The situation in Tibet...

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Surprised no one is talking about this too much. This is a pretty big deal, what with the Beijing Olympics coming up. I bolded a couple quotes that I found very telling regarding China's position. I am wondering when more of the world is going to call them out for this stuff.

 

http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080319...ru-bb10fb8.html

 

BEIJING - Chinese officials blasted the Dalai Lama as a "wolf in monk's robes" Wednesday and said protests among Tibetans this month have sparked a life-and-death struggle between China and followers of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

 

State media, meanwhile, reported more than 100 people had surrendered to police in and around Tibet's regional capital of Lhasa, where peaceful protests against Chinese rule turned violent last Friday. The communist government had promised leniency for those who handed themselves in _ and harsh punishment for those who did not.

 

"Those criminals ... shouldn't think they can get lucky. All criminals will definitely be caught in the net," the official Tibet Daily newspaper said in a report posted on its Web site.

 

It was impossible to confirm the reports and no figures were given for people hunted down and arrested.

 

Foreign media are banned from Tibet, and China's entirely state-controlled media have faithfully reported only the official version of events, in which the government has said rioters killed 16 people. The government said troops did not fire on protesters and has denied claims by overseas Tibetan groups that 80 people were killed.

 

The Lhasa protests marked the biggest challenge in almost two decades to Chinese rule in the Himalayan region, which People's Liberation Army forces occupied in 1950 after several decades of effective independence.

 

Initially led by monks, the demonstrations began peacefully on March 10, the anniversary of a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, and then spiraled out of control.

 

On Tuesday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused supporters of Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, of organizing the violent clashes in hopes of sabotaging this summer's Beijing Olympics and bolstering their campaign for independence in the Himalayan territory.

 

Tibet's hardline Communist Party chief was quoted was quoted Wednesday issuing a particularly viscous personal attack on the Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize.

 

"The Dalai is a wolf in monk's robes, a devil with a human face but the heart of a beast," Zhang Qingli was quoted in the Tibet Daily as saying at a meeting of the Tibet government.

 

"We are now engaged in a fierce blood-and-fire battle with the Dali clique, a life-and-death battle between us and the enemy," Zhang said.

 

Building on such comments, Tibet's former governor Raidi accused the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile of engineering the riot to "disturb the social stability at such a sensitive time."

 

"The violent crime instigated by the Dalai clique is nothing but a symbol that shows fierce head-on combat between us and the Dalai clique," Raidi was quoted as saying by Xinhua on Wednesday.

 

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet during the 1959 uprising, has urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if violence got out of control.

 

However, he also suggested China may have fomented unrest in the Lhasa and nearby provinces to discredit him.

 

The protests have focused world attention on China's human rights record ahead of the Olympics, prompting discussion of a possible boycott of the Games' Aug. 8 opening ceremony and calls from U.S. officials and others for China to address Tibetans' grievances and engage in direct talks with the Dalai Lama.

 

Critics say China fuels such anger through harsh restrictions on Tibetan culture and Buddhism _ including routine villification of the Dalai Lama, who is still deeply revered by most Tibetans. The government has also been accused of marginalizing Tibetans economically, in part by encouraging migration to Tibet by members of the Han Chinese ethnic majority.

 

Lhasa was reportedly calm under a tight security presence that moved in over the weekend.

 

An employee of the local Coca-Cola bottler, who declined to give his name, said a small demonstration was held in the city on Tuesday, but protesters had fled when troops arrived.

 

He said the company had conducted no business since Friday when customers, including a wholesaler, shops and supermarkets had been attacked and looted.

 

Protests spilled over from Tibet into surrounding provinces in recent days, as police and soldiers set up checkpoints across a wide swath of western China. On Tuesday, thousands of Tibetans flooded the streets of Seda, in Sichuan province, according to the Tibet Center for Human Rights and Democracy.

 

Activist groups also circulated graphic photographs of protesters who they said were massacred Sunday by Chinese police at Kirti monastery, also in Sichuan. The images showed several men who were apparently shot and bodies covered in blood. There was no way to verify the authenticity of the photographs.

 

A receptionist at the area's Nianbao Hotel said weapons had been fired as hundreds of Tibetan protestors poured into the streets. She said the area had been sealed off under a curfew and residents were confined to their homes.

 

 

[snuffbox 0]

I'm so glad we picked such a wonderful country to sell ours to!

[EricMM 0]

Things have to be seen to be appreciated as "ugly"

 

China will keep this whole thing under wraps. They're just waiting for the Dalai Lama to die so they can put their own successor forward.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'm so glad we picked such a wonderful country to sell ours to!

 

Another thing to thank George W. Bush for (and yes, I know other presidents before him, to a point).

 

How does he expect to ever spread democracy to that part of the world, when they've already basically bought our own?

[EricMM 0]

It must be said that Bush has put America more into debt than all other US presidents combined.

 

 

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

China wont do anything stupid til after the Olympics this year.

 

 

[Red Baron 0]

Mirrors and smoke.

 

Something really bad is going to happen at this years Olympics. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I have this weird feeling about it.

[RepoMan 0]

there's always some token State Department report criticizing China's human rights, but other than that it's pure silence from DC about China's atrocious human rights record. Forced migration, suppression of ethnic minorities, and shit loads of summery executions is the kind of shit that led the USSR to be labeled the "Evil Empire" or the "Gulag Archipelago."

 

I don't want an Olympic boycott because it just hurts athletes that have been training for years, but I hope any country that cares the least bit about human rights will boycott the opening ceremony. The IOC should have never helped legitimize this government by awarding them the Olympics. Beijing deserves to be embarrassed more than ever. Fuck China.

[Red Baron 0]

From what I've heard is that a majority of European Nations might boycott the entire games if something like this happens again in the near future.

[RHR 0]

My favorite olympic moment ever:

 

 

(Of course...I put Jessie Owens in a separate category. Jesse is responsible for the biggest middle finger in history when he showed how fucking dumb Hitler was.)

 

These guys took a moment to make you think. I did my country proud, when will my country do us proud?

 

It was balls. It was awesome.

 

It was peaceful.

 

2008 is the year that everyone needs to see that the human emotion, the human spirit prevails. I would wish they wouldn't march the teams in one country at a time. Let ALL THE ATHLETES COME IN together. To remind the world, that what seperates us geography, what binds us is us.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Well, you have to love how completely silent Bush has been on this whole thing. I guess he doesn't want to piss off his Chinese masters.

[EricMM 0]

Well we do owe then a LOT of money.

 

And we will continue to do so...

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Well we do owe then a LOT of money.

 

And we will continue to do so...

 

Right, which is primarily Bush's fault. I don't know why this isn't talked about more in the news. China could basically wreck our whole economy if they chose too. They won't right now, because they need America's trade right now because they are growing so rapidly, or at least that's my understanding. Still, I don't get why the Democrats can't call Bush out on stuff like this more.

 

Anyway, if the world just stands by and lets the riots in Tibet get crushed again, I don't want to hear any bitching at the US. The rest of the world could stand up and do something if they wanted, but they won't.

[Red Baron 0]

Just cut off their oil supply.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Well, I'm normally an Olympic mark but I'd have no problem if we pulled out of this one or it was boycotted in as many ways possible.

 

China has been going so fascist on their social engineering lately in order to present the best face possible for the Olympics, now is the right time for their shameful record on human rights, the environment, etc to be rubbed into their faces.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

There were already some protest antics during the torch lighting ceremony the other day. Chinese TV blacked it out.

 

This Olympics will be fun to watch for things like this.