Chinese oppression in Tibet

[theist]

Exile Group Says 30 Killed in Tibet

 

By AUDRA ANG – 1 hour ago

BEIJING (AP) — China ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital Saturday while troops on foot and in armored vehicles patrolled the streets and confined government workers to their offices, a day after riots that a Tibetan exile group said left at least 30 protesters dead.

The demonstrations against Chinese rule of Tibet are the largest and most violent in the region in nearly two decades. They have spread to other areas of China as well as neighboring Nepal and India.

In the western province of Gansu, police fired tear gas Saturday to disperse Buddhist monks and others staging a second day of protests in sympathy with anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa, local residents said.

The protests led by Buddhist monks began Monday in Tibet on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. They turned violent on Friday when demonstrators burned cars and shops. Witnesses said they heard gunshots on Friday and more shooting on Saturday night.

The eruption of violence comes just two weeks before China's Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet. China is gambling that its crackdown will not bring an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics.

Beijing's hosting of the Olympics in August has already brought scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems.

But so far, the international community has reacted to the crackdown in Tibet only by calling for Chinese restraint without any threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported at least 10 were killed Friday when demonstrators rampaged in Lhasa, setting fire to shops and cars.

"The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death," Xinhua quoted an official with the regional government as saying.

The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan government in India said it had confirmed Chinese authorities killed at least 30 Tibetan protesters but added the toll could be as high as 100. There was no confirmation of the death toll from Chinese officials and the numbers could not be independently verified.

China maintains rigid control over Tibet, foreigners need special travel permits to get there and journalists rarely get access except under highly controlled circumstances.

Streets in Lhasa were mostly empty Saturday as a curfew remained in place, witnesses said.

China's governor in Tibet vowed to punish the rioters, while law enforcement authorities urged protesters to turn themselves in by Tuesday or face unspecified punishment

Tourists reached by phone or those who arrived Saturday in Nepal described soldiers standing in lines sealing off streets where there was rioting on Friday. Armored vehicles and trucks ferrying soldiers were seen on the streets.

"There are military blockades blocking off whole portions of the city, and the entire city is basically closed down," said a 23-year-old Western student who arrived in Lhasa on Saturday. "All the restaurants are closed, all the hotels are closed."

Plooij Frans, a Dutch tourist who left the capital Saturday morning by plane and arrived in the Nepali capital of Katmandu, said he saw about 140 trucks of soldiers drive into the city within 24 hours.

"They came down on Tibetan people really hard," said Frans, who said his group could not return to their hotel Friday and had to stay near the airport. "Every corner there were tanks. It would have been impossible to hold any protest today."

Government workers in Lhasa said Chinese authorities have been prevented from leaving their buildings.

"We've been here since yesterday. No one has been allowed to leave or come in," said a woman who works for Lhasa's Work Safety Bureau, located near the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama. "Armored vehicles have been driving past," she said. "Men wearing camouflage uniforms and holding batons are patrolling the streets.

Tourists were told to stay in their hotels and make plans to leave, but government staff were required to work.

Some shops were closed, said a woman who answered the telephone at the Lhasa Hotel.

"There's no conflict today. The streets look pretty quiet," said the woman who refused to give her name for fear of retribution.

Xinhua reported Saturday that Lhasa was calm, with little traffic on the roads.

"Burned cars, motorcycles and bicycles remained scattered on the main streets, and the air is tinged with smoke," the report said.

In the western Chinese province of Gansu, several hundred monks marched out of historic Labrang monastery and into the town of Xiahe in the morning, gathering hundreds of other Tibetans with them as they went, residents said.

The crowd attacked government buildings, smashing windows in the county police headquarters, before police fired tear gas to put an end to the protest, residents said. A London-based Tibetan activist group, Free Tibet Campaign, said 20 people were arrested, citing unidentified sources in Xiahe.

"Many windows in shops and houses were smashed," said an employee at a hotel, who did not want either his or the hotel's name used for fear of retaliation. He said he did not see any Tibetans arrested or injured but said some police were hurt.

Pockets of dissent were also springing up outside China.

In Australia, media reported that police used batons and pepper spray to quell a demonstration outside the Chinese consulate in Sydney. The Australian Associated Press reported that dozens of demonstrators were at the scene and five were arrested.

Dozens of protesters in India launched a new march just days after more than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested by authorities during a similar rally.

And in Katmandu, police broke up a protest by Tibetans and arrested 20.

 

Associated Press writers Anita Chang in Beijing, Ashwini Bhatia in Dehra, India, and Binaj Gurubacharya in Katmandu, Nepal, contributed to this story.

On the Net:

 

• International Campaign for Tibet: http://www.savetibet.org
  
• Chinese official news agency: http://www.xinhuanet.com

 

[yogesh]

From Chinese rule. No help will be gained from influential Western or Eastern Block countries while Tibet Burns:mad2:

 

No Powerful G8 country dare speak out lest they lose lucrative economic ties with China:mad:

 

For over 20 years the UN has kept quiet over gross human rights violation in the country which has been overrun by these demons.

 

UN is a useless body that is controlled by the hand that feeds it.

 

A watch-dog for human rights turned into a Lap dog.

 

With China, Russia, USA, France and UK having permenant Veto rights nothing will be done.

 

Tiniamin Square incident also comes to mind.

 

Just look at the greedy countries running to China to take advantage of Cheap labour while still aiming economic sanctions on countries like Cuba.

 

Tibet has become a non issue for the UN.

 

Just look the other way (ignore it) then it will go away for another 20 or more years.

 

Hare Krsna/Krishna

 

Jay Sirla Prabhupada

[Sunds]

These stories are not new. They have become a inherent part of Chinese history.

[suchandra]

Sorry, Theist prabhu, didnt see that you started a topic about recent Tibet conflict. Should have posted it here instead.

[Shivaduta]

Jawaharlal nehru did try to speak out against chinese actions and what happened... India's "himalayan Blunder"... a chinese invasion which claimed a substantial chunk of india... like aksai chin and arunachal... and the US carriers had to enter the indian ocean before the chinese stopped their advance...

[LoveroftheBhagavata]

Frankly, I do not see any termination to this conflict in the foreseeable future. China is way, way too powerful for anyone to intimidate, and they won't give up their hold on Lhasa. The hapless Tibetans are going to end up losers. Sad, but nothing can be done about it!

[Sunds]

I think the World should boycott the Olympics Games. That will bring World focus on Tibet issue.

[Shivaduta]

Even the Dalai lama isnt daring to talk of boycotting olympics... and besides which nation will dare to boycott chinese olympics... everyone is rither scared or shares a profitable business relationship with china... besides the saying is true...."hamam mein sab nange" everyone is naked in the communal bath... which nation has a impeccable human rights record?

[LoveroftheBhagavata]

Last night on TV5 Monde, I watched Bernard Kouchner say that boycott was not an option that the EU was prepared to consider. I think that says it all. As I said, China is a juggernaut that no one would dare take to task.

[LoveroftheBhagavata]

China warns of fierce struggle over Tibet<!-- rem this part--><!-- --> <!--China warns of fierce struggle over Tibet-->Wed, Mar 19 10:24 AM

 

 

China warned of a "life and death" struggle with the Dalai Lama on Wednesday, as it sought to end a wave of protests in its Tibetan regions with arrests and tightened political control.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of masterminding the protests - which culminated in a riot on Friday in Tibet's capital, Lhasa - from his base in the Indian town of Dharamsala, where he lives in exile.

"We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a life and death struggle with the Dalai Clique," Tibet's Communist Party secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region's government and Party leaders.

"Leaders of the whole country must deeply understand the arduousness, complexity and long-term nature of the struggle," he said in remarks carried online by the China Tibet News.

China's state-run media says 105 people surrendered to police for taking part in the Lhasa protests after authorities set a midnight deadline for rioters to turn themselves in over the violence that the Dalai Lama's officials believe killed 99.

China, whose Communist troops entered Tibet in 1950 after taking power in Beijing, puts the death toll in Lhasa at 13. Foreign media are denied access to the area without government permission, making the competing claims difficult to verify.

China's authorities are keen to stem the violence quickly and regain stability over the country's remote far-west before the Olympics, which its capital, Beijing, will host in August.

But the Olympics also makes China more sensitive to international opinion over its policies in Tibet and its response to the unrest, and some activists overseas have demanded that the mountainous region be withdrawn from the Olympic torch relay that starts next Monday.

A human rights watchdog called on China to allow independent monitors to have access to detained Tibetans and said the government should publish names of those in custody.

"Given the long and well-documented history of torture of political activists by China's security forces, there is every reason to fear for the safety of those recently detained," said Brad Adams, Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"Only by giving access to independent monitors can China give the world some confidence that detainees are not being tortured or mistreated," he said in a statement.

The governor of Tibet has said that those who gave themselves up could be treated leniently, but warned that those who do not could face harsh treatment.

Zhang also suggested greater political control in the region.

"We must continue to deepen our nationalist education and practically strengthen the building of political power at the grassroots," he told the teleconference.

 

EPICENTRE OF LIES

 

Despite reports that Lhasa was returning to normal, with tight security but schools and businesses operating as usual, overseas groups reported continuing protests in ethnic Tibetan towns and villages in western China.

The Free Tibet Campaign said it had two independent accounts of a peaceful demonstration in the Gansu province town of Gannan, and the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said there had been unrest in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province in which security forces fired on protesters.

The reports could not be independently confirmed.

Both groups also cited a protest in Bora, near Gannan.

The Dalai Lama called for an end to the violence in Tibetan regions on Tuesday, and said he would step down as the head of Tibet's exiled state if that would stop the bloodshed.

But China's official Xinhua news agency called Dharamsala an "epicentre of lies", repeating Premier Wen's assertion that the unrest was "organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique".

"The Dalai clique maintained real-time contacts, sources say, through varied channels with the rioters in Lhasa, and dictated instructions to his hard core devotees and synchronised their moves," state news agency Xinhua reported.

The Dalai Lama says the rioting in Lhasa, which followed several days of peaceful marches by Tibet's Buddhist clergy, was spontaneous.