TIBET: US NGO SAYS T.A.R. OFFICIALS WANT THEM OUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000184 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT PLEASE PASS TO USAID STATE FOR EAP/CM, DRL, G E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/4/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON SOCI CH SUBJECT: TIBET: US NGO SAYS T.A.R. OFFICIALS WANT THEM OUT REF: A. A) 09 CHENGDU 000181 ¶B. B) 08 CHENGDU 000197 ¶C. C) 08 CHENGDU 000238 AND PREVIOUS CHENGDU 00000184 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: David E. Brown, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General Chengdu. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) officials want foreign residents, particularly those who speak Tibetan, out of the TAR, Tibet Poverty Alleviation Fund (TPAF) Country Director Tony Gleason said. The situation of international NGOs (INGOs) in the TAR has steadily worsened since the unrest of March 2008 (an assessment shared by many other NGO contacts). This has included pressure to downsize, obstruction of efforts to register at the national level, and official counterparts being pressured to cancel contracts. Optimism among INGOs for things to improve in the foreseeable future is waning, he noted, with only a handful of organizations left on the ground. Gleason reported that TAR officials are particularly distrustful of organizations receiving USG funding, but believes this can be at least partially ameliorated by aligning USG-funded programs more closely with China's official poverty alleviation goals. End Summary. TPAF: TAR Officials Want Foreign Residents Out -------------- - ¶2. (C) The plight of INGOs in the TAR following events of March 2008 has worsened, Gleason told CG and ConGen staff during a recent visit to Shangri-la (previously known as Zhongdian) in northwest Yunnan Province (ref A),seat of the Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. Gleason recently moved his family from Lhasa to Diqing in order to open a new branch of TPAF's Dropenling handicraft export business, a poverty-alleviation project utilizing Tibetan artisans. The move, however, appears to be permanent, Gleason said, as he has learned TAR officials want to shut down the main Dropenling operation in the TAR (Gleason has already asked a friend to pack up his house in Lhasa, since it appears they will not be going back.) ¶3. (C) The reason for this move, in Gleason's view, is that TAR officials simply want all foreign residents out of the TAR. Gleason sees the TAR Party Secretary as the main force behind this policy, rather than the central government, noting that the TAR government set up an investigation unit to see whether wholly-owned foreign enterprises or INGOs were behind the violence in March 2008 -- a move Gleason called "paranoid scapegoating." (Comment: While our information indicates that many foreigners engaged in work regarded by authorities as "sensitive" or "political" have indeed been pushed out, a number of foreigners remain on the ground, some even being lauded in local media stories for bringing in new businesses. Also, while local TAR officials enthusiastically took up the "paranoid scapegoating" of many INGOs in the TAR following the events of March 2008, Post notes consistency in official language across Tibetan regions in our consular district that indicate a more coordinated approach, likely with full central government backing. End Comment.) ¶4. (C) The TAR has refused permission to INGOs for proposed new foreign staff who speak Tibetan, Gleason said, and has forced the firing of teachers at Tibet University who had been there for as many as 8-10 years. Government organizations acting as counterparts to INGOs have also been pressured not to renew their contracts, he said. He noted that TPAF was optimistic last year, but now feels that things are getting worse. The only INGOs that have been able to keep foreign staff in the TAR are Save the Children (STC) UK and Handicap International, he reported. Bilateral missions have also been allowed to stay, he noted, as has the Swiss Red Cross. The anti-foreign pressure existed before March 2008, Gleason continued, complaining that the TAR Foreign Affairs Office indirectly indicated they did not want him to learn Tibetan. Cut off from finding a Tibetan teacher, he learned Chinese instead. Save the Children's Future in the TAR? -------------- ¶5. (C) Gleason's wife, who formerly worked for STC in the TAR, told us the INGO had been forced to greatly scale back its staff. However, an ethnic Tibetan STC staff member with whom PolEconOff spoke during a recent trip to Lhasa made no mention of this and described the current STC presence in the TAR as comprising about 30 staff, including ONE international advisor who has been in place about three months, ONE Chinese staff member, and the rest Tibetans. He confirmed that many INGOs have been shut down over the last year, offering that Chinese authorities "maybe think they do not need them anymore." He did, however, express optimism about STC's staying power. It "has a few more years" in which it should be able to operate in the TAR, he said, because its education and HEALTH programs are CHENGDU 00000184 002.2 OF 002 highly intertwined with the government's own reform goals, and its work is closely coordinated with the local government. TAR Says No to TPAF National Registration -------------- ¶6. (C) The central government had asked TPAF to become registered as an INGO at the national level because they were so impressed by what they saw in a 2007 evaluation of TPAF's work, Gleason said. When TPAF approached the TAR Foreign Affairs Office, however, the answer was "absolutely not." Since March 2008, no INGOs have been registered at the national level and an expected new round of INGO regulations is apparently going to be delayed for another year, he said. (Note: The only INGO we know of operating in Southwest China that has to date successfully completed national registration is the Jane Goodall Institute. The issue of NGO registration has in general been a longstanding problem throughout Southwest China since well before March 2008. According to our contacts, 70-90 percent of domestic NGOs operating in our district have not been able to register with the government at all, opting instead to either operate under the radar screen entirely, or register as businesses. End Note.) TPAF: USG Funding Creates Problems for INGOs in Tibet -------------- -------------- ¶7. (C) Gleason reported that he has seen indirect communication that TAR officials do not trust USG funding, and that they have been scouring INGOs' financial transactions, looking for evidence of ulterior motives. Gleason's view of USG funding bringing political problems has been echoed by several other NGO contacts, including a British HEALTH NGO worker, who described it as a very sensitive issue when dealing with officials in Tibetan areas. Accepting more USG funding will certainly create political problems for TPAF, Gleason continued, "[but] we feel it's worth it, we trust in the future better judgment of the Chinese government." In order to make it easier for INGOs to accept USG funding, four INGOs (TPAF, TMI, Winrock International, and the Bridge Fund) have jointly recommended to USAID that they revise their grant language to be more consistent with, and "friendly to," China's own poverty alleviation goals. (Note: These four organizations, along with Heifer International, have each submitted grant applications in response to USAID's recent USD 25 million RFP. End Note.) ¶8. (SBU) Post is continuing to gather information on the current INGO situation in the TAR and will provide septel an overall assessment of where things stand. BROWN