of which Lobsang Sangay claims to be the President, is a fake organisation, funded by foreign countries. They only want to restore the feudal Tibet, ruled by the reactionary lamas, something which will never happen.
    The writer is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India
    https://theprint.in/opinion/time-has-come-to-acknowledge-that-tibet-has-vastly-improved-under-chinese-rule/97172/

  16. While the government of Nepal has framed a policy to tighten the noose around non-governmental organisations, they have welcomed 30 Chinese NGOs to enter the country. These NGOs will penetrate the country’s social sector at the grassroots level. This is the first time such a large number of Chinese NGOs have entered Nepal at one time. Nepal is increasingly open to Chinese influence, a sign that ties between both countries are strengthening, while India’s influence is being reduced. The time has passed for India’s monopoly to remain uninterrupted in Nepal as opportunities to engage with China are being welcomed.

    30 Chinese NGOs all set to work in Nepal
    REWATI SAPKOTA
    Kathmandu, July 30
    At a time when the government has framed a policy to tighten the noose around non-governmental organisations, 30 Chinese NGOs have entered Nepal to penetrate the country’s social sector and the grassroots.
    The Social Welfare Council Nepal and China NGO Network for International Exchanges, an umbrella body of Chinese NGOs, have signed a memorandum of understanding to enable Chinese NGOs to work in Nepal. The agreement was signed yesterday between SWCN Member Secretary Dilli Prasad Bhatt and CNIE General Secretary Zhu Rui in the presence of Minister of Women, Children and Senior Citizen Tham Maya Thapa and Chinese Deputy Minister of External Affairs Wang Yajun.
    The agreement has paved the way for the first batch of 30 Chinese NGOs to work in Nepal for a period of three years. Their contract will be extended based on the consent of SWCN and CNIE. Representatives of these 30 Chinese NGOs were also present during yesterday’s signing ceremony. They have agreed to work in partnership with local NGOs to implement their programmes and projects.
    The Chinese NGOs are eyeing areas such as livelihood, healthcare, education, skill-based training, community development and disaster management. This is the first time such a large number of Chinese NGOs has entered Nepal at one time. The Chinese assistance so far in Nepal has largely been limited to development of infrastructure projects. But the entry of these NGOs indicates China is keen on making its presence felt in Nepal’s social sector and the grassroots, which, till date, have remained domains of the West and countries such as Japan and India.
    The MoU signed between SWCN and CNIE states that Chinese NGOs will be mobilised for ‘the benefit of needy Nepalis and to enhance ties between China and Nepal through people-to-people support programmes’.
    “The Chinese NGOs will abide by the law of Nepal in its entirety while carrying out development cooperation in Nepal,” says the MoU, adding, “Chinese NGOs will submit programmes to the SWCN to carry out development activities in partnership with Nepali NGOs and SWCN in line with plans and policies of the government of Nepal.”
    The MoU was signed at a time when the government has drafted the National Integrity Policy to limit activities of NGOs and INGOs, as some of them were found ‘trying to break communal harmony and proselytising Nepalis’. There were also concerns that high administrative cost of many NGOs and INGOs was preventing money from reaching the real beneficiaries. The policy clearly states that NGOs and INGOs cannot spend more than specified amount under administrative and consultant headings. They will also be barred from working against Nepal’s interests, culture and communal harmony and conducting activities to promote their religious, social or other agenda, adds the policy.
    Around 48,000 NGOs are currently registered in Nepal, of which only 1,600 have been receiving funds from INGOs, as per SWCN. The SWCN has directed INGOs and NGOs to spend 60 per cent of the budget to generate tangible results, while the remaining can be used to cover administrative costs and organise training, meetings and seminars.
    https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/30-chinese-ngos-all-set-to-work-in-nepal/

  17. The cracks in Tibetan society are starting to show, and it is now coming to the attention of local Indians who have all but identified the Tibetan leadership as the source of the divisions. According to this author, disunity amongst the Tibetans is now creating problems for Indian law enforcement agencies, and this disunity may culminate in young Tibetans holding silent grudges against their host country. It is incredible that after six decades of generosity from India, Indians are now facing the very real possibility Tibetans can be ungrateful towards India. The Tibetan leadership totally failed to impart positive values upon their exiled community, like gratitude for those kindest to them and the need to repay these kindnesses with real, tangible results. It’s also very unlikely that the Tibetan leadership will now start to do this, after six decades of failing to do so. Indians need to realise this, and see that there is no benefit for their nation to align themselves with the Tibetan leadership, and there never will be.
    Tibetan disunity not in India’s interest
    John S. Shilshi
    Updated: August 7, 2018, 11:00 AM
    India is home to the Dalai Lama and an estimated 120,000 Tibetan refugees. Though this humanitarian gesture on India’s part comes at the cost of risking New Delhi’s relations with China, India has never wavered in ensuring that Tibetans live with dignity and respect. Notified settlements across the country were made available so that they can live as independently as possible and practice Tibetan religion and culture. They are also allowed to establish centres of higher learning in Tibetan Buddhism. As a result, several reputed Buddhist institutes came up in Karnataka, and in the Indian Himalayan belt. In what may be termed as a gesture well reciprocated, and because of the respect and influence His Holiness the Dalai Lama commands, the Tibetan diaspora also lived as a peaceful community, rarely creating problems for India’s law enforcement agencies.
    The situation, however, changed from 2000 onwards when unity amongst Tibetans suffered some setback due to developments like the Karmapa succession controversy and the controversy over worshiping of Dorje Shugden. In a unique case of politics getting the better of religion, two senior monks of the Karma kargyue sect of Tibetan Buddhism, Tai Situ Rinpoche and late Shamar Rinpoche, developed serious differences after the demise of Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, in 1981. This animosity ultimately led to emergence of two 17th Karmapa candidates in the early nineties. While Tai Situ Rinpoche identified and recognised UghyanThinley Dorje, late Shamar Rinpoche anointed Thinley Thaye Dorje as his Karmapa candidate. Enthronement of their respective protégés at the Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the supreme seat of the Karma Kargue linage, being their primary objective, both started indulging in activities monks normally are expected to, and bitterness spewed against each other.
    The bitter rivalry assumed a new dimension when UghyenThinley Dorje suddenly appeared in India in January 2000. The competition became fiercer and hectic political lobbying, never known in the history of Tibetan Buddhism on Indian soil, became common place. Apart from pulling strings at their disposal in Sikkim as well as in the power corridors of New Delhi, these senior monks spat against each other with allegations and counter allegations, widening the gaps between their supporters. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, choosing to favour one of the candidates—a decision many Tibet watchers felt was ill-timed—had also limited possible scope of rapprochement. Hence, the Karma Kargyue followers are now vertically divided, while the camps are dragged into a long drawn legal battle.
    Another development that unfortunately split the Tibetans is the controversy over Shugden worshipping, which again is an internal matter of the Gelugpa sect, to which the Dalai Lama belongs. It erupted as a result of the Dalai Lama urging Tibetans to refrain from worshiping Dorje Shugden, a deity believed to be a protector, according to Tibetan legend. Shugden practitioners, who felt offended by the call, describe it as an attack on freedom of religion, a right, which Dalai Lama himself tirelessly fought for. On the other hand, die hard Dalai Lama followers perceived the questioning of the decision as one challenging the wisdom of the Dalai Lama and mounted massive pressure on Dorje Shugden practitioners to relent, with some even demolishing the statues of the deity. The rivalry ultimately led to split in two Gelug monasteries in Karnataka, and Serpom and Shar Garden monasteries in Bylakupe and Mundgod respectively came under the control of Shugden followers. The bitterness associated with the split is exemplified by the fact that till today, members of these monasteries are treated as some sort of outcasts by the others. Thus, for the first time, the Tibetan diaspora in India gave birth to sections opposed to the Dalai Lama, with spillover effects in Tibet and elsewhere.
    For India, with a fragile internal security profile, a divided Tibetan population on its soil is not good news. It has several long-term implications. It is common knowledge that China considers Dalai Lama as a secessionist, one plotting to divide their country. The latter’s claim of “all that Tibetans were asking for, was a status of genuine autonomy within the Constitution of the Peoples’ Republic of China”, had fallen into deaf ears. China also considers him as someone who plays to the Indian tune to tickle China. Therefore, at a time when China has successfully shrunk the Dalai Lama’s space internationally, India continuing to extend the usual space for him is viewed as complicity. Sharp reaction from China when he was allowed to visit Arunachal Pradesh in April 2017, is a recent example. Such being the delicate nature of India-China relations on matters and issues concerning Tibetans, India can hardly afford to ignore the division within the diaspora. Past experience of dubious elements from Tibet having succeeded in infiltrating the Central Tibetan Administration, including the security wing, should be a warning.
    It is also time India understands the reason behind Tibetans seeking Indian passports, despite an existing arrangement for issue of Identity Certificates, which is passport equivalent. Some had even successfully taken recourse to legal remedy on the issue, and left the government of India red-faced. These changing moods should not be viewed as desires by Tibetans to become Indian citizens. They are triggered by the pathetic state of affairs associated with issuing of Identity Certificates, where delays in most cases are anything between six months to one year. Early streamlining of the process will drastically reduce their desire to hold Indian passport. It will also remove the wrongly perceived notion among some educated Tibetan youth, that the cumbersome process was a ploy by India to confine them in this country. While India should not shy from requesting the Dalai Lama to use his good offices to end all differences within the community in the interest of India’s internal security, it will also be necessary to ensure that young Tibetans do not nurse a silent grudge against the very country they called their second home.
    https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/tibetan-disunity-not-indias-interest

  18. Although the Dalai Lama has offered an apology, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) still expressed their disappointment over his controversial comment on Nehru, the Arunachal Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC). Dalai Lama called Nehru self-centred.

    The Congress said Dalai Lama being a foreigner should shun and refrain from interfering in the internal as well as external affairs of India.

    Dalai Lama should abstain from imparting controversial information to students: Arunachal Congress
    Dalai Lama should know that a spiritual leader like him is shouldering great expectation: APCC
    | DAMIEN LEPCHA | ITANAGAR | August 12, 2018 9:58 pm
    disappointment over the recent statement made by Tibetan Spiritual Leader the 14th Dalai Lama in which he called Jawaharlal Nehru, the former Prime Minister of India as “self-centered” and the one responsible for parting India and Pakistan.
    “Although Dalai Lama expressed regret over his controversial comment, the APCC is extremely thwarted by it. A Tibetan spiritual leader calling names to an Indian leader who sweated most to keep him and his followers safe from Chinese aggression is simply not acceptable. Today, India is home to lakhs of Tibetan refugees who are living in 37 settlements and 70 scattered communities across different states of India,” APCC vice-president Minkir Lollen said in a statement on Sunday.
    “Dalai Lama may have forgotten that India provided a beam of light and hope to Tibetans remaining in Chinese-dominated Tibet and in the neighbouring Chinese provinces politically cut off from the Tibetan heart land. All these happened only because India has great leaders like Gandhi and Nehru who took the responsibility of social burden to shelter thousands of persecuted Tibetans then in 1959,” Lollen added.
    Minkir said Dalai Lama should know that a spiritual leader like him is shouldering great expectation, hope and trust of millions on record and the same are watching his contribution towards the mankind.
    “In such circumstances, Dalai Lama should abstain from imparting partial and controversial information to the students who are the torch bearer of the nation,” the Congress said.
    Further stating that the statement of the spiritual leader could be a politically motivated one and made with an effort to approach Prime Minister Narendra Modi for survival of his continuation in the country, the Congress said Dalai Lama being a foreigner should shun and refrain from interfering in the internal as well as external affairs of India.
    https://nenow.in/north-east-news/dalai-lama-should-abstain-from-imparting-controversial-information.html

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.…Instead of turning away people who practise Dorje Shugden, we should be kind to them. Give them logic and wisdom without fear, then in time they give up the ‘wrong’ practice. Actually Shugden practitioners are not doing anything wrong. But hypothetically, if they are, wouldn’t it be more Buddhistic to be accepting? So those who have views against Dorje Shugden should contemplate this. Those practicing Dorje Shugden should forbear with extreme patience, fortitude and keep your commitments. The time will come as predicted that Dorje Shugden’s practice and it’s terrific quick benefits will be embraced by the world and it will be a practice of many beings.

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