Thread for Keith - Tibet

[FUBAR]

BBC NEWS
'Eighty killed' in Tibetan unrest  

Chinese troops were out in force in Lhasa on Sunday
At least 80 people have been killed in unrest following protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule, the Tibetan government in exile says.
Indian-based officials said the figure was confirmed by several sources, even though China put the death toll at 10.

The Dalai Lama called for an international inquiry into China's crackdown, accusing it of a "rule of terror" and "cultural genocide".

Chinese troops were out in force in Lhasa, Tibet's main city, on Sunday.

Hong Kong Cable TV reported that about 200 military vehicles, each carrying 40 to 60 armed soldiers, had driven into the city.

Loudspeakers broadcast messages, such as: "Discern between enemies and friends, maintain order."

Bodies

The BBC has learned that troops in neighbouring Chengdu province have been recalled from leave and put on standby.

A 23-year-old Canadian student in Lhasa told AP: "The entire city is basically closed down."

The Chinese crackdown followed rioting on Friday, that erupted after a week of mainly peaceful protests.

The Chinese official news agency Xinhua says 10 people died on Friday, including business people it said were "burnt to death".

But the Tibetan government in exile later said at least 80 corpses had been counted, including those of 26 people killed on Saturday next to the Dratchi prison in Lhasa.


Other bodies were spotted near the Ramoche Buddhist temple, and near a Muslim mosque and a cathedral in Lhasa, said Tenzin Taklha, a senior aide to the Dalai Lama.

"These reports come from relatives, from our people inside and from contacts of our department of security. They have all been confirmed multiple times," he said.

Deadline to surrender

The demonstrators, who on Friday set fire to Chinese-owed shops and hurled rocks at local police, have been penned into an area of the old town by government forces.

The authorities in Tibet have urged the protesters to hand themselves in by midnight on Monday, promising leniency to those who surrender.
Meanwhile, there were reports of protests by Tibetans in other parts of China.

About 200 protesters threw petrol bombs and burned down a police station in Sichuan province, a police officer told Reuters.

There were reports that officers opened fire on the protesters.

In an interview with the BBC, the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, said he feared there would be more deaths unless Beijing changed its policies towards Tibet, which it has ruled since invading in 1950.

"It has become really very, very tense. Now today and yesterday, the Tibetan side is determined. The Chinese side also equally determined. So that means, the result: killing, more suffering," he said.

"Ultimately, the Chinese government is clinging of policy, not looking at the reality. They simply feel they have gun - so they can control. Obviously they can control. But they cannot control human mind," he warned.

The unrest erupted a fortnight before China's Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which is scheduled to pass through Tibet.
But the Dalai Lama emphasised that he still supported Beijing's staging of the Olympic Games this summer, saying it was an opportunity for the Chinese to show their support for the principle of freedom.

The International Olympic Committee said it hoped to see the Tibetan unrest resolved peacefully, but its president Jacques Rogge rejected any boycott, saying it "doesn't solve anything".

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday urged China to "exercise restraint" in dealing with the protests.

She spoke as pro-Tibet demonstrations were held in Nepal, New York, Australia and several European cities.

[FUBAR]

FOX NEWS
Tibetan Exile Group: 80 People Confirmed Dead During Protests in Lhasa

BEIJING —  Tibet's exiled government said Sunday that 80 people had been killed during protests in Lhasa as armed police and soldiers patrolled the capital's streets, enforcing a strict curfew in a security clampdown following violent demonstrations that drew negative publicity for China ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile, said multiple sources inside Tibet had counted at least 80 corpses since the violence broke out. He did not know how many of those bodies were protesters.

At least another 72 people had been injured, he said.

Xinhua had earlier reported at least 10 civilians were burned to death Friday. The figures could not be independently verified as China restricts foreign media access to Tibet.

Lhasa was quiet but tense two days after Tibetans torched buildings and stoned Chinese residents in the fiercest challenge to Beijing's rule over the region in nearly two decades.

Hong Kong Cable TV reported that about 200 military vehicles, each carrying 40 to 60 armed soldiers, drove into Lhasa on Sunday. Footage showed streets in Lhasa were mostly emptied with only armored and military vehicles patrolling.

Loudspeakers on the streets repeatedly broadcast slogans urging residents to "discern between enemies and friends, maintain order." Another slogan called on them to "have a clear stand to oppose violence, maintain stability."

Witnesses and officials confirmed that residents were being ordered to stay off the streets.

"It is fairly quiet this morning. The police are patrolling the streets. The local people have been persuaded not to go out," said a man at the Lhasa city government offices.

A Lhasa resident who refused to give her name said "the police told us not to leave our homes."

The violence Friday erupted just two weeks before China's Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which will pass through Tibet.

Even as Chinese forces appeared to reassert control in Lhasa, big protests erupted Saturday in Gansu Province. Video posted on a Tibetan exile group's Web site showed more than 1,000 people, including Buddhist monks and ordinary Tibetans, marching in the streets of the city of Xiahe.

Police fired tear gas to disperse protesters after they marched from the historic Labrang monastery and smashed windows in the county police headquarters, witnesses said.

On Sunday, Gansu provincial governor Xushou Sheng called the protests "a planned and organized destructive activity" and blamed the "outside Dalai group" for instigating the riots.

China's communist government is hoping Beijing's hosting of the Aug. 8-24 Olympics will boost its popularity at home as well as its image abroad. But the event already has attracted scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems.

International criticism of the crackdown in Tibet so far has been mild without any threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China "to exercise restraint in dealing with the protests," while the State Department issued a travel alert for Americans in the region.

Rice said she was "concerned by reports of a sharply increased police and military presence in and around Lhasa." Her statement called for China to release monks and others jailed for protesting.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said he opposed an Olympic boycott over Tibet.

"We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."

"What is happening in Tibet and Beijing's responses to it will not affect the Games very much unless the issue really gets out of control," said Xu Guoqi, a China-born historian at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.

A meeting of the Standing Committee of the Tibet Communist Party, the ruling body in Tibet, said efforts had to be made "to expose and criticize the evil acts done by the hostile forces and expose the ugly feature of the Dalai (Lama) clique."

In a statement on the Tibet Daily Web site, the group urged swift action against Tibet's independence movement. It said the government should "unite all forces that can be united to wage a people's war against anti-splittism and to maintain stability."

On Sunday, the 11th Panchen Lama Gyaincain Norbu condemned the lawless riot in Lhasa, saying the sabotage acts run counter to the tenets of Buddhism.

Norbu, Beijing's choice as the reincarnation of the second highest ranking Buddhist figure, said the rioters' acts "not only harmed the interests of the nation and the people, but also violated the aim of Buddhism."

The boy whom the Dalai Lama chose as the Panchen Lama disappeared along with his family in 1995.

Lhasa is a sprawling city, and the security clampdown seemed to vary in different parts. A worker at one Lhasa hostel said the staff were not allowed to leave and they were running out of food.

"There are hundreds of soldiers outside and they will not let us go. There is a market next to our hostel and we have been sneaking in to get a few packets of instant noodles," she said, refusing to give her name.

But a clerk at another hotel away from the area where the worst violence took place said nearby shops were open and guests were allowed to leave.

Major-General Feng Zhengjie of the People's Liberation Army told reporters in Beijing outside the National People's Congress that the government needs to pay "high attention" to this sort of violent action.

"I hope and believe that the local government will handle this matter. It reminds all of us we need to pay attention to internal and external anti-China forces. Nowadays in society and internationally there are some people who don't want China getting strong," he said.

The unrest in Tibet began last Monday on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of the region. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before communist troops entered in 1950.

The protests by Buddhist monks spiraled to include cries for Tibet's independence and turned violent when police intervened. Pent-up grievances against Chinese rule came to the fore, as Tibetans directed their anger against Chinese and their shops, hotels and other businesses.

The details emerging from witness accounts and government statements suggested Beijing was preparing a methodical campaign -- one that if carefully modulated would minimize bloodshed and avoid wrecking Beijing's grand plans for the Olympics.

Law-enforcement agencies in Lhasa issued a notice offering leniency for demonstrators who surrender before the end of Monday and threatening severe punishment for those who do not.

The calculated mix of threats and inducements underscored the difficulties the communist leadership faces in trying to quell a serious challenge to its 57-year rule in Tibet while saving this year's Summer Olympics.

[F Body]

With all the goods we buy being made cheaply in China it's easy to forget that it's not a "free" country
One wonders how much longer the Communists can keep control of the country

[FUBAR]

This is posted here because he cannot access the foreign news sites from China, he also had no idea it was going on because (unsuprisingly) nothing has been mentioned on the Chinese State Television channel, rather ironically called 'CCTV'

[art b]

you would have expected china to have made some attempts to drag itself into the modern age,

with the olympics there you would think they would want to be seen in a good light,
but im afraid the goverment will always be as barbaric as ever....