To the Editor:

I saw a bumper sticker recently that said, “IF You’re Not Outraged, You’re Not Paying Attention.”

This certainly applies to the following account: they “took me by force and sterilized me … nearly 30 other women were sterilized at the same time … 70 percent of the women aged 18 and above in my village have been sterilized … My sister-in-law was aborted before her husband’s eyes … They bound her hands and legs…” and the story continues to explain the ghastly procedure performed on Mrs. Lhankar, a 37-year-old Tibetan woman.

This atrocity was recounted in a booklet issued for the Women’s Conference in Beijing and published by the Tibetan government in exile. The booklet entitled Tibetan Women Oppression and Discrimination in Occupied Tibet recently arrived in my mail, and as I read of the oppression, discrimination and torture endured by Tibetan women, my heart ached for their plight.

This incident occurred as recently as 1988 and is only one of many examples of the oppression faced not only by these women, but by all Tibetans inside Tibet. Since the occupation in 1949, the country and its people have suffered tragedy after tragedy.

Over 6,000 monasteries have been destroyed, and irreplaceable works of art have been stolen and sold on the black market.

A deliberate and planned population transfer has been underway, now making Tibetans a minority in their own country.

As the previous example illustrated, Tibetan women are often sterilized or pregnancies aborted by force.

Peaceful demonstrators, bystanders and children have been shot point-blank as in the popular uprisings of 1988 and 1989 leading to the implementation of martial law in Lhasa. Innocent people have been arrested for simple “crimes” such as carrying a picture of the Dalai Lama, “suspicious” activities and “cohorting” with foreigners in the streets. These violators are charged and jailed often without trial. In prison, the men and women are tortured with electric cattle prods, hung from ceilings, starved and beaten. Many have died.

The abuses go on and on, continuing still. Freedom House, a human rights organization, holds that Tibet ranks as the worst case human rights violations among all occupied territories in the world.

The International Commission of Jurists determined that China has committed genocide in Tibet and violated 16 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet the arrests, tortures and deaths are still occurring. 300 Tibetans flee every month to Nepal and India, often walking up to four weeks over to the Himalayan Mountains.

Not only are the people and culture suffering, so to is the natural environment of the Tibetan plateau. Nuclear waste dumping has begun inside Tibet and is occurring near the sources of many major rivers that flow through ten countries in Asia.

Massive deforestation is causing irreversible soil erosion, which also contributes to the pollution of these major waterways.

Large-scale mining is contributing to deforestation and cutting paths through Tibet’s remaining rain forest. Once abundant wildlife has been pushed to the brink of extinction, including the panda and snow leopard.

By now if you are not outraged, there is something wrong. These are the facts, not exaggerations. They invoke in me a tremendous sense of urgency, for the very survival of the TIbetan way of life is being challenged.

This urgency was part of the massage shared by His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet during his recent trip to the United States. I was fortunate and honored to have had the opportunity to attend two audiences given by the Dalai Lama in September in Boston. He thanked those who support the Tibetan cause and urged us to continue. Being Americans, we are able to aid those in less fortunate positions. We can speak out and spread awareness. As students we can lend enthusiasm and idealism to the issue.

As our world becomes smaller in this modern age, a need for universal responsibility will be a necessity. Not only is this position pro-Tibet, it is pro-justice.

The concern is for all who suffer, knowing that what happens in the rest of the world will affect our communities and those generations to come.

The goal is to allow people and culture to flourish, to relieve pain and suffering, and create a global society based on altruism and empathy. I hope you are provoked by simple human compassion for those who suffer as we can never imagine, and I would like to petition all of you to give your support to the people of Tibet.

Join me in bringing knowledge to the Iowa State campus of issues that are facing our world and will therefore affect us all.

Respond with opinions, ideas or questions at e-mail [email protected]

Carrie Ohlendorf

Human being 1st

Senior

Anthropology