一九五九年三月十日西藏首府拉薩發生藏人暴動。與解放軍發生武裝衝突，三月十七日深夜達賴喇嘛逃離拉薩，流亡印度。隨後中共大舉鎮壓藏人與藏軍，二十八日宣佈「粉碎叛亂」，俘獲叛軍四千餘名。同日，周恩來命令解散西藏政府。開始在包括西藏、青海、甘肅、四川的廣大藏區展開長達三年的「平叛」和「民主改革」，官方聲稱「消滅」了數萬名叛亂份子。約十萬人逃亡國外。
五十年前的這場震驚世界的對抗，其後果是鑄造了中共和西藏漸行漸遠的分裂。一方面北京按毛澤東的指示，「民族問題的實質是階級問題」，把西藏擺上階級鬥爭的?面，無視西藏的特殊性，推行和漢區一樣的極左政策。另方面達賴喇嘛在印度達蘭莎拉成立流亡政府，悲情藏人篳路籃縷，艱苦求存，傳承藏民族的宗教、文化與生活方式，並頒布憲章，實行藏人獨立的民主與政治制度。達賴喇嘛成為世界級的宗教領袖，一九八九年榮獲諾貝爾和平獎。
時至今日，中共當局在胡耀邦執政親啟糾正西藏政策錯誤之後三十年，竟然突生一計，將三月二十八日法定為「西藏百萬農奴解放紀念日」，無異於重返五十年前與藏人敵對的立場，流亡政府的反應是「中共此舉為掩蓋其西藏政策的失敗」。事實上，文革之後，北京採取不少懷柔籠絡策略，緩和漢藏關係，但是，藏民族沒有忘記紀念三月十日「西藏人民起義日」，一九八九年被胡錦濤鎮壓的暴動和去年奧運前的拉薩暴動，都發生在三月。
連北京的藏學家也出版了五十年那場暴動的真相。起因都與毛澤東發動大躍進狂熱有直接關聯，反右派、合作化、社會主義改造衝擊著藏區的正常秩序，一九五八年四月在僅有一萬人口的班禪故鄉循化縣的暴亂中，解放軍槍殺了五百餘名藏人，拘捕二千五百人。藏區大批受壓迫僧俗逃往拉薩。這是三月起義的重要背景。而事件之後的發展，請讀者看看班禪喇嘛的「七萬言上書」，可以明瞭共產黨將西藏宗教與文化，將藏民族的人權摧毀到何等殘酷的程度！漢人自可以炫耀其文明高於藏人，但是，共產黨的「革命文化」「暴力哲學」絕對沒資格炫耀其「三個代表」的先進。他們不僅對藏民族曾經施暴肆虐，把西藏變成寺廟毀棄、僧尼受辱的「黑地方」，而且，對同族類的虐待也至今不改，本期酷刑專題，可見其黑暗之一角。
走過五十年漫漫長路，當年逃亡的達賴喇嘛，現已七十四歲，北京的統治者也從毛周以來，進入第四代，但是，他們四代人都不明白也不想明白，為甚麼西藏人軟硬不吃、離心離德？而國際社會為甚麼一代又一代地那樣同情和支持西藏人維護自由選擇命運的權利？
我們感到幸運的是，孔子說「德不孤，必有鄰」。在中共嚴酷的六十年專制中，在「北京的金山上」懸掛著炙人的紅太陽，可是在遙遠的邊界上有三顆自由的星辰，閃耀著溫暖的光芒，那就是台灣、香港和流亡西藏。她們艱難而卓有成效地實驗著一種中國史無先例的現代文明，她們是中國的希望，中國的明天。
（2009年2月27日 香港）
Fifty Years after the Tibet Uprising
By Jin Zhong
The Tibet uprising was an armed conflict between Tibetans and the PLA that took place in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, on March 10, 1959. At midnight on March 17, the Dalai Lama fled from the Potala Palace into exile in India. The PRC later suppressed the Tibetans and their soldiers and announced that it had “smashed the revolt” on March 28. More than 4,000 members of the rebel army were captured. On the same day, Zhou Enlai dismissed the Tibetan Government and started the so-called three-year “pacification” and “democratic reform” campaign in the Tibetan areas of Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. The authorities claimed that a few thousand rebels were “eliminated” and about 100,000 people went into exile.
The earth-shaking protest 50 years ago resulted in a split between the PRC and Tibet. On the one hand, the Beijing Government followed Mao Zedong’s directives by holding that “racial problems are indeed class problems” and launched Tibet into class struggle with the implementation of and ultra-leftist policies, disregarding the special characteristics of Tibet. On the other hand, the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, India. The aggrieved Tibetan people struggled for the survival if the Tibetan religion, culture and lifestyle. In the meantime, a charter was passed to implement an independent democratic and political system for Tibet. The Dalai Lama became a world-class religious leader and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Today, 30 years after Hu Yaobang came to power and corrected the mistakes of the CCP’s Tibet policy, Beijing confirmed March 28 as an official holiday marking Tibet’s “Serf Emancipation Day,” which is tantamount to resuming the stance it took against Tibetans 50 years ago. The response of the Government in Exile is that “the CPC takes such action to veil the failure of its Tibet policy.” In fact, following the Cultural Revolution, Beijing adopted a series of strategies to heal the relationship between Han Chinese and Tibetans. However, Tibetans will never forget March 10, Tibetan Uprising Day. Both the riot suppressed by Hu Jintao in 1989 and the rebellion in Lhasa before the Beijing Olympic Games last year occurred in March.
Even experts on Tibet issues in Beijing revealed the truth of the uprising 50 years ago in their publications. The cause of the event was directly related to the mania of the Great Leap Forward initiated by Mao Zedong. Anti-rightism, agricultural cooperatives and social upheaval challenged law and order in the Tibetan areas. In April 1958, in a rebellion in Xunhua County, the Panchen Lama’s homeland with a population of only 10,000, more than 500 Tibetans were killed and 2,500 were arrested. A large number of monks were forced to flee to Lhasa. This is the background of the March uprising. For more on how the event developed, readers may refer to the Panchen Lama's “Letter of Seventy Thousand Words,” which reveals how the CCP devastated Tibet’s religion and culture and the basic human rights of Tibetan. The Han people may flaunt their civilization, but the CCP with its “revolutionary culture” and “philosophy of violence” is never qualified to flaunt “The Three Represents.” The Chinese Communist government attacked the Tibetan people, turning Tibet into a “dark place” where monasteries were ruined and monks were humiliated. Moreover, their mistreatment of this ethnicity has never changed. Our special coverage of torture in this issue pulls the veil from this dark story.
Now years have passed; the Dalai Lama who fled into exile at that time is now 74, while Beijing has entered its Fourth Generation of leadership. However, people in the Fourth Generation do not understand why Tibetans remain so at odds with their Han Chinese rulers, and why neither the carrot nor the stick works on them; nor do they understand why the international community has over the decades continued to sympathize with and support the Tibetans in their fight to protect their freedoms and rights. Indeed, the government doesn’t even want to know the truth.
As Confucius once said, “A moral person never walks alone.” In the 60 years of autocracy under the CCP, a red hot sun has been shining over the “golden hill of Beijing.” Fortunately three stars of freedom continue to twinkle warmly in the distance. They are Taiwan, Hong Kong and the Tibetan Government in Exile. These three stars are undergoing a strenuous yet unprecedentedly effective experiment for China’s modern civilization. They are China’s hope and China’s tomorrow.
February 27, 2009, in Hong Kong
(Translated by Isabella Lam)
