Relocation policy hits tibetans: HRW

Millions of Tibetans have been forced to be part of a massive relocation policy by the Chinese government that has fundamentally changed their ways of life and livelihood, a new report by human rights group said today.

Millions of Tibetans have been forced to be part of a massive relocation policy by the Chinese government that has fundamentally changed their ways of life and livelihood, a new report by human rights group said on Thursday.

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The policy titled “Build a New Socialist Countryside” has been under implementation since 2006 but it’s only now that open source satellite images have exposed the impact of the plan.

“In several cases, images show traditional villages entirely demolished, while a pre-planned “New Socialist Village” made of identical houses in parallel rows is erected nearby,” the new report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), titled “They Say We Should Be Grateful: Mass Rehousing and Relocation in Tibetan Areas in China”, said.

“Tibetans have no say in the design of polices that are radically altering their way of life, and – in an already highly repressive context – no ways to challenge them,” Richardson said.

The report added that authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region have announced plans to further rehouse and relocate more than 900,000 people by the end of 2014.