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Phase
I – Unify and strengthen the Tibetan exile community
Phase II – Coordinate the Tibet
support groups and focus their message
Phase III – Build worldwide
support for Tibetan Self-Determination
Phase IV – Engage the Chinese
Government
Momentum
for the Tibetan Self-Determination Initiative began
to accelerate in 2002. The Committee of 100 for Tibet
endorses this initiative and has adopted self-determination
as the primary focus of its efforts to advance the cause
of the Tibetan people. The Committee encourages all
Tibet support groups and individuals to support the
Tibetans in this new initiative.
The
overall strategy of the Tibetan Self-Determination Initiative
is to employ both a carrot and a stick. The Tibetan
community and their supporters will provide the stick
by applying moral, diplomatic and economic pressure
on China in the form of a coordinated public campaign.
At the same time, this campaign will encourage and facilitate
initiatives and negotiations via “honest brokers”
that can help China resolve pressing domestic political,
economic and social problems as well as international
diplomatic, trade and image problems arising from the
occupation of Tibet.
The approach of the initiative has four phases. The
first and second phases involve building consensus amongst
the Tibetans themselves and within the Tibet support
groups. The third phase is to take the campaign to the
world at large. The fourth phase is to engage the Chinese
government in a process leading to an implementation
of self-determination for the Tibetan people.
Phase I – Unify and strengthen the Tibetan
exile community
The first phase focuses on the Tibetan exile community.
Self-determination can be a contentious issue amongst
Tibetans, particularly when it is confused with implementation
processes like negotiations and referenda or with outcomes
like autonomy and independence. In this initiative,
we stress the principle of self-determination to distinguish
it from the means of achieving self-determination or
the outcome resulting from the Tibetans' exercise of
self-determination.
If the Tibetans are going to negotiate a resolution
to the Tibet problem with the Chinese, they need to
enter the negotiations from a position of greater strength.
The Tibetan movement is currently at a point of relative
weakness. The first priority of the new initiative is
to strengthen the Tibetan position by ensuring that
the call for self-determination is grounded on the grassroots
support of the Tibetan exile community. The Tibetans
must clearly define their aspirations and set a common
course for the Tibet support groups to follow. In this
way, it can also be presented naturally to the Tibetan
government-in-exile and debated by the Tibetan parliament.
Phase II – Coordinate the Tibet support
groups and focus their message
Phase two focuses on the Tibet support community. This
phase continues the effort to build the strongest possible
position for the Tibetans. It also starts the process
of building pressure on the Chinese to break the current
impasse. Once the Tibetans have clearly defined their
aspirations and set a common course, it is the Tibet
support community’s role to create the strongest
possible public campaign.
One of the greatest strengths of the Tibet movement
is the diversity of its campaigns. It should be emphasized
that it is not the intent of this initiative to ask
any Tibet support group to change its campaigns, tactics
or goals, or to surrender any of its autonomy. Instead,
this initiative asks each Tibet support group to add
a dimension to its own message – to add, not substitute,
the common underlying call for self-determination for
the Tibetan people inside Tibet. In this way, the Tibetan
Self-Determination Initiative public campaign will manifest
itself in many forms through a broad range of existing
and future campaigns of Tibet support groups.
As part of phase two we plan an open conference on Tibetan
self-determination for Tibetans, Tibet support groups
and other supporters. The goal of this conference, tentatively
scheduled for September 2003, is to explain the details
of the initiative, get buy-in from a broad spectrum
of supporters, coordinate support and organize workshops,
if possible through the International Tibet Support
Network (ITSN), to develop the actual changes the initiative
will mean for individual Tibet support groups and supporters.
Phase III – Build worldwide support for Tibetan Self-Determination
The third phase of the initiative is to take the Tibet
issue to the general public, using self-determination
to unify, galvanize and strengthen the movement. The
Tibetan people’s right to self-determination has
been upheld repeatedly by the United Nations, the International
Commission of Jurists, the U.S. and other governments
around the world. We believe that the principle of self-determination
– a fundamental right of all peoples – will
resonate with a world that is paying increasing attention
to human rights.
If the Tibetans are going to negotiate a resolution
to the Tibet problem with the Chinese, the Chinese must
be convinced to participate. The public campaign must
enlarge and strengthen the circle of support for the
Tibetans and pressure the Chinese into realizing that
maintaining the status quo is no longer their easiest
or best course.
We aim to present a consistent and focused message to
the Chinese, and the world, that strikes at the root
of all of Tibet’s problems. We need to make self-determination,
along with other human rights, an integral part of doing
business with China. Beijing should be clear that the
answer to the Tibet problem is a fundamental restructuring
of the political and economic processes to allow Tibetans
more influence and control over the affairs that are
immediate and important to them.
Phase IV – Engage the Chinese Government
The fourth phase of the initiative is to engage the
Chinese government. With this initiative, we are truly
looking for a viable long-term resolution to the Tibet
problem. This means finding something that the Chinese
cannot just live with, but feel is in their best interests.
This means the Chinese must be convinced they have no
better alternative. The Chinese are starting from a
position of power. This means that the Tibetans may
well have to compromise, just as we are expecting the
Chinese to make certain concessions. We feel a critical
component for the success of phase four is the role
of an "honest broker." An organization, such
as the UN, the Carter Center, or Kreddha, could play
this role. |
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