Tibetan exiles commemorate 100 years of Shimla Convention

Tibetan exiles commemorate 100 years of Shimla Convention

Phayul[Thursday, July 24, 2014 17:30] By Phuntsok Yangchen From R - Jyotsana George of SFT speaks as Lobsang Yeshi, Dibyesh Anand and Tenzin Tsundue look on/July 23, 2014/Phayul Photo/Kunsang Gashon DHARAMSHALA, July 24: Tibetans in exile on Wednesday commemorated hundred years of the 1914 Shimla Convention with a panel discussion on McMahon Line, Panchsheel Agreement and the ongoing India - China border crisis.  Dr. Dibyesh Anand, Associate Professor at University of Westminster, London; Lobsang Yeshi, member of Tibetan Parliament and Tenzin Tsundue, Tibetan activist and writer, took part in the discussion held at the TCV Day school hall.  “A hundred years ago, a treaty or a convention was being discussed between British India, Tibet and China. The reason it is important is that even China recognized Tibet as having treaty-making capacity. Only an independent state has the treaty making capacity, so the reason why Shimla Convention is so important for Tibetans today is because it is a reminder to the world that Tibet was once historically independent,” said Dibyesh Anand. Anand also noted that India’s position was “very curious” because it is willing to accept the treaty that Tibet signed but is not willing to acknowledge or push international community that Tibet was independent and had the capacity to sign the treaty. In the year 1914 representatives of Great Britain Sir Henry McMahon, Secretary in the British-India Government, Ivan Chen, Special Commissioner for Foreign Affairs in Shanghai, China, and Lonchen Shatra Paljor Dorje, Prime Minister of Tibet, met in Shimla to draft a tripartite treaty where the governments of Great Britain and China recognized the latter's suzerainty over Tibet and the autonomy of Outer Tibet guaranteeing to "respect the territorial integrity of Tibet and abstain from interference in the administration of Outer Tibet (including the selection and installation of the Dalai Lama), which shall remain in the hands of the Tibetan Government in Lhasa."  China claims that it does not recognize the Shimla Convention because Tibet was not a sovereign government and therefore did not have any external affairs authority to conclude treaties.  Lobsang Yeshi gave a detailed account of the 1914 Shimla Convention. He said that during the nine - month long meeting, ten member Tibetan delegation led by Lonchen Shatra presented over fifty documents that prove Tibet as an independent nation while Ivan Chen, who was a representative of China on the Convention, did not have any prove that says Tibet was a part of China.  Tibetan acitivist Tenzin Tsundue said that India must recognize Tibet as an independent nation to lay its claim over Arunachal Pradesh “because Arunachal Pradesh is a baby born between the marriage of British Empire in India and Tibet. And if you (India) do not recognize the father, how do you (India) claim the legitimacy of your child?” He further said that the younger generations of Tibetans are the stakeholders of future Tibet and that Tibetans will deal with other nations in the same way they have dealt with Tibetans. “Deal with us because tomorrow’s Tibet will not have the Dalai Lama’s compassion to deal with you. We will deal with you equally as you are dealing with us today when we are weak. And it is such a bad miscalculation to think that after the Dalai Lama, Tibet will not be there.” Tibet had signed treaties as an independent nation since 821 A.D. with China, Ladakh, Kashmir, Nepal, Burma, Sikkim and Great Britain up until 1918