Regierung: Zwangsinternate für tibetische Kinder schließen

Original Statement in German: https://www.bundestag.de/presse/hib/kurzmeldungen-943646

English Translation Below:

Berlin: (hib/SAS) The federal government is concerned about the increasingly deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet. The UN Social Affairs Committee’s call for an end to compulsory boarding schools for Tibetan children and forced settlements of Tibetan nomads is expressly supported, a representative of the Federal Foreign Office said on Wednesday during the meeting of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid.

As part of their policy of assimilation directed against the Tibetan language, culture and religion, the Chinese authorities systematically violated human rights. The methods included re-education campaigns, arbitrary detentions and a comprehensive program of forced resettlement, the State Department official said. Around two million people with a nomadic lifestyle are affected. Part of the broader assault on Tibetan identity is a system of forced boarding schools for Tibetan children.

School closures have systematically reduced the opportunities for schooling in Tibet. For example, Tibetan children are forced to attend a boarding school in the cities during the weekdays, where they are taught almost exclusively in Mandarin. According to the government representative, the goal is clear: the aim is to suppress the Tibetan language and culture. While the proportion of boarding schools in the regions inhabited by Han Chinese is around 20 percent, in Tibet around one million and thus 90 percent of Tibetan children attend boarding schools.

Against this background, we agree with the demands of the UN Social Committee to close forced boarding schools and stop forced settlements. In March, before the United Nations Human Rights Council, Germany expressly referred to the situation in Tibet in a joint statement by the European Union and condemned the Chinese actions. Germany is actively trying to ensure that human rights violations there are not lost sight of, the government representative emphasized.

However, he did not want to confirm whether Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) specifically discussed Tibet during her last trip to China or at the most recent G7 summit, as MPs from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group and from Bündnis 90/Die Grünen asked still deny. Several members of the committee urged clear words to Beijing. Representatives of the SPD faction also inquired about the suicide rate in Tibet, the AfD about cases of forced organ removal, and the Left faction about the extent of forced settlements.