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Government forces Tibetans into debt to build new houses
The houses of those who refuse to comply are demolished. The scheme exacts a high price from impoverished people. The new houses make a good impression on tourists but often they don’t even have electricity or water or a courtyard to raise animals. HRW: this is just another move to destroy the local culture.
Beijing (AsiaNews/HRW) – China is forcing Tibetans to leave their homes and take out loans to build new ones in what Human Rights Watch (HRW) says is another attempt to wipe out Tibetans in their own land.
In 2005, the government launched a campaign known in Tibetan as Namdrang Rangdrik (“Do-It-Yourself Program”). It requires villagers, particularly those who live next to main roads, to rebuild their houses to strict specifications within two to three years. Rows of identical houses with a red flag on each roof are now a common sight particularly around big cities like Lhasa and near public buildings. Building the houses brings great economic hardship to bear on people with already straitened means.
HRW said a house that meets the government’s standards costs about US,000-6,000, and the government lends households only about ,200. Families must get the rest by taking out considerable bank loans and those who default on their loans forfeit the right to occupy the new house. They cannot refuse to participate in the scheme: HRW said some who did were forced to watch government bulldozers demolish their homes.
“The current policy is costing many Tibetans their homes and livelihoods,” said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director of HRW. “Tibetans must be able to reject programs that deepen their poverty... Forcing people to take out loans to build new houses that they don’t want certainly does not help them to survive.”
Already in 2000, Beijing, ostensibly to alleviate poverty in Tibet, stipulated that the poorest families in villages were to be relocated to new houses along main roads that were to be jointly funded by the government and families. But Tibetans told HRW that local officials frequently embezzled these public funds and demanded that they contribute free manual labour to build the houses. Moreover, the actual beneficiaries of these funds have not been poor but quite well-off families whose homes are shown on television to give an impression of widespread prosperity.
According to officials, the new modern houses make a good impression on growing numbers of tourists. But few of the houses have water or electricity and they are usually smaller than the old ones and lack courtyards to raise livestock, an important income-generating activity.
“In recent years we’ve seen a slow but steady effort to separate rural Tibetans from their livelihoods in the name of economic development,” said Richardson.
Beijing claims to work for the development of Tibet. In reality, it has encouraged the migration there of the ethnic Han population, giving them several perks, while seeking to eradicate the Tibetan culture and economy.