Tibetan protests ripple across mountain region

[Marcus Marulus]

Tibetan protests ripple across mountain region

By Benjamin Kang Lim Thu Mar 13, 2008


Tibetan exiles are seen with a photo of the Dalai Lama, at the start of their march in Takipur, about 40 kilometers, or 25 miles from Dharamshala, India, Wednesday, March 12, 2008. Several hundred Tibetan exiles in India set up overnight camps Wednesday and vowed to keep marching to protest Beijing's hosting of this summer's Olympic Games, in defiance of an Indian government ban. The exiles plan a six-month march from India that could arrive in Tibet during the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Games, in a bid to turn the Olympic spotlight onto China's often-harsh 57-year rule over the Himalayan region.(AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)


BEIJING (Reuters) - The biggest protests by Tibetan monks in nearly two decades have rippled into Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans, as the government's tough response draws condemnation from international groups.

The demonstrations over past days have followed marches around the world to mark the 49th anniversary of an uprising against Communist rule in the remote, mountainous region that has become a focus for protest ahead of this year's Beijing Olympics.

While China has focused on condemning foreign-based critics of its presence in Tibet, the shows of bold defiance within its borders are likely to make security preparations for the Olympic Games an even bigger worry for officials.

"The reports of protests outside Lhasa show that Tibetans know the eyes of the world are upon them and are determined not to let the momentum drop," Matt Whitticase of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign told Reuters.

On Monday, 500 monks from Drepung monastery defied authorities by staging a rare march in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, an act that the Chinese government called "an illegal activity that threatened social stability."

About 2,000 Chinese security personnel fired tear gas to try to disperse 600 monks from Sera monastery taking part in a second day of street protests in Lhasa, a source told Reuters.

They demanded the release of about a dozen fellow monks from Sera detained this month for waving a Tibetan flag and shouting pro-independence slogans, the source said.

"The demonstrations are the largest by monks since the 1989 protests that led to the imposition of martial law in Tibet's capital," the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.

Another rights group said about 400 monks from Lutsang monastery in the northwestern province of Qinghai, known in Tibetan as Amdo, protested on Monday and shouted slogans for their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to return.

The Dalai Lama fled to India after the failed uprising in 1959, nine years after People's Liberation Army troops marched into the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region. The protesters shouted "Free Tibet!," the Free Tibet Campaign said on Thursday.

About 100 monks from Myera monastery in the neighboring province of Gansu also protested on Monday, the rights group said, adding that police were investigating who was involved.

A source with knowledge of the protests quoted monks and witnesses as saying the sound of gunfire was heard outside the walls of monasteries. But no casualties have been reported.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said the protesters in Lhasa were "seeking to spark social turmoil."

"This was carefully planned by the Dalai clique in a bid to separate Tibet and sabotage Tibetan people's normal life of stability and harmony," he told a regular news conference.

The strife "could be a harbinger of further clashes between Tibetans and Chinese authorities in this Olympics year," said Mary Beth Markey, vice president of the International Campaign for Tibet.

OLYMPIC STRIFE

The demonstrations in the heavily policed region are precisely what China's Communist leaders are keen to avoid ahead of the Olympics starting Aug 8.


On Wednesday, China closed the north face of Mount Everest to expeditions until after the Olympic torch ascends the peak in early May. Five Americans, including an ethnic Tibetan, unfurled "Free Tibet" banners on Everest -- known in China by its Tibetan name, Qomalangma -- last year.

China's neighbor, India, which hosts many exiled Tibetans, has been careful to distance itself from the protests.

Indian police arrested around 100 Tibetans on Thursday, dragging them into police vans, when they tried to march to the Chinese border to press claims for independence and protest the Olympics.

The marchers set off on Monday as part of the global protests, leaving from Dharamsala, home to the Dalai Lama and the refugees' "government-in-exile."

The Indian police have said they are acting on government orders to restrain the marchers, claiming they have breached an agreement not to hold "anti-Chinese activities" on Indian soil.

Asked if China was satisfied with India's handling of the protests, Qin held back from direct comment.

"We hope that the Indian side will, based on broader considerations of bilateral relations, abide by the promise it made," he said.
(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley in Beijing and Abhishek Madhukar in Dehra, India; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)

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[Marcus Marulus]

From the Los Angeles Times

Tibetan monks protest Chinese rule

The demonstrations unnerve Beijing, which is struggling to contain growing pre-Olympics criticism of its human rights record.

By Barbara Demick

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

March 13, 2008

BEIJING — The largest pro-independence demonstrations in the Tibetan capital in nearly two decades have rattled the Chinese government as it struggles to contain growing criticism of its human rights record in the run-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

More than 500 Buddhist monks participated in marches toward the center of Lhasa, shouting slogans against China's 57-year rule over Tibet. Two of Tibet's three most important monasteries participated in the protests Monday and Tuesday. Monks at the third, the remote Ganden Monastery in the mountains 29 miles from the capital, were said to have staged their own demonstration Wednesday, said Robert Barnett, a Tibet scholar at Columbia University in New York.

"It is an astonishing development after 20 years that this is happening," Barnett said.

Activists quoting witnesses in Lhasa said Chinese security forces were setting up roadblocks around the city.

In another security move, China notified tour operators this week that Mt. Everest would be closed to climbers this year until May 10. Although the letter of notification cited environmental concerns, analysts say the Chinese want to avoid a repeat of an incident last year, when climbers made a video of themselves on Everest with a "Free Tibet" banner, and posted it on the Internet.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951, and critics say it has stifled its culture, language and religion. This week's protests marked the March 10 anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against China. Separately, several hundred Tibetan exiles tried to march into Tibet from the north Indian town of Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama presides over a government in exile. Some were arrested.

The U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia's Tibetan-language service reported that it received a phone call Wednesday from a witness in the Ganden Monastery who said monks were demonstrating. The service also reported fresh accounts of a protest Tuesday in which several hundred monks were seen marching near a police station.

"There were probably a couple of thousand armed police.... Police fired tear gas into the crowd," the witness was quoted as saying.

Although some witnesses said they heard gunshots, no serious injuries were reported.

The blockades kept the monks far from the city center, where they had hoped to demonstrate.

But the marches clearly rattled the Chinese government, which has been trying to fend off human rights activists from all corners of the globe using the Summer Olympics as a platform for their causes.

"The Olympic charter requires that the Olympic Games not be politicized," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said at a news conference Wednesday in Beijing.

He also criticized the Dalai Lama, saying the Tibetan spiritual leader's "conspiracy to split Tibet from China and his secessionist attempt is doomed to fail," according to the official New China News Agency.

Tibet is a potentially explosive issue for the Chinese in this sensitive year because it commands a large international following with high celebrity interest. The Chinese were shocked last month when Icelandic singer Bjork shouted "Tibet, Tibet!" from a stage in Shanghai after performing her song, "Declare Independence."

Kate Saunders, an official of London-based Free Tibet, said, "We want to use the Olympics as a means of leverage on China to press for positive change."

Since 1988, when a monk was shot to death for unfurling a Tibetan flag in Lhasa, the Chinese have kept such a large paramilitary presence in Tibet that protests against their rule have been virtually impossible.

Barnett said this week's events were linked to the Olympics and to resentments that have been pent up since 2005, when Zhang Qingli, a confidant of President Hu Jintao, took over as head of the Communist Party in Tibet.

"The control of Tibet has become more aggressive in the way they've controlled religion and the aggressive language they're using about the Dalai Lama," Barnett said. "And deciding to route the Olympic torch through Tibet was really provocative. They were setting themselves up for trouble."

Barnett noted, however, that the protests this week were handled with more sophistication than previously by the Chinese People's Armed Police force, which is stationed in Tibet. In the 1980s, brutality toward the monks inflamed the general population, leading to riots.

The State Department this year dropped China from its list of worst abusers of human rights, but accusations continue. Human Rights Watch issued a report Wednesday charging the Chinese with systematically abusing migrant workers involved in Beijing's pre-Olympics construction boom.

Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times

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[Marcus Marulus]

China admits sending in troops to quell Tibetan monk demos

By Clifford Coonan in Beijing


Indian police detain a Tibetan protesting in support of monks inside Tibet

Friday, 14 March 2008

Chinese troops and police have been deployed at important monasteries in Tibet to quell the biggest protests by Tibetan Buddhist monks in the Himalayan region for nearly 20 years.

Witnesses have reported trucks full of troops surrounding Drepung monastery in Lhasa, while Sera monastery was ringed by hundreds of police.

These two sites have strong symbolic significance, as they were the training grounds for the monks who led Tibet before the People's Liberation Army came in 1950 and ousted the Dalai Lama.

Protests began on Monday as monks marked the 49th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule that culminated in the Dalai Lama's exile. The protests are the biggest since the late 1980s, when riots led to martial law. Back then, China's current President, Hu Jintao, was the Communist Party chief in Tibet.

Signs of defiance in Tibet come just five months before the Olympic Games in Beijing, when the eyes of the world will be on China. Tibetan activists are expected to use the extra attention to highlight their cause.
Chinese officials in Beijing confirmed protests had taken place, but said the situation had stabilised. They accused the Dalai Lama of provoking separatist activities.

"In recent days, a few monks in Lhasa city have made some disturbances. This is a political scheme by the Dalai group, attempting to separate China and try to make some unrest in the normal harmonious, peaceful life of Tibetan people," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, told a briefing, adding that further protests would "not take place" because of China's determination to safeguard its national interest.

So far as Beijing is concerned, Tibet is part of its inviolable territory and always has been. Beijing stresses the role it has played in bringing economic well-being.

This week, protests have rippled across the mountainous enclave. More than 300 monks from Drepung marched on Monday, while a smaller group from Sera also protested. A number of arrests were made. Radio Free Asia reported that police used tear gas to disperse 500 to 600 monks from Sera monastery who were marching to demand the release of imprisoned fellow monks.

The Free Tibet Campaign also said its contacts had spoken to Tibetans who reported demonstrations by 400 monks in Lutsang monastery in Qinghai province, an area Tibetans call Amdo, as well as at the Myera monastery in Gansu.

"The reports of protests outside Lhasa show Tibetans know the eyes of the world are upon them and are determined not to let the momentum drop. Tibetans inside Tibet are aware that Tibetans in India are marching towards the Tibet border and have been emboldened by the support they are receiving from across the world," said Matt Whitticase of the Free Tibet Campaign.

More than 100 Tibetan exiles were dragged away by police in northern India yesterday, and promptly began a hunger strike after being charged with threatening the "peace and tranquillity" of the region.

Clutching Tibetan flags and pictures of Gandhi and the Dalai Lama, they had planned to march from India to Tibet to coincide with the start of the Olympics. Their first setback came at the beginning of the week, when Indian officials barred them from leaving the outskirts of Dharmasala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile. Yesterday they had marched about 12 miles beyond the boundary when Indian police stopped them in their tracks.

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[Marcus Marulus]

Tibet unrest spreads into neighbouring provinces

[Marcus Marulus]

China blocks YouTube, reporters over Tibet news - Yahoo! News

[Monolith]

I fully support the Tibetan struggle for freedom, because I see the Chinese as a threat to all neighboring nations.

[Marcus Marulus]

Originally Posted by Monolith

I fully support the Tibetan struggle for freedom, because I see the Chinese as a threat to all neighboring nations.

The curious thing is that Tibet became part of China only in 18th century, when China itself was ruled by the non-Chinese Manchu dynasty and the Manchurian language instead of Mandarin was spoken at the imperial court of Beijing. Before that date Tibet was never part of China.

In 18th century the Manchu-Chinese emperor intervened in internal Tibetan struggles and thus managed to establish Chinese control there. Under the imperial Chinese regime however the Celestial Emperor's rule over Tibet was only nominal, whilst the interior autonomy of Tibet was preserved in almost all of its aspects.

This situation changed only with the Communist takeover in China.

[Crvena zvezda]

Under the imperial Chinese regime however the Celestial Emperor's rule over Tibet was only nominal, whilst the interior autonomy of Tibet was preserved in almost all of its aspects.

This situation changed only with the Communist takeover in China.

I believe the Dalai Lama has specifically said he wants Tibet to be in a situation like Macau & Hong Kong. Only nominally with in China, except no time limit for this status like Hong Kong and Macau have.