Beware of Tibetan radiation

-Ramesh Sharma

Nuclearisation has been one of the major problems facing the South Asian region. Wittingly or unwittingly Nepal is also bound to be exposed to its possible nightmarish repercussions. As we have been sandwiched between two nuclear powers India and China, we need to be cognizant of the obtaining situation, lest we get outpaced by the resultant disasters. 

Interestingly, one of the vernacular weeklies has raised an important question before the Chinese Ambassador Zeng Xuyong regarding Nepal's possible exposure to nuclear radiation. According to that vernacular, experts believe that China's nuclear activities in Tibet have exposed even Nepal to the possible danger of radiation, should any accident, a la Tokaimura and Chernobyl, take place. It has also asked if it renders Chinna's rhetoric of friendship towards this tiny kingdom empty and hollow. But the Chinese Ambassador has expressed his customary disagreement with this line of thinking. "The allegation that the so-said 'China's nuclear activities in Tibet' may expose Nepal to the possible danger of radiation is subjective assumption and fabrication out of ulterior motives," replied Zeng. "Why lightly believe such false words and come to the wrong conclusion that China is not friendly to Nepal ?"

However, the reality does not support the Chinese Ambassador's claim. What has come out so far about the Chinese nuclear activities in Tibet seems to testify that while responding to a Nepalese journalist Zeng seems to have been mincing words. Reports have it that after the forcible occupation of Tibet China has not only made it a dumping yard of nuclear waste but also has started extracting the heavy white metal. China is said to have nuclear manufacturing centres at Dhashu that is in the 'Haibei Tibetan Autonomous prefecture' and Tongkhor in Amdo. The primary weapon research and design facility in Dhashu, also known as the 'Ninth Academy' is believed to have dumped an unknown quantity of radioactive waste on the Tibetan plateau.

According to highly revealing article 'China Makes Tibet Its Nuclear Dumping Yard' published in The Hindustan Times (February 28, 1995), many Tibetans had died in 1992 after drinking contaminated water near a uranium mine in Ngapa, Amdo. Uranium is also allegedly processed in Tibet. Quoting a 'recent study Nuclear Tibet', it has been mentioned that the first nuclear weapon was brought onto the Tibetan plateau in 1971 and stationed in the Tsaidam basin, in northern Amdo. 'And to the west of Dhashu, China has established a nuclear missile deployment and launch site for DF-4 missiles in the Tsaidam basin in the early 1970s', said the article.

Equally revealing is the fact that 'another nuclear missile site in Tibet is located at Delingha, about 200 kms southwest of Larger Tsaidam, which houses DF-4s and is the missile regimental headquarters for Amdo containing four associated launch sites. A new nuclear division has also been established in Amdo.' According to a TASS report of July 3, 1982, China is also reported to have been conducting nuclear tests in several areas of Tibet in order to determine the radiation levels among the people living in those parts.

In 1984, China Nuclear Energy Industry Corporation (CNEIC) had reportedly offered Western countries nuclear waste disposal facilities at $1,500 a kg. Despite significant progress the execution of this plan was dropped in the wake of widespread controversy raised by the Western press in this regard. Had there not been any interruption around 4,000 tons of nuclear waste was expected to be sent to China for a consideration of $5.45 billion by the end of the 20th century. Moreover, "the Chinese policy of disposing toxic wastes in Tibet received further confirmation in 1991 when Greenpeace obtained documents revealing a plan to ship one and a half million tons of sewage sludge from the city of Baltimore, Maryland to Tibet for use as 'fertilizer'." This all has lent ample credence to our suspicion that we might be exposed to the lethal effects of radiation should some nuclear accident occur in Tibet.

Chinese rule in Tibet is believed to have been sustained by a 'huge Chinese garrison and the policemen's cattle-prods.' The entire world community including Tibet's spiritual and political leader Dalai Lama is convinced that China is completely insensitive to the Tibetans' legitimate susceptibilities. Perhaps, China thinks that 'Tibet question can be solved with more dollops or repression combined with more Chinese immigration and economic development.' Despite the offering of a compromise - Tibetan autonomy instead of independence - made a decade ago in his Strasbourg policy pronouncement, Dalai Lama is still regarded as a 'national splittist with a religious overcoat'. Despite China's fervent penchant for an entry into the WTO, currently the symbol of Western values based on liberalism and openness, even the Tibetan spiritual leader's seemingly Buddhist overtones seem to have failed to move the dragon. Anyway, if China, desists itself from contaminating Tibet and the adjoining areas thus absolving the peripheral states from the nightmarish terror of nuclear leakage or accident, it should be welcomed, at least, as the ferocious dragon's tribute to the humankind on the threshold of third millennium.

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Nepal Foundation for Advanced Studies (NEFAS) organised a workshop on 'Civil Education for Young Generation' in collaboration with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) on December 10. Since it was the day when the International Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated in 1948, Dr. Krishna Bhattachan's paper 'Human Rights and Nepal's Commitment' exuded due relevance.

Bhattachan who is associated with the Sociology and Anthropology Department of Tribhuvan University, has tried to trace the origin of human rights to the signing of Magna Carta in 1215 AD. Further, he rightly argues that the concept of human rights got a boost in the wake of American War of Independence and the French Revolution. This apart, he regards the pronouncement of Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a watershed in this field. For him human rights, in the international arena, has been a threatening weapon at the hands of developed and powerful nations. In this context, he has made a feference to Sino-US relations.

When it comes to analysing his approach to internal issues he seems to have failed to make an impartial observation. While discussing the human rights situation in our kingdom, the way he has tried to cast aspersion specifically on Hindu religion, Bahun/Chhetris and Nepali language is apt to create repulsion among the sane intelligentsia. Whether the constitutional declaration of Nepal as a Hindu state as also the Nepali language the official language of this kingdom, is right or not could be a subject to debate. But this should by no means allow anybody an open-ended rights to denigrate the religion and language that are dear to others. Nor should it be taken as a subterfuge to demean a certain caste. One thing is clear: 'It is not that easy for a prejudiced mind to comprehend the subtleties of human rights.' However, the creation of an 'egalitarian society' demands impartial and even-handed approach particularly from the intellectuals like Bhattachan.

Professor Dr. Ramkumar Dahal's paper 'Electoral System in Nepal and Possibility of Its Reforms' seemed to be a result of painstaking scholarly exercise. Despite being a comprehensive and elaborate product, Dahal has failed to discern in his paper the profound influence that the external forces tend to exercise during our elections. Though not mentioned in his work, Dahal is not incognizant of this reality. His impassioned advocacy for proportional representative system seemed to have irked many a scholars, however.