Filed under: 2008 olympics, beijing, Censorship, China, Communism, Dalai Lama, ethnic cleansing, France, India, internet blackout, internet police, media blackout, Military, Nancy Pelosi, olympics, Oppression, police brutality, Police State, Propaganda, Protest, tibet, tibet protests, Troops, Youtube | Tags: Himalaya, Lhasa, Mount Everest, Sichuan
China Admits Police Shot Tibet Protesters
John Ruwitch
Reuters
March 21, 2008
Photographic evidence of the bloody crackdown on peaceful protesting Tibetans
Tibetans in China’s tense southwestern province of Sichuan said on Friday they believed police had killed several people in anti-Chinese riots there this week, disputing official claims none died.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported overnight that police shot and wounded four protesters this week in a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of the province, where protests broke out after anti-Chinese riots in neighboring Tibet a week ago.
The unrest has alarmed China, keen to look its best in the run-up to the August 8-24 Olympic Games in Beijing when it hopes to show the world it has arrived as a world power.
Chinese mountaineers chosen to take an Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest said their journey there through Tibet would be a show of national unity against exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing accuses of instigating the unrest.
“We shall go all out to ensure the smooth movement of the torch relay. We must strengthen ethnic unity while hostile forces try to drive a wedge between ethnic groups,” Yin Xunping, an official with the Tibet mountaineering effort, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
Tensions remain high in Tibet, Sichuan and other neighboring areas where the government has poured in troops.
Kangding, a heavily Tibetan town in Sichuan and a gateway to the restive region, was crowded with troops, some on patrol, some loudly practicing martial arts moves in the town square.
Drivers refused to travel into tense mountain towns.
Pelosi, in Talks With Dalai Lama, Says World Stands by Tibet
Jay Shankar
Bloomberg
March 21, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3yNS6DOoUSs
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the world stands united with Tibet as she met with the Dalai Lama at his headquarters in northern India.
“The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world,’’ she said in the town of Dharamshala, which is home to Tibet’s government-in-exile. “We are with you to meet the challenge.’’
The Dalai Lama is trying to build international pressure on China to show restraint in dealing with the biggest protests in Tibet in almost 20 years. The Nobel Peace Prize winner says he is committed to a peaceful solution and isn’t seeking independence for the Himalayan territory.
Chinese officials blame supporters of the Dalai Lama for riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, last week. Authorities say protesters killed 13 people and damaged more than 500 homes. Tibetan exiles said security forces have killed about 100 demonstrators since the protests began March 10.
“We are here to join you in shedding the bright light of truth on what is happening in Tibet,’’ said Pelosi as she met with the exiled spiritual leader. “We are here to help the people of Tibet and will continue to meet the challenge of conscience.’’
Tibet had varying degrees of autonomy from China until the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949. It deployed troops there a year later and annexed the region in 1951.
The video that China doesn’t want the world to see
Attytood
March 20, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNOCTwm8D7c
This footage of the rioting in Tibet is raw and harrowing. It’s also, for the most part, not being seen in China where authorities have blocked access to YouTube.com, which has many videos on Tibet.
The ability of Beijing to control information about the crisis points to the limitations of the big U.S. Web brands and others when news breaks that the Chinese government doesn’t like. “There are a lot of people that think the Internet is going to bring information and democracy and pluralism in China just by existing,” says Rebecca Mackinnon, assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism & Media Studies Center. “I think what we’re seeing with this situation in Tibet is while the Chinese government’s system of Internet censorship controls and propaganda is not infallible by any means, it works well enough in times of crisis like this.”
The whole thing is a bloody mess as the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing draws near. I think a vast majority of people have no stomach for another boycott — most Americans would rather defeat evil on the athletic field, as Jesse Owens did in Berlin in 1936, than take our ball and go home, as Jimmy Carter did in 1980. That said, I’d like to see freedom-loving people, from the U.S. and elsewhere, figure out how to make some kind of statement this August.
PARIS (AP) – Moves to punish China over its handling of violence in Tibet gained momentum Tuesday, with a novel suggestion for a mini-boycott of the Beijing Olympics by VIPs at the opening ceremony.
Such a protest by world leaders would be a huge slap in the face for China’s Communist leadership.
France’s outspoken foreign minister, former humanitarian campaigner Bernard Kouchner, said the idea “is interesting.”
The problem is that a more effective protest would be one mounted by athletes — but that’s banned under the Olympic charter (anyone remember this?). I think the VIPs should attend the ceremony — and at the right moment all hold up signs in Mandarin calling for free speech and a free Tibet.
I’m sure we could convince Dick Cheney to do that.
http://www.smh.com.au..otests/2008/03/17/1205602292959.html
Tibet Protest Spreads to Beijing
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/8-3-20/67846.html
Police ‘shot at Tibet protesters’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7307382.stm
Dalai Lama will resign if Tibet violence worsens
http://www.telegraph.c..s/2008/03/18/wtibet418.xml
Dalai Lama: ‘I am prepared to face China. I will go to Beijing’
http://www.independent.co.u..l-go-to-beijing-798998.html
Dalai Lama ready to talk
http://www.reuters.com/news..78572&videoChannel=1
China ships 80 truckloads of troops toward Tibet
http://www.dallasnews.com/shared..t.ART.State.Edition1.46e0b0d.html
Tibetan prisoners are paraded on trucks as China tightens its grip
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3566647.ece
‘Most wanted’ list out as China tightens pressure over Tibet
http://www.afp.google.com/arti..7sAmAo0vP8SibDFKKAg9WhfQ
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