Tibet: A place of their own.

China rejects dialogue, vows to smash Tibetan protests
Posted 2 hours 58 minutes ago/ABC News online


Protests have already taken place in many parts of the world. (file photo) (User submitted: Alex Teh)

China has turned its back on appeals for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, vowing to smash anti-China forces in Tibet.

A day after Beijing launched a manhunt for monks and others it blamed for unrest in Tibet, an editorial in the People's Daily, mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist party, said opposition to Chinese rule in the Himalayan region must be wiped out.

"China must resolutely crush the conspiracy of sabotage and smash 'Tibet independence forces'," the newspaper said in the editorial, rejecting calls from US, European and Asian leaders for talks.

The commentary accused the Dalai Lama of masterminding protests in Tibet in the hope of undermining the Beijing Olympics and gaining Tibet independence from Beijing.

It said, "1.3 billion Chinese people, including the Tibetan people, would allow no person or force to undermine the stability of the region."

The commentary effectively rebuffed growing international calls for dialogue to end the crackdown on protests that began last week to mark the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Beijing's rule of Tibet.

Despite evidence of widespread anger against Chinese rule among Tibetans, the paper blames a handful of lawless criminals for the unrest.

As the official paper of the Communist Party it goes on to say that those responsible will be severely punished.

Meanwhile, leaders in Japan and Poland joined an international appeal for restraint and dialogue.

Polish President Lech Kaczynski said China should talk to the Dalai Lama, as it prepared to host the Olympic Games.

"The opening of peaceful dialogue now would have a symbolic dimension, especially in the context of the upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing," said Mr Kaczynski.


Olympics

The Olympics is less than five months away and the symbolic start to events leading up to the Beijing Games is scheduled to take place in Greece on Monday when the Olympic flame is ignited.

The so-called sacred Olympic flame is to be lit at a 30-minute ritual in Mount Olympia in Greece in the presence of International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, whose organisation has been sharply criticised for its silence on the Tibet crackdown.

Greek police said that "stringent security" would be applied to deter anti-China protests during the ceremony.

After a tour of Greece, the flame will travel to Beijing for an official send-off ceremony on March 31 for the torch relay on its journey across five continents.

It then returns to China in May and the start of a domestic leg that includes three days in Tibet in mid-June after a scheduled stop on the summit of Mount Everest in May.

Pro-Tibet groups have said that they are planning protests along the international route of the torch relay and also in China.

China insists such protests run counter to the Olympic Charter, which opposes using the Games for political propaganda.

"Those who plan to hold protests to disrupt the torch relay are challenging the Olympic Charter and all those who love the Olympic movement around the world, as well as people who love peace and friendship," said Beijing Olympic organising committee vice-president Jiang Xiaoyu.


Global protests

Protests have already taken place in many parts of the world and continued when 600 people took to the streets of Tokyo to denounce the crackdown.

Protesters in Paris burned Chinese flags while demonstrators in New Delhi stormed the Chinese embassy.

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi demanded that China come clean on repression in Tibet.

"The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world," said Pelosi, who was greeted in Dharamshala by thousands of flag-waving Tibetan exiles as she arrived for talks Friday with Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.

"What is happening, the world needs to know," she said.

However, China has responded to the protests with a massive clampdown on the affected areas, and on Friday released a most-wanted list of 19 people caught on film taking part in the Lhasa riots, amid warnings by activist groups of harsh reprisals.

- AFP/BBC


http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/22/2196821.htm

An earlier report today:

Tibetan exiles break into Chinese embassy in India
New Delhi
March 22, 2008 - 12:18PM/the AGE

Tibetan exiles have broken into the Chinese embassy complex in New Delhi after making repeated failed bids since launching their pro-independence protests 12 days ago, police say.

About 50 Tibetans draped in bright yellow, red and blue Tibetan flags sneaked past police cordons and rushed towards the walls of the compound in the diplomatic Chanakyapuri district today.

About 15 of the protesters, screaming "Free Tibet," managed to scale the high railings and storm the complex, police said.

They were wrestled to the ground after they reached a cultural centre within the sprawling embassy complex, police added.

The demonstrators "were overpowered (by Indian police and Chinese security men) and arrested," said one police officer, who asked not to be named.

The protesters shouted anti-Chinese slogans as they were dragged into police vans.

Another Indian officer said "there were injuries on both sides" as security forces subdued the protesters. ...<cont>

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/tibetan-exiles-break-into-embassy/2008/03/22/1205602707466.html

Frustrated young Tibetans challenge leader's strategy


A monk protests in Nepal.
Photo: The New York Times

Matt Wade, Dharamsala
March 22, 2008

THE Dalai Lama leaned forward in his chair, fixed me with an intense gaze and described the predicament of the Tibetan movement he leads.

"In the last few days I have this sort of feeling of a young deer in the tiger's grip," he said, his hands mimicking claws. "Can the deer really fight with the tiger? It can only express the truth. Our only weapon, our only strength, is justice and truth."

Sitting on the floor of a crowded press conference at his residence in the Himalayan hill station of Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government in exile, I had asked him why many young Tibetans wanted him to adopt a tougher approach to the Chinese.

"We must be practical," said the 72-year-old Nobel laureate. But nearly 50 years after His Holiness fled China, there is a palpable sense of frustration among the 130,000 Tibetans living in India that a return to Tibet is still so far from reach.

A large proportion of the people protesting in Dharamsala this week were aged between 15 and 30. Many were born in India, not Tibet. Even so, they have a passionate desire to return to a homeland they have never seen.

The president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, Tsewang Rigzin, has criticised the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala in recent days. He wants the Dalai Lama's "middle way", focusing on talks with the Chinese, immediately reviewed. "It's been in place for the past 20 years, nothing has come out of it and the Tibetan nation and people are on the verge of extinction," Mr Rigzin said.

He is disappointed by the Dalai Lama's refusal to support calls for a boycott of the Beijing Games. He said that China had promised to uphold human rights when it was awarded the Games in 2001, but "the human rights situation in Tibet has deteriorated" since then.

The Dalai Lama says China deserves the Olympic Games and a boycott would only punish people who have nothing to do with Tibet.

Dharamsala has been festooned with Tibetan national flags in the past week. Tenzing Jamyang, 31, a social worker, organised friends to distribute thousands of free flags. "Flying it is one way of paying tribute to our people killed by the Chinese," he said.

Many young Tibetans are sympathetic to demands for complete independence for Tibet, not just the autonomy under Chinese rule that the Dalai Lama would settle for.

"We can see with the protests inside Tibet, they are burning Chinese flags, they are raising the Tibetan national flag, they are demanding independence for Tibet and I think we should respect that," Mr Rigzin said.

The president of the Tibetan Women's Association, B. Tsering, said that different opinions were inevitable in a freedom struggle. "It's OK to differ from your leader with respect," Dr Tsering said. "The Dalai Lama has encouraged democracy and encouraged Tibetan people to make their own decisions and take responsibility for them."

The Dalai Lama's stature has ensured that non-violent struggle, as advocated by former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, still defines the Free Tibet movement. But will this continue after he is gone?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/frustrated-young-tibetans-challenge-leaders-strategy/2008/03/21/1205602660924.html

Let India get rid of the Noble person Dalai Lama
and ask the German government to give a shelter.
Ask the people in Sri lanka or Bruma.
why not Sweden?

Oh god
if there is one
Save my soul
if I have one.

um .... Could you expand on that a bit, Rama?

You're upset that Tibetan unrest is being experienced so strongly in India?

I'm going to boycott everything from China. It will take a little work but I will do it.

Including the Olympics. Solidarity is becoming more and more important. We are the American consumer. We have power to protest with our spending habits. It is non-violent and effective.

I will start now.

In my humble opinion, the choice of China as Olympic host country was a very political decision. I'm certain that the Chinese leadership sees it this way, too. This event (if it can be carried off without "incidents") will give China much desired respectability on the planet. This event is extremely important to China. And it has very little to do with sport.

And since when did the"Olympic movement around the world" matter more than the quality of the lives of ordinary (oppressed) people?

So to wax lyrical about disruptions to the "Olympic Charter", as an appeal to those "who love peace and friendship" strikes me as very, very cynical.

I suspect the Tibetan people would really welcome some strong expression of "peace & friendship" towards them in their own country. From the Chinese government. Now this would be progress!

I admire your resolve, Amigo, but in reality this is an extremely difficult thing to do for many people.

In my own country (Oz) the market has been flooded, for quite some time, with extremely cheap Chinese products. Everywhere from the $2 Dollar shops, Kmart, to the hardware stores ..... Struggling folk living off low wages (& more & more casual work) often simply cannot afford the more expensive local product, whatever it is ....

Some local industries have been completely killed off by these cheap imports. Which our governments have encouraged.

So where does this leave us with ground roots protests, apart from to boycott a personal interest in the next Olympic games?

Did people know that parts of the kibble that poisoned Fido came from China before the media reports came out? How bout those who have been made sick with their Blood Thinner Heparin, did they know that the main ingredient came from China? See the problem?

Hawkeye, but I don't know much about Fido's poisonous kibble, nor about problems with Heparin.

What does any of this have to do with the Tibetan people's struggle for self determination?

It means that neither Amigo nor anyone else can boycott China. Chinese products permeate our medicine supply, our food supply, and are embedded in other products that we believe come from other places. America has become very lacks on notifying consumers where our products come from. This was done because corporations claimed that it was too much work to keep track of where stuff came from, and to pass along notices to the consumer.

Boycott as much as you can. I figure if monks can stand against tanks and guns and technology has given us the means to witness what is happening then the only thing left is what we do, and we can all do this in our own capacity. We can shop at thrift stores and garage sales....we'll just stop shopping.

Right here!!!!

http://www.able2know.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=3161377#3161377

Send out the E-mails the boycott is on! We'll make stickers!

OK.

I thought we were digressing into dangerous Chinese imports territory. (again.)

I can't find much new on developments in Tibet in the papers today. I guess this is what happens when journalists are expelled from a particular place. For the Chinese government, no news is (obviously) good news.

The troops have the area locked down, and it will stay that way till after the Olympics. Then we see. The Chinese plan has been over time rub out the tibetan culture by assimilating it into Han culture, but they need to rethink and make sure that they want to stick to the plan. The Han population wants a more forceful and quicker solution, the international community wants them to negotiate with the Dalai Lama some sort of a deal that would preserve some of Tibetan culture

This should be interesting.

Of course. Exactly the same approach the Indonesians used in East Timor. Flooded the place with Javanese, sent in the troops to ruthlessly repress & control the locals, boasted about spending a fortune investing in the country, supposedly for the benefit of the East Timorese .... But, as we all know, it all came dramatically unstuck for Indonesia. The cultures & religions of the two countries were too different for proper "assimilation" to occur. And of course, most East Timorese were not getting the benefit of the financial "investment" in their country, Javan businesses were the main beneficiaries. Eventually the East Timorese regained their independence, but at huge cost to the citizens of that country.
It never ceases to make me wonder: how come regimes like the Chinese government (& the others) do not learn from the (many) lessons of history? You cannot impose your will indefinitely while ruthlessly oppressing the people whose country you are occupying & exploiting. It doesn't work. It just breeds fiercer & fiercer resistance over time.

It was kinda sorta working as long as they could pass it off as "economic development", you know the railway and building factories and bringing Han in to staff them. Once the Tibetans realized that the plan was cultural extermination the mood changed.

I don't think there is a middle ground, they must either forcibly evict the Tibetans from Tibet, or let the culture stand.

Which way do you expect the Han's to go??

My understanding is that the Tibetans have never been happy with Chinese rule of their country. Whether they would be satisfied with autonomy over their own affairs (though not complete independence from China - the Dalai Lama's "middle way") is another matter. In any case, I really can't see that happening any time soon!

Chinese occupation of Tibet - key issues:
http://www.freetibet.org/info/key_issues.html

Who is more willing to risk life and limb to get control of the country?
thats all it comes down to.

Very lengthy update. From the (Oz) ABC.:

Olympic torch protests shameful: China
Posted 1 hour 12 minutes ago
Updated 37 minutes ago

China says attempts to disrupt the Olympic torch relay were "shameful" after protests at the ceremony to light the flame added to pressure over its handling of ongoing unrest in Tibet.

Amid reports of new bloodshed during a major crackdown by Chinese forces, the demonstrations in Greece on Monday underlined world anger over Tibet and a determination to keep harassing China's communist leaders on the issue.

But China's foreign ministry had only sharp words for the protests and urged countries on the relay route to ensure its smooth progress.

"Any act to disrupt the Olympic torch relay is shameful and unpopular," ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing in China's first official reaction to the incidents.

"We also believe that competent authorities in countries through which the torch relay will pass have the obligation to ensure a smooth relay."

With Tibetan exiles putting the death toll from 10 days of unrest at around 140, protesters condemning China's human rights record briefly disrupted the flame ceremony as it was broadcast live around the world - with Chinese officials on hand.

Later, 10 Tibetan activists staged a protest in the town's main street.

Chinese media largely ignored it in their accounts of the lighting of the flame, which kicked off a five-month world tour of the Olympic torch in the run-up to the August 8-24 Games, which China hopes will be a showpiece for the nation.

The China Daily instead called the flame ceremony "a perfect start."

The Global Times, a specialised newspaper focusing on international news, carried a short reference to the protests at the end of a lengthy report.

The incidents helped renew international attention on China's crackdown on the two weeks of protest over its rule of Tibet, which Beijing has blamed on the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader.


More outbreaks

State-run Xinhua news agency reported a policeman was killed, and other officers injured, in fresh clashes on Monday in Garze, a south-west region in Sichuan province with a large proportion of ethnic Tibetans.

The India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reported one Tibetan protester was shot dead and another left in critical condition following "indiscriminate firing" at a group of about 200 demonstrators.

Protests began in Tibet on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in the region.

The unrest has since turned deadly and spread to other parts of the country.

Thirteen people who took part in the March 10 demonstration are now under arrest, the state-controlled Tibet Daily reported Tuesday.


Resignation threat reissued

The Dalai Lama has reiterated a threat to resign as leader of Tibet's exiles if there are more violent anti-Chinese protests inside or outside China.

"If the violent demonstrations continue, I would resign," the Buddhist leader said in the Indian capital, where he was conducting a week of meditation workshops.

"I think inside or outside China, if the demonstrators utilise violent methods, I am totally against it," he added.

Last week the spiritual leader, who has been based in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala since a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, issued a similar warning.


Leaders speak out

Meanwhile, world leaders, rights groups and sports personalities have condemned China's policies in Tibet.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner described as intolerable China's crackdown in Tibet.

"This repression is not tolerable," Mr Kouchner told Europe 1 radio Tuesday, even as he ruled out a French boycott of the Olympics.

In New York, Human Rights Watch argued the Olympic torch should not pass through Tibet as part of its 130-day world odyssey to Beijing.

Although there appears to be little appetite among world leaders for a formal boycott of the Games, there were increasing signs of concern at the violence - and support for Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice said the violence in Tibet was "not acceptable." She urged Chinese authorities on Monday to talk to the Dalai Lama as the "only policy that is sustainable in Tibet."

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already announced he would meet the Dalai Lama when he visits London in May.

Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne, has also announced he would meet him and has also said he would not attend the Games.

But Singapore has backed Beijing's handling of the unrest in Tibet, saying it was "opposed to the politicalisation of the Olympics."

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez meanwhile said that international outrage against China's protests in Tibet is part of a US plan to weaken its up-and-coming Asian rival.

Xinhua today reported a visit to Tibet by Meng Jianzhu, the head of the public security ministry and China's top police official, covering several areas in Lhasa impacted by the clashes.

"Every religion should carry out their activities according to the law and should never undermine national solidarity," Mr Meng said, according to the agency.

"Participating in the riot essentially violated the doctrines of Tibetan Buddhism."


Media

Independent confirmation of reports from the region and areas populated by Tibetans has been extremely difficult due to curbs China has placed on foreign media.

The foreign ministry said today it would organise a three-day trip to Lhasa by about a dozen selected foreign journalists.

Tibet, a mountainous region that straddles Mount Everest and is more than twice the size of France, has been a flashpoint issue for China's Communist leadership ever since it came to power in 1949.

Tibet has taken on greater importance in the run-up to the Olympics in August, which the country's leaders hope will be a chance to show off China's rapid transformation into a modern economic power.

Despite the protests, calls for a boycott of the Games have been muted.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said on Monday that there was "deep concern" over events in Tibet but has dismissed talk of boycotting the event.

- AFP

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/03/25/2199043.htm