TIBETANS INDEPENDENCE

Tibetans Independence

Tibetans Independence

Introduction

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north of the Himalayas. It is home to the Tibetan people, and to some other ethnic groups such as Monpas and Lhobas, and is inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people.

Discussion

Experts agree that the Tibet conflict is very hard to settle. Melvyn Goldstein states that the Tibetan question is very difficult to resolve due to its nationalistic controversy and absence of international consensus about how to solve such disputes. On the one hand, Tibetans have the right to independence and self-determination, but on the other hand, China as a multiethnic state has the right to maintain its territorial integrity. Any external intervention by international actors to settle such question as Tibet would not be effective and may result in even more serious conflict on the international level. International Organizations, as Milton Esman describes them, “remain political bodies in which member states… pursue their own interests”. Therefore, some conflicts, such as Tibet, are excluded from the agenda of International Organizations due to great power interests. Sautman agrees that the Tibet question is “one of the world's most intractable conflicts”, due to several reasons, such as the religious and ethnic aspects of the conflict, due to sovereignty dispute and China's fear that concessions offered to the Tibetan government in exile will increase separatist movements in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia (Goldstein, Melvyn, 2005).

Goldstein claims that in order to resolve this conflict it is necessary to come to “a compromise that will ensure the preservation of a Tibetan homeland where ethnic Tibetans predominate and Tibetan language, culture, and religion flourish”, but such a compromise is possible only with an external assistance and only if both sides agree to a number of concessions and the Dalai Lama is the central figure in achieving ...