This is a quick post to share a published source of a disturbing piece of information. This blog has several postings on the topic of resettlement of Tibetan nomadic herders. You can read them here and here. In another posting, I asked readers to share data (numbers) on actual government resettlement plans in Amdo (Qinghai) region.
A reader who wishes to remain anonymous pointed out an article by David Goodman published in 2004, in The China Quarterly, titled "Qinghai and the Emergence of the West: Nationalities, Communal Interaction and National Integration" (Vol. 178, pp: 379-399). On page 61 of this article, there is a disturbing sentence: "The [Qinghai] provincial government’s goal is to settle all nomads by 2011, claiming to have completed the process experimentally in Hainan district by the end of 2001."
If it is true that government plans to resettle ALL nomadic herders in the region, I wonder why people -- including experts I have consulted -- did not know or tell me about it?! Very strange.
Anyways, for further information, David Goodman's source for that information is: Wei Xingguo and Jing Fachang, “Hainan mumin quanbu shixian dingju” (“Hainan herdsmen now live in settlements”), Qinghai ribao, 28 January 2002, p. 1.
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2 comments:
Involuntary resettlement is often a prelude to genocide, as in the cases of the Armenian and the Jewish peoples, just to name two well-known cases. Dafur, too, is all about getting a people out of the way. Cultural genocide is indeed a form of genocide, and forced relocation of nomads is a way of doing away with a way of life that is 'inconvenient' to the people in power.
Sadly in 2005 I saw the new houses being built to rehouse all the nomads.Also 3 years ago I was told by Tibetans in Amdo of nomads being rounded up and all their hair cut off.China wants to kill their spirit.
I have spent alot of time in Amdo and it saddens me to think of this culture being destroyed. I fundraise for an environmental grassroots project there if anyone wants to take a look at my blog, or pass it on.Thank you
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