Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh) [India], September 13 : The Tibetan government-in-exile expressed its concern over China's expansion of colonial boarding schools in Eastern Tibet.
Expressing its concern over the issue, Dolma Norzin, Minister of Information and International Relations, the Tibetan government in exile, told ANI, "The colonial boarding school has been in implementation by China in recent years, and the core fundamental intent behind the colonial boarding school is to assimilate the Tibetans inside Tibet through the sinicisation process and in those colonial boarding schools."
"The Tibetan children are being deprived of the opportunity to stay with their parents and to learn their language, leading to a loss of cultural identity, and this is a sinister campaign by China targeting the Tibetan children," she added.
Further, the minister also stated that young monks have been forcibly enrolled in all these colonial schools.
"We recently got to know that, especially in Eastern Tibet, there is a strengthening of this colonial style boarding school, where, as per information in Ngaba Kirti Monastery and two other monasteries in Sichuan Province, over 1700 monks as young as 18 have been forcibly enrolled in all these colonial boarding schools, and the parents of the affected monks who have not consented to join the colonial boarding school some of them have been arrested," the minister said.
We have received reports of imprisonment, we have received reports of official threats that the public benefits that parents get would be revoked," she added.
The minister of exile government also urges immediate intervention in this critical situation from the international community, including governments, the United Nations, human rights organizations, and educational institutions committed to protecting cultural diversity and religious freedom and promoting human rights and fundamental freedom for all.
She further calls upon the PRC government to uphold their international legal obligations of safeguarding the rights and religious freedom of the Tibetan people and refrain from the assimilationist practices being implemented in the Tibetan areas.
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