Historical Development

In 1949 People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers entered Eastern Tibet. In the spring of 1950, China's "18th Army" entered Tibet through Dartsedo (Ch Kanding) in the east, and through Amdo in the north-east. The "14th Division" entered through Dechen in south-east Tibet. After occupying Kham and Amdo, the advance party of the "18th Army" entered Lhasa on 9 September, 1951, followed by the unit's main force on 26 October, 1951. This was only the beginning of the vast Chinese military build up in Tibet which continues to this day (DIIR, 1996).

The first known nuclear weapon was brought onto the Tibetan Plateau in 1971 and installed in the Tsaidam (Ch. Qaidam) basin in northern Amdo (Ch. Qinghai). China currently has approximately 300-400 nuclear warheads, of which at least several dozen are believed to be on the Tibetan Plateau in the Qinghai Province (Chellaney, 1991).

The Ninth Academy

The Northwest Nuclear Weapons Research and Design Academy, known as the "Ninth Academy" or "Factory 211," was built by the Ninth Bureau of Chinese Nuclear Production Establishment in the early 1960s to produce China's early nuclear bomb designs. It is China's top secret nuclear city located in Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, 100 km west of Siling (Ch. Xining).

The construction of the Ninth Academy was approved by the late Chinese leader, Deng Xiaopeng, who was then the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. The Ninth Academy is situated at 36.57 N, 101.55 E with an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,033 meters) above sea level, 10 miles ( 16.1 km) east of Lake Kokonor, and lies in a watershed which drains into the Tsang Chu River (Ch. Xichuan-He). This becomes the Yellow River (Tib. Machu; Ch. Huang-he). In the late 1970s the Ninth Academy further established a chemical industry institute to conduct experiments on reprocessing highly enriched uranium fuels.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Ninth Academy operated under emergency conditions, to build China's nuclear weapon capability. An unknown quantity of radioactive waste in the form of liquid slurry, as well as solid and gaseous waste was dumped by the academy. The disposal of waste was haphazard and their record keeping dismal. Initially radioactive waste was dumped in shallow and unlined landfills (ICT, 1993).

A direct railway line connects the academy with Lake Kokonor, the largest lake on the Tibetan Plateau. Nuclear waste experts believe that radioactive waste was also dumped into the lake. A reliable report from a Chinese, man whose father was a nuclear scientist in Lanzhou, states that in 1974 there was an accident involving nuclear pollution of the lake (ICT, 1993). The Ninth Academy is located on marshy land, allowing polluted water and radioactive particles to easily seep into the groundwater which flows into lake Kokonor.

According to the official China news agency, Xinhua, dated 20 July 1995, the Ninth Academy was decommissioned in 1987, and the base was moved to sites in Sichuan Province in Eastern Tibet. However, Tibetans living near the Ninth Academy informed the Tibetan Government-in-Exile in 1996 that Chinese security personnel secretly guard the Ninth Academy round the clock, putting into question the Chinese claim that this nuclear production centre has been closed.

Anti-Frigate Missile Centre at Drotsang

A new missile production centre is located at Drotsang (Ch. Ledu) (36.05N, 102.5E), 63 km in east of Siling (Ch. Xining). The secret code number of this centre is 430. It was originally set up in 1986 and was massively expanded in 1995. It is a surrogate of the Ninth Academy and has been producing anti-frigate missiles which are being tested in Lake Kokonor (Chutter, 1998).

Land-Based Nuclear Warheads

When Major-General Zhang Shaosong, the Political Commissar of the PLA in Tibet, was asked point-blank whether there were nuclear weapons in Tibet by the BBC's Mark Braine in 1988, he replied, "Whether there are nuclear weapons in Tibet or not, it is up to the authorities to decide." And he smiled (Kewley, 1990).

Nuclear Missile Launch Sites at Tsaidam in Amdo

The Ninth Academy was ready to produce nuclear weapons by1971. The first batch of nuclear weapons manufactured at the Ninth Academy was reportedly brought to Tsaidam Basin stationed at Small Tsaidam (Xiao Qaidam) and Large Tsaidam (Da Qaidam) in the extreme north west of Amdo province (Qinghai). Tsaidam Basin is known to be one of most advantageous deployment sites for China because of its high altitude and isolation. China established the nuclear missile deployment and launch site for DF-4 missiles in the Tsaidam Basin in the early 1970s. The Large Tsaidam (Da Qaidam) site located (37.50N and 95.18 E) in northern Tibet has two missiles stored horizontally in tunnels near the launch pad. Fuel and oxidisers are stored in separate tunnels with lines to the launch pad (Fieldhouse, 1991).

According to various reports, a launch site for Dong Feng Four (DF-4) missiles which are equivalent to Russia's CSS-2 was built in Tsaidam. These missiles, located at Large Tsaidam and Small Tsaidam (37.26N, 95.08E) are reported to have a range of over 4,000 km, placing the whole Indian sub-continent within striking distance.

The DF-4 is China's first intercontinental ballistic missile. During the 1970s the range was extended from 4,000 km to 7,000 km allowing the modified version now deployed on the Tibetan Plateau to reach Moscow and the rest of the former Soviet Union (Fieldhouse, 1991).

The Small Tsaidam site in northern Tibet, is presumably organised in a similar way to the Large Tsaidam deployment and launch site. The missiles were moved to these sites in the Tibetan Plateau in 1971 (Lewis & Xue, 1988). According to diplomatic sources of the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) in Washington DC, nuclear missiles are stationed in Small Tsaidam and are only moved to Large Tsaidam in times of emergency.

Terlingkha nuclear missile launch site

Another nuclear missile launch site is located at Terlingkha (Ch. Delingha) (36.6N, 97.12E), 217 km southeast of Tsaidam. It houses DF-4 and Inter-Continental Ballistic Mussiles (ICBM) missiles. Terlingkha is the missile regiment headquarter for Amdo (Qinghai) which consists of four associated launch sites. The organisation of the sites are similar to Large Tsaidam (Chutter, 1998; ICT, 1993).

A new missile division in Amdo

A new nuclear missile division has also been established on the Tibetan Plateau on the border between Qinghai and Sichuan provinces, in the Tibetan province of Amdo. Four CSS-4 missiles are deployed here, which have a range of 8,000 miles (12,874 km), capable of striking the United States, Europe and anywhere in Asia. Amdo Province of Tibet has in total four nuclear missile launch sites, two at Tsaidam, one at Terlingkha and one at the border between Amdo and Sichuan Province (Chutter, 1998).

Missile bases at Risur in Nagchuka

In the 1970s numerous reports surfaced regarding the stockpiling of nuclear weapons. These reports also confirmed that missile base construction work had started about 10 miles (16.1 km) north of Nagchuka (Ch. Nagqu), in the 'Tibet Autonomous Region' (TAR) in 1970 and that there was a considerable build up of Chinese military personnel in the area.

On 14 October 1987, an article in the Australian newspaper The Australian reported the presence of nuclear missiles at Nagchuka. Subsequently, the Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party, in a press release dated 28 October 1987, expressed their grave concern and stated that 20 intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBM) and 70 medium-range ones (MRBM) were stationed in Nagchuka.

Mr. Tashi Chutter's newly-published book (1998) Confidential Study on Deployment of Chinese occupational Forces in Tibet confirms that there are nuclear missiles permanently stationed at Nagchuka. The missiles are housed in underground complexes under Risur mountain, 25 km south east of Nagchuka. The Risur site has reportedly been developed by the Chinese government for two major reasons; to provide an alternative to the Lop Nor nuclear test site in Eastern Turkistan (Xinjiang), and to store as well as test China's upgraded air defence missiles and nuclear weapons. Nagchuka is reported to have the largest airforce unit stationed at any secluded site.

Missile Base at Tagho mountain, Nagchuka

Like the Risur site, another missile base is located at Tagho mountain (Tib. Horse-Head mountain) in the remote valley (32.15N, 89.42E) of Pelok which lies to the East of Nyima Dzong under Nagchuka (Nagqu) administrative division of 'Tibet Autonomous Region.' Missiles of either nuclear or non-nuclear nature are reportedly stored in the underground rocky tunnels of Tagho mountain. The entire region is described as a desolate desert, where only military vehicles are allowed to enter (Chutter, 1998).

Underground missile storage site in Lhasa

Dhoti Phu is located at 3.5 km to the north west of Drapchi Prison and one km to the west of Sera Monastery. It came into existence between the late 1960s and 1970s. It was observed that occasionally 20 to 25 trucks, loaded with long shaped objects wrapped in canvas cloth were seen entering the storage site. The movement of such vehicles takes place only at night. The sophisticated underground storage complex of Dhoti Phu reportedly contains missiles known as di dui kong (ground-to-air) and di dui di (surface-to-surface). In Lhasa during Chinese Army Day (1 August), a number of missiles of these types were displayed to the public on missile guiding vehicles (Chutter, 1998).

Missiles in Kongpo

A large underground missile storage centre is located at Payi Town in Kongpo Nyingtri (Ch. Nyingchi), 'TAR'. Its secret code number is 809 (Ch: Pa Ling Jue). It is controlled by the Chengdu Military Logistic Division. Supplies are brought in by the 17th, 18th and 20th Transport Regiments from Chengdu and some supplies are also brought in from Lhasa. A few low ceiling barracks were noticed near the foothill of a mountain in Payi where there is an entrance leading to an underground storage complex. Long convoys of military trucks belonging to the transport regiments have been observed entering the storage facility. When fresh supplies arrive at the facility, storage complex drivers replace the regular drivers inside the complex.

It is reported that ground-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles are stored at this site. During mock military exercises a large number of such missiles are taken out of this complex. At one time, about 80 missiles were observed. They were mounted on 20 trucks, each truck carrying four missiles. Each missile measured about one and half times the length of the trucks. Some missiles had fins. During these exercises, missiles were launched vertically and horizontally to hit pre-arranged targets (Chutter, 1998).

Airbases with Nuclear Weapons

There are three types of aircraft in China currently available for nuclear bombing missions: the Hong-6 bomber, the Hong-5 bomber, and the Qian-5 attack jet. The Hong-6 has a combat radius of over 3,000 km and can reach areas in the former Soviet Union and India. The Hong-5 has a combat radius of 1,200 km (Fieldhouse, 1991).

During the 1960s and 1970s the three main military airbases in Tibet were the Lhasa Airfield, Chabcha Airfield, and the Golmud Airfield. During the 1960s Chabcha and Golmud airfields were used as refuelling stations for Chinese aircraft on their way to Tibet and the Indian border.

The Gongkar airfield, located 97 km south west of Lhasa, has been the main military airfield and the main supply centre for the Chinese forces in the border area.

At Shigatse military airport, four or five IL-28 bombers were deployed with some jetfighter aircraft. Military transport aircraft such as the AN-32 and the Russian made IL-18 were noticed in frequent operations at the airport. Every autumn, these bombers carried out bombing exercises at a place known as Logma Thang, west of the airport at a distance of 50 km. During the rest of the year the aircraft practice flight manoeuvring exercises (Chutter, 1998).

A classified Pentagon report quoted by The Washington Times states that missile launch complexes in Jianshui, near the China-Vietnam border and at Datong in Amdo (Qinghai) are equipped with CSS-2 and CSS-5 launchers that can hit targets which cover "most of India." Other targets include Russia, Japan and Taiwan, quoting a classified study prepared by the National Air Intelligence Centre (NAIC). According to the NAIC report, China now has about 40 CSS-2 re-fire capable launchers at six field garrison and launch complexes. The launchers at Datong missile garrison can target Russia as well as India. The CSS-2 training sites have also been observed by US spy satellites in nearby Haiyan.

Russia is selling 100 advanced artillery systems with precision guided shells to China in secret arms deals, including modern aircraft, destroyers and other high-tech arms. China purchased some 50 SU-27 flanker warplanes from Russia and has plans to purchase 250 more of the jets by 2005. The SU-27s will be fitted with AA-11 air-to-air missiles, a very effective radar guided rocket with electronic counter-measure pods (The Tribune, 5 July 1997).

It is evident that China is modernising its nuclear weapons and developing multiple warhead missiles. The Chinese have an inter-continental nuclear capability. Intercontinental ballistic missiles can reach most of the USA, according to General Habiger, Commander of the US Strategic Command, who was quoted by the Washington Times.

General Habiger added that China's new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) include the DF-31, a road-mobile missile with a range of more than 4,500 miles (7,242 km), and a second new ICBM with a range of more than 7,000 miles (11,265 km) (The Tribune, 3 April 1998).

China continues to violate the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. It exploded an underground nuclear device at Lop Nor test site in Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang), directly north of Tibet, on 17 August 1995, and thereafter it exploded two nuclear bombs on 8 June 1996, and 29 July 1996. China has so far exploded 45 nuclear bombs since its detonation of an atomic bomb in 1964 at Lop Nor. China's 45th nuclear explosion of 29 July 1996 came just a few hours before delegates sat down to negotiate the final stage of the comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

China has land, sea, and air-based missiles, nuclear missiles on submarines, and continues to develop various smaller nuclear warheads. The nuclear warheads are loaded onto a multiple warhead missile, thereby greatly enhancing its ballistic capability. China's total nuclear power is estimated to be 16,000 times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima (20,000 kilotons of TNT) which killed 140,000 people in Japan. Yet China claims it needs more tests to ensure the safety of its nuclear devices (Green Tibet Annual Newsletter, 1995-96).

CNN World News on 7 April 1998, announced that France and the United Kingdom ratified the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) to prevent international nuclear proliferation for a nuclear free world. China is one of the five nuclear states in the world, along with the US and Russia who are yet to ratify the CTBT. China signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1992.

However, no matter what is signed or declared on the international stage, China evidently does not comply or yield ground. No country dares to upset the Asian giant for fear of losing its lucrative trade. Tibet and its people, because of their 'crime' of not being represented at the United Nations, continue to suffer humiliation as many countries in the world indulge in double-talk about international norms of good conduct. These nations continue to ignore nuclear proliferation on the Tibetan Plateau because they are totally oblivious to the far-reaching impacts of such a change.

What are Radioactive wastes?

Radioactive wastes are chemical wastes which contain their own unique blend of hundreds of distinctly unstable atomic structures called radio-isotopes. Each radio-isotope has its own lifespan and potency for giving off alpha, beta, and gamma rays. These rays can cause cancer and other diseases in human beings and animals; most frightening of all, radiation emitted by radioactive wastes can cause genetic mutation resulting in birth defects in babies etc. Scientists have not discovered any foolproof way to permanently contain radioactive wastes, and currently-spent fuels from power plants are stored in dry castes, which must be kept cool. One spoonful of plutonium powder is enough to destroy the population of a large city.

Radioactive waste on the Tibetan Plateau

The Vienna Declaration of the World Conference on Human Rights, 1993, articulated that, "Illicit dumping of toxic and dangerous substances potentially constitutes a serious threat to human rights, life and the health of everyone."

The Basel Convention, signed in 1992 by various countries to which China is a signatory, and the subsequent Basel Ban, adopted as an amendment to the convention in September 1995, prohibit trade in hazardous wastes from industrialised to non-industrialised countries. At the fourth Conference of Parties (COP-IV) held in Kuching, Malaysia between 23-27 February 1998, China half-heartedly supported no changes to the Basel Ban to stop certain developing countries from benefiting from trade in recyclable hazardous waste. Although this is a step in the right direction, China's own record of waste disposal on the Tibetan Plateau is dismal, to say the least.

On 18 February 1984, The Washington Post reported that China had tentatively agreed to store up to 4,000 tons of radioactive waste from European nuclear reactors in the remote Gobi Desert in exchange for US$ 6 billion. Since then this was to take place over the next 16 years.

In the fall of 1988, news began circulating among Tibetans as to the potential use of Tibet as a nuclear dumping ground for Western Europe. According to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, spiritual and temporal leader of the Tibetan people, a signed document offers evidence that the Chinese government is planning to dump foreign nuclear waste in Tibet (Weisskopf, 1984).

In 1991, Greenpeace reported that the city officials in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, had secured a tentative agreement with China to ship 20,000 tons of the city's toxic sewage waste to Tibet in exchange for payment of US$ 1.44 million. The brokers for the shipment were California Enterprises, and Hainan Sunlit Group, a Chinese government agency. The latter stated that such shipments did not require government approval according to China's import rules, and guaranteed that the sludge would not be shipped back to the USA. Greenpeace noted that the import document described the shipment as "heni", which means "river silt" in Chinese. Greenpeace protested, "Urban sewage is not river silt." In the United States, sludge from urban sewage treatment plants are chronically laced with toxic pollutants. In Milwaukee, USA such use was linked to outbreaks of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Due to international pressure the above shipment of waste to Tibet did not take place.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama, while participating in a "Meet-the-Press" programme, organised by the Karnataka Union of Working Journalists in Bangalore in India said he had authentic information that China had set up a nuclear weapons factory in Tibet. He said that China had stationed a half-a-million-strong military force in Tibet, which indicated that the situation in the occupied territory was potentially explosive. (The Statesman, 21 January 1992).

China's Nationalities Affairs Commission issued a document through Xinhua on 18 April 1991 stating that allegations of nuclear pollution from the deployment of nuclear weapons and nuclear waste in Tibet were "totally groundless". However, the same news agency had admitted that nuclear wastes were dumped in Tibet. On 19 July 1995 it reported that there was a "20 square metre dump for radioactive pollutants" in Habei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture near the shores of Lake Kokonor. The report claimed that the military nuclear weapons facility (Ninth Academy), which produced the waste, had maintained an "excellent" safety record during its 30 years of operation, and that there had not been "any harm to the environment" and "no one at the base ever died of radiation."

The report did not give details as to how the nuclear waste was initially contained or how it is being managed. It did say however in the words of Mr. You Deliang, spokesman for the China National Nuclear Corporation, that China spent a large amount of money from 1989 to 1993 to "strictly supervise the environmental conditions of the retired nuclear weapon base."

Chinese government propaganda even went to the extent of saying: "Haibei Prefecture moved its capital from Menynan county to the site of the retired nuclear plant, only one month after the area passed a state examination in June, 1993. Atom Bomb City (Ninth Academy) has since been serving the economic prosperity of the people" (Xinhua, 19 July 1995).

A 1993 report "Nuclear Tibet," published by the International Campaign for Tibet, documented reports by a local Tibetan doctor, Tashi Dolma, of abnormally high rate of diseases in the nearby towns of Reshui and Ganzihe. The doctor also treated children of nomads who grazed their animals adjacent to the nuclear base called "Ninth Academy" or "Factory 211," seven of whom died of cancer within five years.

Shallow land burial techniques, considered obsolete in the West, were deemed "sufficiently safe" for implementation in China. On the proposed site for High Level Waste (HLW), Chinese officials said that China had a very wide distribution area and it would be easy to find a site (UNI, 1988). Since Tibet is sparsely populated by 'minority nationalities,' and is far removed from Beijing, to the Chinese way of thinking it is a perfect site to dump nuclear wastes.

According to a Reuter report dated 10 November 1993, China was building its first radioactive waste disposal centre in the arid western province of Gansu and had planned three more in southern, south western and eastern China under its ambitious schemes to boost nuclear power to make up for a projected annual shortage of some 150 million tons of coal by 2000 and 1.2 billion tons by 2050. The Gansu disposal centre would have an initial disposal capacity of 60,000 cubic metres of radioactive waste, which would expand to 200,000 cubic metres. Mr You Deliang, spokesman for the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), said costs are estimated to be at least 100 million yuan (US$ 12.5 million).

Taiwan's nuclear experts went to Peking to attend a symposium billed as an "ice-breaker for atom splitters." China offered a dumpsite for Taiwan's stockpile of radioactive waste (Far Eastern Economic Review, 25 March 1993). According to AFP on 28 May 1997 Taiwan snubbed the offer by China to take their 60,000 barrels of nuclear waste.

LOCAL IMPACTS

Dumping of nuclear wastes on the Tibetan Plateau will directly affect the lives of people and the health of the environment in both the short-term and over millions of years.

For example the half life (time it takes to lose half of its radioactivity) of uranium (U238) is 4,500 million years. Therefore, harmful radiation emitted is a health hazard for millions of years to come and will lead to a number of deadly diseases including cancer and leukaemia. Radioactivity also affects the DNA in living cells causing genetic disorders and deformities that can be passed from generation to generation in humans, animals, and plants.

The fission of U235 produces many other radioactive isotopes, such as strontium 90, cesium 137, and barium 140. These wastes remain radioactive and dangerous for about 600 years because of the strontium and cesium isotopes. Plutonium and others remain radioactive for a million years. Even in small amounts, plutonium can cause cancer or genetic (reproduction) damage in human beings. Larger amounts can cause radiation sickness and death. Plutonium is so carcinogenic that one pound (0.5 kg) of it evenly distributed could cause cancer in every person on Earth (Caldicott, 1997). Safe disposal of these radioactive wastes is one of the problems that remains unsolved by world scientists, even today.

People, Animals and Plants contaminated

Mr. Gonpo Thondup, who escaped from Tibet to Dharamsala in India, in March 1987 visited two nuclear weapons production departments code-numbered 405 in Kyangtsa and 792 in Thewo, Amdo (Qinghai) region of Tibet. His statement was presented by Mr. Tsewang Norbu at the World Uranium Hearing in Salzburg, Germany, on 14 September, 1992.

It reads; "The effects of experiments and waste from 792 and 405 have been devastating. Before 1960, in this region of Amdo, harvests were plentiful and domestic animals healthy. Now the crop yield has shrunk, and people and animals are dying mysteriously, and in increasing numbers. Since 1987 there has been a sharp rise in the number of deaths of domestic animals and fish are all but vanished. In the years of 1989 and 1990, 50 people died in the region, all from mysterious causes. Twelve women gave birth in the summer of 1990, and every child was dead before or died during birth. One Tibetan woman, Tsering Dolma (aged 30), has given birth seven times and not a single child has survived."

Mr. Gonpo added that, "The people living near departments 405 and 792 have experienced strange diseases they have never seen before. Many local people's skin turned yellowish and their eyesight has been affected seriously. Local populace reported strange memory losses and many babies are born deformed. The people of the area are desperate, and can only turn to religion and local doctors, who have no knowledge of the uranium mines or of the nuclear plants nearby."

There is consistent evidence that China's nefarious nuclear programme has caused the regular loss of human lives. According to the Tibet Information Network (TIN), London in a News Update of 11 September 1992, at least 35 Tibetans living near uranium mines died within a few hours after developing a high fever and distinctive diarrhoea in Ngaba Prefecture in Sichuan Province.

In 1984 villagers from Reshui and Ganzihe villages, located close to the Ninth Academy in Amdo (Qinghai), reported strange diseases to the Tibetan doctor, Tashi Dolma and her medical team. However, the China authorities would not allow the medical team to follow up these reports. Dr. Tashi worked at Chabcha hospital in Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, directly south of the nuclear city known as Ninth Academy, where she treated the children of nomads whose cattle grazed near the Academy. These children developed cancer which caused their white blood cell count to rise uncontrollably. Seven of these children died during the five years that Dr. Tashi was working at the hospital. An American doctor conducting research at the hospital reported that these symptoms were similar to cancers caused by radiation after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bombings in 1945. In addition there have been numerous reports of unexplained deaths and illnesses amongst this nomad population.

In September 1992 the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) fact-finding team found that meat from the area had been banned from stores by the Chinese authorities. However, poor Tibetans often ate the contaminated meat, either out of ignorance or economic constraint.

Uranium Mining

Uranium mines are located in several regions of Tibet, including Damshung, north of Lhasa, Tsaidam basin (Ch. Qaidam) north of Golmo (Ch. Golmud), Yamdrok Tso, and Thewo (3338N, 10245E) (Ch. Tewe) in southern Amdo, 254 km from Tsoe under Khanlho (Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture). The uranium deposits at Thewo (Ch:Tewe) in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (under Gansu Province) are known to be the largest in Tibet. The processing of uranium takes place 4 km southwest of Thewo. Apart from mining uranium in Tibet, Chinese also extract strontium which is used for nuclear missile cladding (Chutter, 1998).

At the uranium mine at Thewo poisonous waste water is allegedly collected and stored in a stone structure 40 meters high before being released into the local river, which the people use for drinking. Tibetan refugees escaping to India report the following results from the mining:

A list of 24 Thewo residents who mysteriously died was part of the information provided to our Desk. Witnesses said that before they died, all experienced a high fever, then shivering cold. After death, their skin had a bluish hue. Animals also turned blue or black after death and their organs appeared burnt.

Deaths near Thewo uranium mine:

S.no. Name Age Year of Death
1 Yilkhok 60 1987
2 Tsering Samdup 17 1987
3 Tashi Dolma 43 1987
4 Soton 80 1988
5 Rinzin Dolma 28 1988
6 Majing Tsering Norbu 60 1988
7 Kyolbo 46 1988
8 Detruk 60 1988
9 Arikmo 23 1988
10 Lhagyal 60 1989
11 Tsering Dolma 40 1989
12 Tashi Dolma 52 1989
13 Phuntsok Dhondup 58 1989
14 Rigan ? 1990
15 Abe 50 1990
16 Sonam Gyatso 60 1991
17 Chopakyap 23 1991
18 Ugyen Kyi 70 1991
19 Pema Tso 34 1991
20 Paltso 40 1991
21 Achak 50 Not known
22 Dolma 48 Not known
23 Yulkhor 80 Not known
24 Gedun Ther 92 Not known

Vanya Kewley, a BBC reporter who visited the Chinese missile base at Nagchuka in 1988 interviewed several people living in the area. In her book Tibet: Behind the Ice Curtain a Tibetan man called Kelsang said: "Many people have seen and heard movements and noises. Most people here have seen missiles coming from China and many travellers have seen movements of missiles at different places."

He further said: "As a result of the situation here, animals are getting strange diseases and dying. Some people are dying and children are being born deformed. In many places water is contaminated and undrinkable. The moment you drink it, you get ill or get diseases that we never had before. People get ill and go to different hospitals. They don't get better and the doctors don't tell us what it is and then we have to keep quiet about it."

The use of Prisoners at Nuclear

During the 1960s and 1970s, prisoners including political prisoners, were used to build China's nuclear infrastructure. In Amdo (Qinghai) huge prison labour camps are consistently placed next to nuclear missile sites. Next to the Terlingkha (Ch. Delingha) silos is the "Delingha Farm," which is one of the three largest labour camps in China today with a prison population estimated at 100,000.

The two nuclear missile sites in central Amdo, Large Tsaidam (Da Qaidam) and Small Tsaidam (Xiao Qaidam), also have sizeable labour camps alongside them. Harry Wu, a former Chinese political prisoner, reports that labour reform camps in Amdo (Qinghai) use prisoners to excavate radioactive ore. In addition prisoners are forced to enter nuclear test sites in order to perform dangerous work. Common and political prisoners are also used in nuclear facilities in Lanzhou, Gansu Province (ICT, 1993).

The International Campaign for Tibet, USA, confirmed in 1993 that prison labour was used in the building of nuclear installations at Lop Nor, the Ninth Academy and Lanzhou.

Trans-National impacts

Most toxic disposal sites on the Tibetan Plateau have minimal (if any) safety standards. The effects of harmful radioactive pollutants dumped anywhere on the plateau will be felt far beyond its borders, particularly because it is the source of 10 great river systems of Asia and commands massive inter-dependent ecological zones which share weather and climatic anomalies.

Atmospheric Pollution

The nuclear waste pollution of the Tibetan Plateau, besides having local effects, also has trans-national implications. The high altitude winds (jet streams) that blow over the Tibetan Plateau may carry nuclear pollutants from Tibet across the globe to affect other countries, since no boundary can be built to control air pollution. The Tibetan Plateau is seismologically an active region. Consequently, serious accidents at nuclear power and weapons production plants can endanger the lives of people and the health of the environment. When the accident occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Soviet Union in 1986, the radioactive dust from the plant travelled 950 miles (1,529 km) in all directions resulting in irreparable damage to people, property and the environment (Chitkara, 1996).

Ground Water and Soil Contamination

Mr. Pan Ziqiang, Director of the Safety Department of the state-run National Nuclear Industry Corporation, is quoted as saying that so far all of China's nuclear wastes have been put in concrete basement facilities which are safe for only about 10 years. Mr. Luo Guozhen of the State Environmental Protection Bureau says that 1,200 people have been injured by radioactivity between 1980 and 1985 and about 20 have died. He said managers who ignored regulations on handling radioactive waste were partly to blame for radioactive leaks (SMP, 1989).

Due to weathering, radioactive and other military wastes concrete containers buried in the ground will seep out and contaminate ground water sources, which are normally used for drinking and agricultural purposes. Ground water makes up a significant share of China's water resources.

Reports from Tibet confirm that underground water supplies in Amdo (Qinghai) have been diminishing at a rapid rate. Underground aquifers, which are one of the major source of drinking water supplies, once contaminated are impossible to clean. Therefore, any pollution at all, especially radioactive contamination of ground water is of great concern (Chitkara,1996).

River Pollution and Flooding

Radioactive waste randomly disposed of near water bodies will pollute rivers, lakes, and springs. Since Tibet is the primary source of water for most of South and South-east Asia, the impact of headwater pollution, especially by nuclear or industrial toxic waste on the social and economic fabric of millions of people in downstream countries would be disastrous. Countries including China, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Bhutan, and Vietnam will be drastically affected and forced to alter their livelihood. This will certainly cause terrible suffering to everyone dependent on these rivers for their livelihood.

Massive deforestation of the Tibetan Plateau largely contributes to the siltation of the downstream rivers and the increasingly destructive flooding that occurs each year. Rivers such as the Bramhaputra, Yangtse, Yellow River, Salween, Sutlej, Indus, Mekong and others may also carry nuclear-related waste from uranium mines in Tibet. These rivers finally flow into the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and the South China Sea. The global scale of such an environmental catastrophe is truly frightening.

Between 1985 and 1994 36,000 hectares of Chinese farmland annually suffered from top-soil loss, especially along the Yangtse and Yellow rivers, both of which originate from Tibet. Erosion has caused river beds to rise several meters higher than the surrounding farmland, thereby increasing the incidence of floods. Since 1990, China's major rivers have flooded large tracts of land almost every year (UNDP, 1997). More than 1,600 people drowned due to flooding of the Yangtse river in July 1996. The flooded river waters have affected one in ten Chinese (FEER, 1996).

In an extensive survey of China's major river basins, carried out in 1994 only 32 percent of the river water was found to meet the national standards for drinking water sources. Large segments of the Chinese population still have to rely on (more or less) polluted sources for drinking water, though estimates differ considerably (UNDP, 1997).

At the 'Endangered Tibet' Conference in Sydney on 28 September 1996, His Holiness the Dalai Lama said, "In the Dingri region of southern Tibet, five years ago, a local Tibetan told me about a river that all the villagers used for drinking. There were also Chinese living in the area. The Chinese residents belonging to the People's Liberation Army (PLA), were informed not to drink the water from the river as it was polluted by a factory upstream, but local Tibetans were not informed. The Tibetans still drink the polluted water. This shows some sort of negligence going on. This obviously is not because of lack of awareness, but due to other reasons."

International Tension

Beijing has unresolved territorial disputes over land or sea borders with countries ranging geographically from India and North Korea to Indonesia, not to mention its outright claim to Taiwan. Beijing's official 1995 defence budget figure of 63.1 billion yuan (US$ 7.5 billion) has been dismissed as ridiculously low by military analysts. Independent estimates of China's actual annual military expenditure vary from US$ 10 to 50 billion. China has 9,200 tanks, 51 submarines, 55 destroyers and frigates, 870 patrol and coastal crafts, 5,845 combat aircraft (Far Eastern Economic Review, 13 April 1995).

With a total of nearly 434 nuclear weapons and a three-tier strategic delivery system, China is indeed a nuclear power to be reckoned with. It has two types of Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) having ranges between 7,000 to 11,000 km. They are armed with two and five megaton warheads. China has 86 ICBM and 27 ICBM launchers. Twelve of its submarines are equipped with ballistic missiles having a range of 2,700 km. China has 120 TU-16 bombers having a 3,100 km range and has deployed the S-3000 surface to air missile (The Tribune, 11 June 1998).

China reportedly purchased 60 up-to-date SU-27 fighter bombers from Russia and ground-to-ground missiles with a range of 5000 km, (Asiaweek of September 18, 1992). Possession of such modern arsenal creates a strategic imbalance, causing tension in South-east Asia.

China admitted that it has powerful nuclear arms: "We have developed a limited number of strategic nuclear arms for the sake of breaking the nuclear monopoly, opposing blackmail, containing a possible nuclear attack and creating a peaceful environment for China's construction," Yang Guoliang, commander of the Second Artillery Force (SAF) of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) was quoted as saying by the official Chinese media (TOI2, 1997).

A new Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) report says that 13 of the 18 long-range strategic missiles of China have single nuclear warheads aimed at the cities in United States. The Washington Times, quoting an intelligence document sent to top policy-makers in advance of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's visit to Beijing on 30 April, says the 13 CSS-4 missiles aimed at US- with a range of more than 8,000 miles (12,874 km) - indicate that China views the United States as its major strategic adversary (The Indian Express, 2 May 1998).

China has been supplying missiles and other weapons technology to client countries including Russia, Iran, Syria, and Pakistan. In fact, in recent years China has become the leading weapons supplier in the international arms market, ranking behind the other four Permanent Members of the Security Council of the United Nations. This threatens the peace and the security of the world.

Tension between India and China

According to a report submitted by American author John F. Avedon to the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 17 September 1987, "One quarter of China's 350-strong nuclear missile force is in Tibet." Subsequently, the Australian Nuclear Disarmament Party in a press release on 28 October 1987, expressed its grave concern and stated that "nuclear missiles are reported to be deployed as follows: 70 medium-range, 20 intermediate-range at Nagchuka, ICBM base at Nyingtri, Kongpo and Powo Tramo and nuclear reactors at Golino. Deployment of above nuclear missiles in Tibet could be aimed primarily at India (TOI, 1988).

India has long accused China of threatening nuclear attack. This had led China's late Foreign Minister, Zhou Enlai, to respond that if China really wanted to destroy India he would mass 100 million Chinese in Tibet and order them to urinate downhill- washing India into the ocean. Zhou's remark underlines the Himalaya's enormous strategic importance. All of India's great rivers rise in the Himalayas (Margolis, 1997).

India's rapid development of a nuclear arsenal, a powerful navy, tactical and medium-ranged missiles, has heightened tensions between Delhi and Beijing. Intelligence sources say India's new intermediate-range missile, the 'Agni,' has been designed to deliver nuclear warheads onto Chinese targets as far away as the major industrial centres of Chengdu, Lanzhou, Xian and Wuhan. A longer ranged 5,000 km version capable of hitting Beijing is under development. India's security sources say 'Agni' is a counter-force weapon against Chinese missiles pointed at north India from the Tibetan Plateau (Margolis, 1997).

China supplied over 50 M-11 missiles to Pakistan between 1992 and 1994. It also supplied 5,000 ring magnets for the uranium enrichment facility for making nuclear bombs at Kahuta in 1995. Pakistan stored the M-11 missiles in canisters at its Sargodha airbase and has been constructing a missile factory using Chinese equipment. This illicit trade was clearly a violation by China of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which it signed in 1992. In 1997, Pakistan announced that another missile, the Hatf-III, actually a Chinese M-9, had been successfully test-fired (India Today, 20 April 1998).

According to Indian defence experts, China has supplied technology know-how to Pakistan to produce surface-to-surface ballistic missiles called 'Ghauri'. Pakistan successfully tested its 'Ghauri' missile as a counter measure to India's 'Agni' on 6 April 1998. Air Commander Jasjit Singh, Director of India's Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis, said "Obviously Pakistan is in the process of legitimising its missiles programme as indigenous even though it has Chinese help, " (TOI 3, 1998). The 'Ghuari' missile of Pakistan is nothing but a primitive CSS-5 (DF-21) by China to Pakistan, reports the Indian daily The Tribune on 15 April 1998.

The Defence Minister of India, Mr. George Fernandes, has reportedly declared that China is India's "potential threat number one" and has said that India is surrounded by Chinese military and naval activity. He further said China had its nuclear weapons stockpiled in Tibet right along India's borders and that there had been a lot of "elongation" of military airfields in Tibet where the latest versions of Russian-made Sukhoi (SU-27) combat aircraft were going to be stationed. "And this happened in the last six months," he added (The Tribune, 4 May 1998).

India tested 3 nuclear tests on 11 May followed by 2 tests on 13 May 1998 at Pokhran in Rajasthan. Many experts believe this is in response to Chinese military build-up in the Tibetan Plateau. The Prime Minister of India, A.B. Vajpayee, in a letter addressed to the President of United States, Bill Clinton dated 11 May 1998 said "We have an overt nuclear weapon state on our borders, a state (China) which committed armed aggression against India in 1962...To add to the distress that country has materially helped another neighbour of ours (Pakistan) to become a covert nuclear weapons state."

India refuted China's condemnation of its tests by pointing out that China had already conducted 45 nuclear tests (The Times of India, 18 May 1998). So the tension between India and Pakistan is boiling and is at an all time high.

International Action

Saving the environment of the Tibetan Plateau guarantees the purity of major rivers that originate from it to form the life-blood of millions of people downstream in Asia. Chinese nuclear weapons production, nuclear tests and waste dumping endanger the lives of millions of people in Asia. Before it is too late, grassroots and international actions must be taken to educate the Chinese and global community as to the consequences of China's nuclear policy.

Some action campaigns could include:

Six steps China and other nuclear states must take towards a nuclear-free world

The Tibetan Plateau has been militarised by China in persuasion of its own myopic military designs without any consideration for the lives and well being of the Tibetan people and their environment. Given the poor records of Chinese nuclear waste management and the lack of any technology to contain nuclear wastes, the implications of nuclearisation of the Tibetan Plateau for Tibet, China, and its neighbours is truly alarming.

Militarisation of the Tibetan plateau is an important regional and global issue because it is the source of major river waters for India, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and others. Upsetting the ecological balance of the high Tibetan Plateau also affects the jet streams that blow over it, and this in turn is found to be irreversibly linked with the environment of the whole Asian continent and the global climatic patterns.

The altar of the earth- the Tibetan Plateau must be saved from a nuclear holocaust. This responsibility falls on the Chinese government, Tibetans and the international community alike. We must act before it is too late. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has championed non-violence and proposed to the government of China that they turn Tibet into a Zone of Peace as stated in His Five-Point Peace Plan, announced on 21 September 1987 in Washington DC, USA.

China has vowed time and time again that they are a no-first-use nation and that they on record as being strongly in favour of nuclear abolition (Butler, 1998). The head of the Chinese delegation, Sha Zukang at the Second Session of the Preparatory Committee for the 2000 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in Geneva on 27 April 1998 called for a convention on a total ban of nuclear weapons to be concluded at an early date like the conventions banning chemical and biological weapons (Xinhua 27 April 1998). These are positive signs.

If the government of China is serious in its intentions, it should dismantle nuclear weapons on the Tibetan Plateau as an initial act of goodwill and declare Tibet a Zone of Peace. They should restore Tibet to its traditional status as a buffer state between the two most populous nations in the world - China and India. Such an action would not only benefit Tibet, India and China, but also the whole Asian continent and the millions of people across the globe. Such concrete initiatives will help foster a more friendly and compassionate world for all our children to live in and share with all other sentient beings. n

References Cited
Ackerly, John, 1993. A Poisonous Atmosphere: Nuclear Installations on the Tibetan Plateau. China Human Rights Forum, Spring 1993. p. 4-8.
Butler, Lee, 1998. National Press Club Speech on 2 February 1998, USA .Federal News Service, Washington DC.
Caldicott, Helen, 1997. Nuclear Power Won't Fix Our Greenhouse. Los Angeles Times, 30 November 1997.
Chellaney, Brahma, 1991. Regional Proliferation: Issues and Challenges, in Nuclear Proliferation in South Asia; The Prospects for Arms Control, Stephen Cohen, ed. Boulder, Westview Press, 1991, p 323.
Chitkara, M.G. 1996. Toxic Tibet Under Nuclear China, APH Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 163 pp.
Chutter, Tashi, 1998. Confidential Study on Deployment of Chinese Occupational Forces in Tibet, 1998.
DIIR, 1996. Tibet: Proving Truth From Facts, Department of Information & International Relations, Central Tibetan Administration, India.
FEER (Far Eastern Economic Review), 13 April, 1995
FEER, 8 August 1996.
Fieldhouse, Richard, 1991. Chinese nuclear weapons: A Current and Historical Overview. Natural Resource Defense Council, USA, March 1991.
Green Tibet Annual Newsletter, 1995-96. China Snubs the World with Nuclear Tests, DIIR, Central Tibetan Administration, India.
ICT, 1993. (International Campaign for Tibet), Washington DC, USA. Nuclear Tibet: Nuclear weapons and Nuclear waste on the Tibetan Plateau, 64 pp.
Kewley, Vanya. 1990. Tibet: Behind the Ice Curtain, London, Grafton Books.
Lewis, John Wilson and Xue Litai, China Builds the Bomb. Stanford University Press, 1988.
Margolis, Eric, 1997. Nuclear Dangers in the High Himalayas, 11 August 1997. Inside Track On World News.
Sharma. P. China's Chemical Warfare Manoeuvres. Hindustan Times, New Delhi, 9 October 1988.
Sunday Morning Post (SMP), Mainland Stores Nuclear Waste Amid Claims of Ignorance, August 6, 1989.
The Tribune, 5 July 1997. Russia Sells China hi-tech artillery.
Times of India 24 March 1988. (TOI, 1988) Nuclear Missiles in Tibet.
Times of India 12 July 1997. New Chinese missiles target India and Russia: US daily.
Times of India (TOI 2) , 23 July 1997.
Times of India (TOI 3) 7 April 1998.
UNDP, 1997. People's Republic of China: Development Co-operation Report 1995, 322 pp, June, 1997.
UNI (United News of India) , 28 September 1988. China Plans to Bury Radioactive Waste.
Weiskopf, Michael, 1984. China Reportedly Agrees to Store Western Nuclear Wastes, The Washington Post, 18 February 1984. Pg.21. n
*Tsultrim Palden Dekhang is the Executive Head of EDD. He has done his masters in Environmental Studies (MES) from Yale University, USA. M.Sc (Hons.) Punjab University.

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