HOW I ESCAPED
This is the most daunting escape route in the world across the Himalayas on foot. It's an escape route that has operated secretly for 40 years Tibetan refugees in flight from Chinese.
Repression is good. So china annexed Tibet in 1950 unchallenged by the world since then western observers believe that up to a million Tibetans a sixth of the population have perished through execution and starvation this is the story of one group of escapers from where they left the road inside Tibet they have already walked eight days over rugged. Terrain climbing up the Himalayas just to approach the border with Nepal. They have no maps no knowledge of the route all they own is what they carry merger rations and their life savings they have no specialist clothing age 19 and his brother Tenzin aged 11have been captured before by Chinese border police.
They tortured him they tortured me as
well. The Chinese do not treat Tibetans like
human beings but like cattle,
they are not frightened of hurting
people. If you try to escape
they will shoot you the brothers survived now they're trying again to escape Emmer is a 20-year-old city waitress prepared to leave her family forever.
It seems such a terrible journey but we
must make it.
We must bear any hardship just for the
chance of seeing the Dalai Lama Tibet's head of state and religious leader the Dalai lama he and the government in exile are based in Dharmsala in northern India the ambition of all refugees is to see him fulfill this hope they attempt an escape route of 600 miles from Tibet across the mountains.
The people who escape from Tibet because of the day they are
spirit or their determination and also. The fear they say them in spite says thick snows or difficult roads they say them. I mean they try so unfortunately sometimes you see such hazardous dead body
so a very sad day nine of the group are near mount Everest approaching one of the highest passes
across the Himalayas at 19 000 feet the temperature is 20 degrees below zero. Any worsening in the weather would be fatal they must keep moving already the boy Tenzin is suffering from the pain of snow blindness.
This is their long march to freedom leaving behind a country turned into a Chinese prison in Tibet today repression is intense human rights and religious freedom
curtail from a concealed camera these are the latest pictures from a country where foreign journalists are banned in both the countryside and in the capital Lhasa. Many Tibetans have been reduced to poverty and begging there is continuous police and army
presence in uniform and secret
the population lives under continuous surveillance over 100 000 Chinese troops are stationed in Tibet
international observers are refused access to prisons and detention centers. Officials in Beijing privately admit that twenty percent of inmates here are prisoners of conscience torture in Chinese prisons is routinein 1992 after 33 years in prison and labor camps.
One man smuggled torture instruments out of Tibet into India the Buddhist monk "my feet were manacled and my fingers chained with a pair these special handcuffs get tighter and
tighter and I got wounds on my wrists. I was suspended from the ceiling so now. They if they press that button your whole body will be in shock if they do it for too long. You lose consciousness but you do not
die. If they press this button you can die they used all these on my body they tortured me because I was speaking out for independence and I will continue to speak out many of my friends are still in prison
monks nuns laywomen and men there were 145 in the dacha prison alone when I escaped to India. When I sleep I dream one of six in Lhasa now holds 270
prisoners of conscience according to a recently released prisoner a Buddhist prayer flag marks the borderbetween China and Nepal"
Although the group has passed the border. They are by no means safe they are walking on a glacier that can suddenly throw up cracks and crevasses every year adds to a death toll that has never been counted
Their escape from Tibet will continue at high altitude for 120 miles across Nepal until they reach the lowlands and now there are new dangers if they are found by the Nepalese authorities before they are registered as refugees they face deportation as illegal aliens and a return to the Chinese gulag. They also face harassment robbery extortion. Even shooting at the hands of the Nepalese police on day 11 the journey is taking its toll. All are suffering from extreme hunger altitude sickness and snow blindness
a herdsman from eastern Tibet all day is worried about having nothing to eat all night we are cold and hungry. My foot has burst blisters I'm in so much pain.
I wonder whether I can stay alive. I cannot believe the suffering. It's very hard on me because the path is so difficult. The group must reach Kathmandu where they've heard there's a Tibetan community, which could help them a monk seeking religious freedom outside Tibet. I think we will reach Kathmandu in eight
to nine days. If we don't get there we will die, but Kathmandu is 20 days and 300 miles away
bode in Kathmandu is the center of the Tibetan community in Nepal Lob sang stamen is a monk who escaped to exile here in 1982. He spent 20 years in a Chinese prison during the Maoist era of mass executions many died of natural causes and many were executed behind them men point guns at their
heads. The main purpose is to shoot them in the head and when they fall on the spear
they throw earth on top of them that's what happened in 1959 during an uprising 87000 Tibetans were executed many were buried here these are larva's killing fields mount Everest Tibetans call it
Chomolungma mother of the earth.
Foreign this is day 12 of walking their route now takes them through the inhabited area of Nepal. Whether police the group must walk by night it will make the journey more dangerous. Many have traveled vast distances across Tibet a country the size of western Europe
before climbing the Himalayas the escape trail leads many to Kathmandu only a staging post
before continuing to India and Dharamshala home of the exiled Dalai Lama the group has walked without a break for 36 hours and the blood spilled all over me. You're dead the group have now been walking for 20 days Kathmandu is still a week away stateless hungry and exhausted they have no idea what the future will bring and for eleven-year-old Tenzin the greatest obstacles lie ahead of me eleven-year-old Tenzin leads the group battered but intact into the city they have spent 30 days on
the road at Boda the monk Lob sang Stamen knows that they are still in danger since 1919.
Nepal has given no haven to refugees. The police can arrest and deport them at any time both their appearance and their baggage make them conspicuous the monk directs them to the transit camp for Tibetans a temporary sanctuary on the outskirts of the city. All are suffering from exhaustion and the after-effects of altitude sickness they are met by an official of the Tibetan government in exile
they are told that they can only stay in Kathmandu for a few days during which their status will be
assessed by the Tibetan welfare office
and the united nations high commission
in 15 years 25 000 people have crossed the Himalayas to be processed here but not all have been allowed their freedom foreign the accommodation is an overcrowded shed during the monsoon there is a constant threat of disease here is their first meal for many days and their first opportunity to reflect on their journey why they left what might happen to them next has a place waiting for him in a monastery in India he wants Tenzin to stay with him this is the brother's second attempt to escape Tibet on the first they went to Lhasa to finance their escape by begging on the street the police caught them and threw them into prison the notorious guizer detention center number four-unit a prison the Chinese say does not exist western observers estimate that two to three thousand political prisoners including many children have passed through here since 1987. the food is meant to be noodles but it is just like water if you don't drink it they punish you the Chinese beat me mercilessly I was hit on the eye for three days I was blind there were many older people and they beat them severely there were about 200 prisoners in there I was sent out breaking rocks while my brother stayed in the prison I wanted to escape but I couldn't because I would have left him behind him in the prison there was a small window through which we escaped then we went into town to beg for some money and went to the border the boys hitched a ride to the border town of the drum in the drum the police caught them without travel papers and held them at this check post for five days they were imprisoned here and repeatedly tortured.
They put the electric button inside my mouth it burns me badly and gave me a wound they treated me very badly in prison I thought I would not be able to go to India after release the brothers chose the toughest escape route over the mountains in Nepal the processing continues relentlessly the group know that vital decisions on their future about to be made cannot return to Tibet because he is a marked man.
accused of fermenting anti-Chinese feeling in his monastery in 40 years of their occupation of Tibet the Chinese have destroyed a hundred monasteries the number of monks has been reduced by eighty thousand now recruitment is state-controlled religion must coexist with political education they send a letter saying don't run away so all have to attend when they come to the monastery at the start of the meeting the Chinese say you are not allowed to save free Tibet if you revolt it's not good they say concerning the Dalai lama's demand for Tibetan independence do not support this separatism.
If you support this we will confront you with arms and kill you and some of us from the monastery went at night and put up posters saying free Tibet the next day three or four jeeps arrived at our monastery who put up posters do you want to be killed they interrogated me is it you who put up the poster i said no it's not me they took me to prison and i know they wanted to kill me shortly after his interrogation Sonam put on peasant's clothes and escaped he is now able to resume his identity as a monk he can wear again the robes he carried over the mountains a medical team gives each new arrival a health check and an inoculation against tuberculosis she was apolitical in Tibet until she came into confrontation with the Chinese authorities throughout central Lhasa the police closely monitor citizens with video cameras and high-powered microphones any protest can be swiftly intercepted on the day of a demonstration Lama was swept up in the crowd as she left the cinema with her friends when we got there the Chinese police were chasing people with electric batons there was a policeman standing nearby and we threw a stone here in the police station but was rescued by her family and taken home my maternal uncle wouldn't speak to me he said I'm a government official how can i now work for the government what will happen to us if other people hear what you have done my uncle said that he might even have to go to prison my Mongolia.
But the united but what can I do the rest of the group have their passes and money and prepare to leave for India passing decides that he and Tenzin should leave with the group illegally and cross the border without papers or money once more they are on the run the Indian border is 12 hours away at the Nepal India border the Tibetan refugees present customs officers with a small bribe and their papers are not checked they are allowed to continue passing and Tenzin cross the border as illegal aliens two days later the refugees arrive at Delhi the capital of India where they have to change buses for Dharmsala and the Dalai lama foreign oh as India is attempting to limit the flow of Tibetan refugees the prospect of deportation hangs over the two brothers 12 hours north of Delhi they near Dharmsala in the foothills of the Himalayas this is where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government have been exiled for over 30 years hello foreign
Seven thousand Tibetan refugees have crowded into Dharamshala so the government in exile has adopted a new policy to discourage their own refugees from staying in India it is struggling to support them and work and accommodation are scarce in 1993 5000 new arrivals from Tibet were registered here in 1994 only two thousand all refugees are carefully checked in recent years many have been suspected of being Chinese agents the papers from Nepal are inspected without papers refugees will be returned to Tibet Tenzin has no papers more as he has no papers i cannot go to the monastery without papers either from Nepal or here we can't go anywhere this is impossible foreign so thank you at a celebration for the anniversary of the Tibetan school in Dharamshala the group have their first chance to see their leader his holiness the Dalai lama all who escape from Tibet into India will receive an audience with the living buddha of compassion for passing and Tenzin he is the highest authority foreign then comes a bitter twist to the Dalai lama's message.
He warns the refugees that though they can receive education in India he wants them to return to Tibet he knows there is the risk of Chinese reprisals but without their return the country's culture will die the land will be lost this is last chance to help Tenzin stay in India he and the official describe passing and Tenzin will have the papers which will allow them to train together at a monastery in the south of India but passing rejects the Dalai lama's pressure to return to Tibet I will not go home until Tibet is free i don't know about my brother he will make up his own mind when he grows up the immediate future for richen and Sonam is precarious if i find work I'll stay uh if i can't find work i will have to go back to Tibet if i get a place in a monastery i will stay otherwise i will have to go back to Tibet also there is no place for them in Dharmsala Sonam and ranchmen must take their chances elsewhere in India is entitled to only one year's education at the transit school in Dharamshala before she has to return i cannot go back to Tibet so soon i want to go back only when Tibet i don't have any other way of finding money as i will always pray for the freedom of Tibet Tenzin says he intends to study hard he wants to return one day to Tibet to see his mother again until that day there can be no contact i wouldn't tell her how we had to steal food to live how when we crossed the snow mountains i got snow blindness how i cried because i miss my mother so much how i could hardly walk because my feet were wounded passing and Tenzin are safely installed in the draping monastery in south India 1500 miles to the north the Chinese maintain an iron grip and every day their subjects set out again risking their lives to escape from Tibet thank you.
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