[Onthebarricades] TIBET: Uprising against Chinese regime

[Andy]

*  Protests begin with hundreds of monks calling for independence
*  They spread into a general mass uprising with burning barricades in 
Lhasa, and spread across Tibet and to neighbouring provinces
*  Chinese repression claims dozens of lives as soldiers attack protesters; 
activists claim 100 or more have died, with 1000 arrests
*  New incidents are reported continuing into April
*  An analyst suggests Tibetan youth groups are becoming increasingly 
radical

NOTE:  There is also a completely different set of news stories on the 
Xinhuanet (Chinese government-sponsored) news site portraying the unrest as 
an ethnic pogrom from which people needed to be rescued, and a plot 
coordinated by conspirators.  Disturbingly, this propaganda is remarkably 
similar to what is heard in the American, British or Australian media about 
similar unrest in these countries.

Publicly Archived at Global Resistance: 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/globalresistance


http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP306110

CHRONOLOGY-Day-by-day record of Tibet protests
Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:36am EDT

March 21 (Reuters) - Tibet's largest anti-China protests in almost two 
decades broke out on March 10, sparking riots in Lhasa, demonstrations in 
nearby ethnic Tibetan provinces, and daily pro-Tibet protests around the 
world.

Here is a timeline of the largest and most sustained protests Tibet has seen 
since Beijing crushed pro-independence demonstrations in 1989.

* Monday, March 10: Five-hundred monks from the Drepung monastery defy 
Chinese authorities to march into Tibet's capital, Lhasa, to mark the 49th 
anniversary of a quashed rebellion against communist rule. Monks from 
Lhasa-area Sera and Ganden monasteries also protest.

* March 12: Thousands of Chinese security personnel fire tear gas to try to 
disperse more than 600 monks from the Sera monastery taking part in another 
day of street protests.

* March 14: About 300-400 residents and monks take to the streets in Lhasa. 
Shops and cars are set on fire. Chinese authorities seal off Drepung, Sera 
and Ganden monasteries. China says 10 people killed in Lhasa, in unrest 
masterminded by the Dalai Lama. Spokesman for the Dalai Lama rejects the 
claim as baseless.

* March 15: Chinese authorities say Lhasa rioters will gain "leniency" if 
they give themselves up by midnight on Monday. Protesters in Sydney remove 
the Chinese flag at China's consulate building and try to raise a Tibetan 
flag.

* March 16: Armed police patrol streets of Lhasa. China suspends foreign 
travel permits to Tibet. Protests spread to ethnic Tibetan areas in Sichuan 
and Gansu provinces. Tibetans hurl petrol bombs and set a police station and 
market on fire in Sichuan's Aba region.

In Gansu's Machu town, a crowd of 300-400 carry pictures of the Dalai Lama, 
in defiance of authorities. Tibet's government-in-exile, in Dharamsala, 
India, says 80 people have been killed in riots. French riot police use tear 
gas to disperse about 500 pro-Tibet protesters outside the Chinese Embassy 
in Paris. New York police say protesters throw stones at officers outside 
the Chinese consulate in Manhattan.

* March 17: Tibet governor Qiangba Puncog says security forces exercised 
"massive restraint" and did not use lethal weapons against protesters, but 
13 "innocent civilians" were killed. Midnight deadline passes.

* March 18: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao dismisses calls for a boycott of the 
Beijing Olympics in August, and accuses the Dalai Lama of inciting unrest to 
sabotage the Games. About 100 pro-Tibet protesters clash with Australian 
police by the Chinese consulate in Sydney.

* March 19: China turns foreigners back from areas close to Tibet and says 
that about 160 Lhasa rioters have given themselves up to authorities. 
Olympic organisers vow the Olympic torch will travel to Tibet despite the 
deadly riots.

* March 20: China arrests 24 suspects charged with "grave crimes" in Lhasa, 
and reports that four protesters were shot and wounded by police in a 
Tibetan community in Sichuan province earlier in the week. Troops block 
roads in Kangding, Sichuan, a town with a large Tibetan population. In 
Nepal, riot police detain at least 20 Tibetan protesters, including monks, 
to stop an anti-China march to the United Nations office in Kathmandu.

* March 21: Tibetans in southwest Sichuan province say they believe several 
people were killed in anti-Chinese riots in Aba prefecture when police fired 
on protesters. Source: Reuters (Writing by Gillian Murdoch, Singapore 
Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by David Fogarty)

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-tibet13mar13,1,3364494.story

Tibetan monks protest Chinese rule
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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.
Related Stories
-TRAVEL BLOG: Some travel companies canceling tours over violence in Tibet

"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.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1395338.php/Riot_erupts_in_Lhasa_as_Tibetan_protests_escalate_in_China_is_to_be_available_later__Roundup_

Riot erupts in Lhasa as Tibetan protests escalate in China is to be 
available later (Roundup)
Mar 14, 2008, 10:41 GMT

Beijing - Violence erupted Friday in the centre of Lhasa, the capital of 
China's Tibet Autonomous Region, as the government deployed paramilitary 
riot police to control protests initiated by Buddhist monks, witnesses said.
The protestors beat up at least three firefighters and several police 
officers and tore down a Chinese national flag in the square outside Lhasa's 
Jokhang temple, the holiest site in the city for Tibetan Buddhists, one 
witness told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
The witness said she saw three fire trucks in flames and protestors overturn 
and set fire to a police car.
Six or seven truckloads of paramilitary police were sent to the square with 
some police in protective riot gear, she said.
Groups of monks, students and other lay Tibetans ran toward the police and 
attacked them with sticks and stones, forcing the officers to retreat from 
the square, she said.
Another witness said a market in central Lhasa was also ablaze on Friday and 
that he had heard rumours of three deaths in the rioting.
Dark smoke was seen coming from the square outside the Potala Palace, the 
traditional residence of the exiled Dalai Lama, witnesses said.
A worker at the Jokhang confirmed that a large protest had taken place 
outside the temple.
'Yes, there was a protest outside this morning,' the worker told dpa by 
telephone.
'Now the Jokhang is closed, so we can't go out and people can't come in,' he 
said.
Later on Friday, the government confirmed that shops were set on fire and 
that some people were injured during violence in Lhasa on Friday afternoon.
'Witnesses said a number of shops along two main streets ... and Chomsigkang 
Market were set on fire around 2 pm, sending out heavy smoke,' the official 
Xinhua news agency said.
The agency said all shops near the Jokhang and the nearby Ramogia monastery 
were closed.
Many people reportedly ran out of the square in front of the Jokhang soon 
after the fire erupted, it said.
An unspecified number of people were treated for injuries in local 
hospitals, vehicles were burned, and violence was continuing at 4:30 pm 
(0830 GMT), the agency said.
Friday's riot came amid reports of escalating unrest in Lhasa and at major 
monasteries in the region with reports of paramilitary reinforcements sent 
to control several of the monasteries.
US-based Radio Free Asia reported Friday that two monks were in critical 
condition after apparently attempting suicide during the protests.
The monks from Drepung monastery on the edge of Lhasa slit their wrists and 
stabbed themselves in the chest earlier this week, witnesses told the 
broadcaster.
Monks from Sera monastery in Lhasa have begun a hunger strike as Chinese 
troops surrounded the three largest monasteries in the city in a government 
crackdown on the protests, Radio Free Asia reported. The monasteries are now 
off-limits to tourists.
The protests have since spread to Ganden monastery and to Reting monastery 
north of the city, the broadcaster said.
The protests apparently began Monday, the 49th anniversary of a Tibetan 
uprising against Chinese rule that was crushed by troops.
The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest leader, fled to India after the 
uprising.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=becd7fa9-1bed-4794-b219-a74033924177&&Headline=Two+dead+as+Tibet+protests+spread

Chaos in Tibet as protests spread, deaths reported
Tibet burns
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India 'distressed' over situation in Tibet, says MEA
March 15, 2008

'Dalai Lama masterminding it'
March 14, 2008

Factbox | Tibet, Dalai Lama...
March 14, 2008
Chris Buckley and Lindsay Beck, Reuters
Beijing, March 14, 2008
First Published: 17:17 IST(14/3/2008)
Last Updated: 08:35 IST(15/3/2008)

Protesters in Tibet's capital burnt shops and vehicles and yelled for 
independence on Friday as the Himalayan region was hit by its biggest 
protests in two decades, prompting the Dalai Lama to warn Beijing against 
using "brute force".
There were also reports at least two people died in the violence, possibly 
more.
Peaceful street marches by Tibetan Buddhist monks over past days gave way to 
angry crowds of hundreds who confronted anti-riot police in the remote 
region -- testing China's grip on control just as it readies for the Olympic 
Games.
"Now it's very chaotic outside," an ethnic Tibetan resident said by 
telephone.
"People have been burning cars and motorbikes and buses. There is smoke 
everywhere and they have been throwing rocks and breaking windows. We're 
scared."
US-funded Radio Free Asia said Chinese police fired on rioting Tibetan 
protesters, killing at least two.
Residents around the Jokhang temple in old Lhasa which was a scene of 
protests said they were hiding indoors.
Some said they had seen lines of anti-riot police, but none spoke of 
gunfire. "We are waiting to see what will happen tomorrow," said an ethnic 
Tibetan woman. "It could get much worse."
Up to 400 protesters, including students, had gathered around a market near 
the Jokhang temple early on Friday and were confronted by about 1,000 
police, according to a witness cited by Matt Whitticase of the Free Tibet 
Campaign in London.
Four police were injured in the contention that followed, and another 
protest broke out near the Potala Palace, Whitticase added.
An ethnic Tibetan resident said there were "protests everywhere" accompanied 
by shouts for independence from China.
"It's no longer just the monks. Now they have been joined by lots of 
residents," the man said.
The eruption of anger comes despite Beijing's repeated claims Tibetans are 
grateful for improved lives, and it threatens to stain preparations for the 
Olympics, when the government hopes to show off national prosperity and 
harmony.
"These protests are a manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the 
Tibetan people under the present governance," Tibet's exiled spiritual 
leader, the Dalai Lama, said in a statement.
"I therefore appeal to the Chinese leadership to stop using force and 
address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue 
with the Tibetan people."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/19/tibet.video/

Tourist video shows riot, flames in Tibetan capital
Story Highlights
Michael Smith shot video of anti-Chinese rioting in Lhasa, Tibet, last week
The Australian tourist videotaped Tibetans smashing windows, setting fires
Once home, Smith shared his video with Australia's ABC News

(CNN) -- Australian tourist Michael Smith says he was eating lunch in a 
restaurant in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, on Friday when he heard an explosion 
and saw smoke.

Video shot by an Australian tourist shows protesters in the streets of 
Lhasa, Tibet, last week.

As armored vehicles and trucks carrying Chinese soldiers rushed past, Smith 
started videotaping.
"We're standing here in the middle of Lhasa and the place has just 
[expletive] exploded," Smith narrated during the rioting.
Smith, who was traveling in Tibet when anti-Chinese rioting broke out 
Friday, returned home this week with dramatic video of the violence in the 
Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which aired on Australian TV on Wednesday. Watch 
Smith's video of chaos in streets »
Tibetan exile groups maintain at least 80 people were killed by Chinese 
security forces that day, but Chinese authorities insist they acted with 
restraint and killed no one. Instead, China says 13 "innocent people" were 
killed, some brutally burned, by the Tibetan rioters.
No apparent deaths or injuries were seen on the video, which Smith shared 
with Australia's ABC News, a CNN affiliate.
The video shows Tibetans smashing windows and setting fire to Chinese shops 
and cars, while people are heard cheering. It also shows Chinese security 
forces, but no clashes between them and the rioters.
"It's absolute mayhem on the streets," Smith said.
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Other video released of the rioting was broadcast by the Chinese 
government's CCTV, and it did not include pictures of Chinese security 
forces.
Smith said as he made his way back to his hotel on Friday, he "met so many 
Tibetan people on the streets, so many young Tibetan boys just screaming for 
Tibet's freedom."
"We don't have any freedoms," one young Tibetan male shouted to Smith's 
camera.
"The Tibetan people are going crazy," Smith said. See protests around the 
world over Tibet »
Many of the businesses targeted by the rioters were operated by Han Chinese, 
China's largest ethnic group. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, has 
blamed the violent protests on deep resentment fueled by Chinese treatment 
of Tibetans as "second-class citizens in their own land."
Tibetan activists said an influx of Han Chinese from other provinces is 
threatening their ancient culture.
While many of these "Free Tibet" activists demand independence from China, 
the Dalai Lama said he wants only "genuine autonomy" so that Tibetans can 
preserve their heritage. Watch Tibetans on horseback storm a Chinese town »
Meanwhile, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday that more 
than 100 people surrendered themselves to police and admitted involvement in 
the clashes last week in Lhasa.
Tibet's regional government said 105 people had turned themselves in to 
authorities by 11 p.m. Tuesday (1:15 p.m. ET), Xinhua said.

Authorities had urged those who participated in the protests to turn 
themselves in, offering them leniency if they did.
"Those who surrender and provide information on other lawbreakers will be 
exempt from punishment," Xinhua quoted a police notice as saying.

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=183911

Tibet protests intensify

HEAVY-HANDED: Nepalese police officers detain a Tibetan protester in front 
of the UN offices in Katmandu, Nepal, yesterday. Police used bamboo batons 
to disperse about 100 Tibetan protesters and Buddhist monks in the capital 
yesterday, arresting around 30 marchers in the latest crackdown on pro-Tibet 
demonstrations. Picture: AP

2008/03/18
AT LEAST eight people were killed when police opened fire after a protest by 
monks in southwest China at the weekend, three activist groups said.
The latest incident took place on Sunday in Ngawa town in Sichuan province – 
which borders Tibet and has a large ethnic Tibetan population.
The monks and some laity were protesting against Chinese rule in their 
Himalayan homeland, the campaign groups said. The International Campaign for 
Tibet said one of the victims was a 15-year-old student. It further stated 
that more than a thousand monks had joined the protest at the Kirti 
monastery.
The London-based Free Tibet Campaign and the Tibetan Campaign for Human 
Rights and Democracy, in India, said at least eight dead bodies were brought 
into the monastery.
The protest was one of many that have broken out across China in the past 
week against Chinese rule in Tibet. These occurred on the anniversary of a 
1959 uprising that led to the Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, 
fleeing into exile.
On Friday a protest in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, descended into violence 
which resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people after shops and markets 
were set on fire.
According to Tibet’s government-in-exile, a total of 80 people have been 
killed so far in the ongoing protest action.
In neighbouring Nepal, dozens of Tibetan protestors were arrested yesterday 
by police following clashes during anti-China demonstrations in the capital, 
Kathmandu.
The clashes erupted when Tibetan demonstrators, numbering about 400, tried 
to picket the UN offices in Kathmandu.
Police made baton charges and fired tear gas to disperse the Tibetan 
demonstrators gathered outside the UN offices.
“We will continue our protests in Nepal,” said Thupden Tenzing Zamphel, the 
leader of the Nepal-Tibetan Volunteer Youth Forum.
“We will not stop our protest in the face of police action.”
According to Zamphel, few protesters were injured during the clashes, but he 
said he did not know the exact figures.
“A few people sustained head injuries, while others have injuries elsewhere 
on the body due to the police action,” Zamphel said.
He also said the police had detained between 50 to 60 of the demonstrators 
who had gone to picket the UN offices.
In the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan 
spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, five 
Tibetan non-governmental organisations condemned the “violent crackdown” by 
Chinese authorities.
“We fear the worst for our Tibetan brothers and sisters as the Chinese 
authorities lock down Lhasa and deploy armed police and troops across the 
country,” said Ngawang Woebar, president of GuChuSum Ex-Political Prisoners’ 
Movement of Tibet. — Sapa-DPA

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSPEK296114

China releases gory details of Tibet riot violence
Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:16am EDT

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, March 17 (Reuters) - China released gory details on Monday of 
knife-wielding Tibetan protesters carving off a chunk of flesh from a 
Chinese paramilitary policeman and cutting off the ears of passers-by.

But the accusations by Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous 
Region government, and a Chinese-language Web site could not be 
independently confirmed because foreign reporters are barred from the 
region.

"The mob used methods that were extremely ruthless. It makes one's hackles 
rise," Qiangba Puncog, an ethnic Tibetan and the top government official in 
the region, told a news conference.

A member of the People's Armed Police was beaten unconscious by a mob, one 
of whom then used a knife to carve out a chunk of flesh the size of a fist 
from his buttocks, said Qiangba Puncog, who holds a rank equivalent to a 
provincial governor.

A passer-by was burnt alive after petrol was poured over him, he said.

Monk-led pro-independence protests erupted in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa 
last Monday -- the 49th anniversary of an uprising that drove the Himalayan 
region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, into exile in India.

The Chinese edition of the official Web site www.chinatibetnews.com 
published a picture of a paramilitary policeman crawling on his knees 
outside a temple while "lawless elements madly attacked him".

"The mob was extremely vicious ... even cut off the ears" of passers-by, the 
Web site said.

It also ran a picture of a mob beating up two cyclists.

The biggest protests in the predominantly Buddhist region since 1989 have 
spilled over into neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by ethnic 
Tibetans. Some have turned ugly.

Protesters torched 56 vehicles and 300 venues, including 214 houses and 
shops, Qiangba Puncog said.

Tibet's self-proclaimed government-in-exile said up to 80 people had been 
killed in total, but Qiangba Puncog put the figure at 13.

Tsegyam, head of the Tibet Religious Foundation of the Dalai Lama in Taiwan, 
told reporters that more than 100 people had been killed and about 1,000 
injured in the rioting.

It is near impossible to obtain independent confirmation. Most local 
residents fear political repercussions for speaking to foreign reporters.

Protesters also burned down a mosque and Muslim restaurants, fuelling ethnic 
tensions not just between Han Chinese and Tibetans but also Tibetans and Hui 
Muslims.

Separately, the International Campaign for Tibet said eight bodies were put 
on display outside a police station in Aba prefecture in the southwestern 
province of Sichuan in an apparent warning to the local populace against 
further acts of protest. (Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Guo 
Shipeng in Beijing and Ralph Jennings in Taipei; Editing by Nick Macfie and 
Alex Richardson)

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h5Z6bJwtN_roGSIUQiQnfbf2NkhgD8VB3FGO0

Tibet Government Leader Confirms Protest
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN – Mar 11, 2008
BEIJING (AP) — The head of China's regional government in Tibet 
confirmedTuesday that about 300 Tibetan monks staged a protest march this 
week in the capital of Lhasa but said authorities diffused the incident 
without arrests.
The march Monday was one of the boldest public challenges to China's rule in 
nearly two decades, but Champa Phuntsok, chairman of the Tibetan government, 
said it was resolved without incident.
The monks from Drepung monastery outside Lhasa set off on their march to the 
city on the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule in 
1959.
Phunstok also confirmed a smaller protest at which nine monks shouted 
slogans near a main temple. The U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia and 
an overseas Tibetan Web site, phayul.com, had earlier reported the 
demonstrations.
Phunstok said an unspecified number of marchers were brought in for 
questioning and were released shortly after.
"It's really nothing," he told The Associated Press on the sidelines of 
National People's Congress, China's annual legislative session.
There was no way of independently confirming Phunstok's comments.
Drepung was sealed off Tuesday and increased numbers of armed police guarded 
temples in and around Lhasa, according to Radio Free Asia and phayul.com Web 
site, which is run by Tibetan exiles.
Up to 71 people, mostly monks, were detained following the protests, they 
said.
Always edgy about protests in frequently restive Tibet, China is 
particularly nervous in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August. 
Tibetan exiles and their supporters have tried to draw the Olympic spotlight 
to China's often harsh 57-year rule over the Himalayan region.
Meanwhile, several hundred Tibetan exiles tried to march to Tibet from 
Dharmsala, India, where their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has presided 
over a government-in-exile since the abortive 1959 uprising.
The activists started their march Monday, but police told them they were 
banned from leaving the area. However, they resumed their march on Tuesday.
Monday's Lhasa protests are believed to be the largest demonstrations in the 
city since Beijing crushed a wave of pro-independence demonstrations in 
1989. Since then, China has pumped investment into the region, vilified the 
Dalai Lama and tried to weed out his supporters among the influential 
Buddhist clergy — moves that have alienated some Tibetans.

http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-32499920080316

Tibetan riots spread, security lockdown in Lhasa
Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:33am IST
By Benjamin Kang Lim and Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Rioting erupted in a province neighbouring Tibet on 
Sunday, two days after violent protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule in 
Lhasa in which the region's exiled representatives said 80 people had been 
killed.
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said the Tibetan nation was in 
serious danger and called for an investigation into what he called cultural 
genocide in his homeland.
A police officer in Aba county, Sichuan, one of four provinces with large 
Tibetan populations, said a crowd of Tibetans had hurled petrol bombs in the 
main county town, burned down a police station and a market and set fire to 
two police cars and a fire truck.
"They've gone crazy," said the officer, her voice trembling down the 
telephone as the main government building there came under siege.
Security forces fired tear gas and arrested five people.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on a Web site that 
paramilitary police shot and killed at least seven protesters. A police 
officer, reached by telephone, denied this.
One ethnic Tibetan resident in Aba said there were sounds like gunshots and 
there was widespread talk of 10 or more dead.
"Now it's very tense. There are police going round everywhere, checking and 
looking over people for injuries," said another Aba resident, adding that 
many of the rioters were students of a Tibetan-language high school.
Anti-riot troops locked down Lhasa -- remote, high in the Himalayas and 
barred to foreign journalists without permission -- to prevent a repeat of 
Friday's violence, the most serious in nearly two decades.
A businessman there, reached by telephone, said a tense calm had descended 
on the city and most people were staying indoors.
Xinhua news agency said the authorities had stopped granting foreigners 
tourist permits to visit Lhasa for their "safety".
"We also suggest foreign tourists now in Tibet leave in the coming days," 
Xinhua quoted Ju Jianhua, director with the region's foreign affairs office, 
as saying.
The Dalai Lama, the Nobel peace laureate who fled to India in 1959, called 
from his Dharamsala base in the Himalayan foothills for an investigation 
into the situation in Tibet.
"Whether China's government admits or not, there is a problem ... the nation 
with ancient cultural heritage is actually facing serious dangers...," the 
Dalai Lama, reviled by Beijing as a separatist, told reporters in 
Dharamsala.
"Then also, whether intentionally or unintentionally, somewhere cultural 
genocide is taking place," he said, calling on Tibetans to express their 
resentment peacefully.
The Dalai Lama, who says he wants more autonomy but not independence for 
Tibet, said China deserved to host the August Olympic Games, but the 
international community had a "moral responsibility" to remind China to be a 
good host.
State-run China Central Television (CCTV) said on Sunday that social order 
had "basically been restored" in Lhasa, but showed footage of deserted 
streets choked with debris and burnt-out buildings near the central Jokhang 
temple area.
Clean-up crews were out on city streets on Sunday to shovel charred wreckage 
onto trucks and remove overturned vehicles, and government agencies and 
schools would resume normal operation on Monday, Xinhua news agency said.
The spasm of Tibetan anger at the Chinese presence in the region followed 
days of peaceful protests by monks and dealt a sharp blow to Beijing's 
preparations for the Olympics, when China wants to showcase prosperity and 
unity.
The Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala said 80 people had died in the 
clashes between authorities and protesters last week, and 72 had been 
injured.
Xinhua news agency said only that 10 "innocent civilians" had died, mostly 
in fires lit by rioters, and that 12 policemen had been seriously injured.
Tibet is one of several potential flashpoints for the ruling Communist Party 
at a time of heightened attention on China.
The government is concerned about the effect of inflation and wealth gaps on 
social stability after years of breakneck economic growth, and this month it 
said it had foiled two plots by Uighur militants in the large Muslim 
northwestern region of Xinjiang, including an attempt to disrupt the 
Olympics.
Kang Xiaoguang, a political scientist at the People's University of China 
who has long studied social stability, said there was very little chance of 
the Tibetan protests sparking a chain reaction in broader China.
"I think the chances are minimal," he said. "This is a localised problem. In 
the Han Chinese regions there's virtually zero sympathy for the Tibetan 
rioters, and so virtually zero chance that this will spread."
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in an e-mail that 
monks of the Amdo Ngaba Kirti monastery, also in Sichuan's Aba prefecture, 
had raised the banned Tibetan flag and shouted pro-independence slogans 
after prayers on Sunday.
Chinese security forces stormed the monastery, fired tear gas and prevented 
the monks from taking to the streets, it said. The report could not be 
independenly confirmed.
(Additional reporting by Jason Subler, Lindsay Beck and Ian Ransom in 
Beijing, John Ruwitch in Chengdu and by Jonathan Allen in Dharamsala)

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jT70u_gPX-WoR4WUozLOZ5-vy7fA

China sees 'life or death struggle' in Tibet
Mar 18, 2008
BEIJING (AFP) — China said Wednesday it was engaged in a "life or death 
struggle" over Tibet as dramatic footage emerged of Tibetan protesters 
rampaging on horseback and hoisting their national flag.
With China deploying a massive security force to quash the uprising and 
sealing off the hotbed areas from foreign media, activists and a rights 
group warned hundreds of Tibetans believed arrested may be at risk of 
torture.
Activist groups also released photos on Tuesday of eight dead Tibetans they 
said had been killed by Chinese forces at a protest in Sichuan province, 
saying it was proof of the brutal methods being used to quell the unrest.
[…]

The protests began in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa last week and escalated 
into deadly incidents on Friday.
While blanket security of the city appeared to have stymied any further 
major protests there, Tibetans living in neighbouring and nearby provinces 
have continued to defy authorities and protest for independence of their 
homeland.
China has tried to block foreign reporters from travelling into these 
regions, but Canadian TV said it was able to witness one of those protests 
on Tuesday in Gansu province, and showed dramatic footage of the unrest.
In the broadcast, more than 1,000 ethnic Tibetans, some of them on 
horseback, charged into a remote town, attacking a government building, 
pulling down the Chinese flag at a school and hoisting the Tibetan one.
Inside the town the crowd of Tibetans was repelled by about 100 heavily 
armed soldiers using tear gas, CTV said.
CTV's story was posted on YouTube on Wednesday and could be viewed at 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxm2obArsBs.
China has insisted it has used no deadly force to quell the unrest, 
reporting that the only people who have died so far were 13 "innocent 
civilians" killed by rioters in Lhasa on Friday.
However Tibet's parliament-in-exile said on Monday that "hundreds" of people 
had been killed in the Chinese crackdown.
Activists also pointed to photos said to be of dead Tibetans from a protest 
on Sunday in Ngawa, in southwest China's Sichuan province, as proof that 
Chinese forces were using lethal force.
The photos purportedly showed different men and at least one woman who 
appeared to be dead, with a bullet wound over the heart of one man. The body 
of another man is lying naked on a plastic sheet saturated in blood.
The veracity of the photos could not be independently verified by AFP.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, China's official Xinhua news agency said 105 Tibetan 
"rioters" in Lhasa had surrendered by late Tuesday night, following a 
midnight Monday deadline to turn themselves in.
But exiled groups and rights activists said at least hundreds of Tibetans 
had been detained and were at risk of torture amid a sweep by Chinese 
security forces throughout Tibet and other hotspot areas.
"It seems like there are many hundreds of arrests at least, possibly 
thousands, across the country," Lhadon Tethong, director of Students for a 
Free Tibet, told AFP, as other groups gave similar tallies.
Human Rights Watch warned those in custody were at great risk of being 
tortured.
"Given the long and well-documented history of torture of political 
activists by China's security forces there is every reason to fear for the 
safety of those recently detained," said Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch's 
Asia director.
A male official with the public security bureau in Lhasa would not comment 
on the surrenders or reported arrests on Wednesday and told AFP not to call 
back.
The protests began in Lhasa last week to mark the anniversary of a failed 
1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly accused Tibetan spiritual leader the 
Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland after the 1959 uprising, of masterminding 
the latest unrest.
But the Nobel Peace laureate, 72, has repeatedly insisted he does not want 
independence, but an end to what he has said is widespread repression in his 
homeland.
China's officially annexed Tibet in 1951, a year after sending troops in to 
"liberate" the region.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/news/article_1396042.php/Rights_group_Chinese_forces_gun_down_three_people_at_Tibet_protest

Rights group: Chinese forces gun down three people at Tibet protest
Mar 19, 2008, 7:44 GMT
Beijing - Chinese security forces opened fire on Tibetan protesters and 
killed at least three people, an exile group said Wednesday.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said from India that it 
received confirmation from multiple sources that three people were killed in 
the peaceful protests Tuesday in Kardze in Sichuan province, which borders 
Tibet.
On Tuesday, the group said at least 39 people were shot by Chinese troops in 
Aba in Sichuan and in Machu in the northern province of Gansu.
The Free Tibet Campaign also released photographs it said were taken at the 
Kirti monastery in Aba showing bodies with gunshot wounds.
Protests occurred not only in Kardze Tuesday, the Tibetan Centre for Human 
Rights and Democracy said, but also in Gannan and Sangchu in Gansu.
Monks and other Tibetans demonstrated for independence for the Himalayan 
region and the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest 
religious figure, the group said. Chinese security forces deployed tear gas 
in some places, it added.
Protests by Tibetans in and outside Tibet began March 10, the 49th 
anniversary of the failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=213174&Sn=WORL&IssueID=31010

Fresh protests hit Lhasa
DHARAMSHALA, India: Fresh protests took place in Lhasa yesterday, even as 
diplomats wrapped up a visit organised by Beijing in an effort to blunt 
criticism of its crackdown on unrest in the region.
The protest began at the Ramoche monastery, where earlier protests started 
on March 14 that led to the crackdown, but calmed down after a few hours.
People also protested at the Jokhang Temple, a major Buddhist site.
A 15-member group of diplomats from the US, Japan and European governments 
returned to Beijing after a tightly controlled two-day visit to Lhasa.
China offered diplomats from a dozen countries a closely monitored 21-hour 
tour of Lhasa, a Western embassy representative said. Two countries declined 
the invitation.
Diplomats toured damaged areas of Lhasa and met people selected by Chinese 
authorities, who accompanied them at all times, the American Embassy said.
"The delegation was not permitted to move about independently in Lhasa, and 
was unable to hold unsupervised conversations with local residents," the 
statement said.
The Chinese government said it would pay compensation for people killed in 
the rioting, give the injured free medical care and help to repair damaged 
homes and businesses.
Families of 18 civilians killed will each receive 200,000 yuan (BD10,773).
Meanwhile, Dalai Lama accused Beijing of "demographic aggression" by 
encouraging settlers from China's ethnic Han majority to move to the 
sparsely Tibetan populated region.
He said the number of settlers in Tibet was expected to increase by more 
than one million following the Olympics, but did not say where he obtained 
such information.
"There is evidence the Chinese people in Tibet are increasing month by 
month," he claimed.
Lhasa has 100,000 Tibetans and twice as many outsiders, the majority of them 
from the Han majority, he said.
In Hong Kong, veteran activist John Kamm, who met recently with Chinese 
officials, said they indicated that Beijing would not back down on Tibet 
despite any possible complications over the Olympics.
Chinese security forces sealed off parts of Lhasa and Tibet's 
government-in-exile said it was investigating reports of fresh protests.
The London-based International Campaign for Tibet said it had heard that 
security forces had surrounded Lhasa's main temples, Jokhang and Ramoche.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/03/26/255.html

Wednesday, March 26, 2008. Issue 3869. Page 10.
2 Dead as Monks Clash With Police in West China Protest
The Associated Press
BEIJING -- A clash between protesters and police in a Tibetan area of 
western China killed at least two people, state media and a rights group 
said Tuesday, as the country's top police official called for stepped-up 
"patriotic campaigns" in monasteries to boost support for Beijing.
The demonstration in Garze, a prefecture in Sichuan province, started Monday 
as a peaceful march by monks and nuns but turned violent when police tried 
to suppress the crowd, which grew to about 200 after residents joined in, 
the Dharmsala, India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy 
said.
China's official Xinhua News Agency said the protesters attacked police with 
knives and stones, killing one policeman. The Tibetan rights group said an 
18-year-old monk died and another was critically wounded after security 
agents fired live rounds.
It was not immediately possible to confirm either claim. Officials answering 
telephone calls Tuesday at police and government offices in Garze either 
denied anything had happened or said they had not heard of such reports.
Garze borders Tibet, where anti-government protests led by monks spiraled 
into violence on March 14 in Lhasa. Demonstrations in support of the Lhasa 
protests have since burgeoned rapidly throughout provinces surrounding 
Tibet.
The unrest in Garze indicates that Tibetan defiance is still running strong 
a week after thousands of Chinese troops fanned out to patrol areas outside 
of Lhasa and clamp down on fresh protests.
Meng Jianzhu, the minister of public security, ordered Tibet's security 
forces to remain on alert for further unrest and said "patriotic education" 
campaigns would be strengthened in monasteries, according to the Tibet Daily 
newspaper.

http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8950&Itemid=31

One policeman killed in fresh riot in China

Wednesday, 26 March 2008
One Chinese policeman was killed and several others injured on Monday in a 
riot in a Tibetan-populated area of south-west Sichuan province, state media 
reported early yesterday, citing local authorities.
Xinhua said in a one-paragraph dispatch that the incident took place in the 
Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a traditional part of greater Tibet 
that is now part of Sichuan province.
The officer, who was named by Xinhua as Wang Guochan, was killed when a 
group attacked armed police with knives at about 4.30pm, the agency said.
"The police were forced to fire warning shots, and dispersed the lawless 
mobsters," an official was quoted as saying, adding that he said an 
investigation was underway.
The riots come after violent protests over China's rule of Tibet broke out 
in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 14, before spilling out across other 
parts of the country.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan 
spiritual leader who fled his homeland after a 1959 uprising, of 
masterminding the latest unrest but have provided no evidence.

http://www.gulfnews.com/world/China/10203242.html

Eight killed in fresh Tibetan riots at monastery
Agencies
Published: April 05, 2008, 08:58
Beijing: At least eight people have been killed in unrest at a monastery in 
southwestern China, a rights group said.

Skirmishes with police on Friday also left at least two people injured, 
including an official who was attacked in a riot.

The International Campaign for Tibet said that police fired into the crowd 
after some monks at the Tongkor monastery were detained following a police 
search.

Over the past weeks, China has seen clashes between police and pro-Tibetan 
protesters against what they say is unfair Chinese policy on Tibetans.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964461.html

16/03/2008

China cracks down on Tibetan protests; at least 100 people killed in Tibet 
capital By News Agencies Tags: Olympics
BEIJING - Chinese security forces swarmed Tibet's capital yesterday and 
tourists were ordered out as Beijing gambled that a crackdown on violent 
protests against Chinese rule will not bring an international boycott of 
this summer's Olympics.

The tough response by the Chinese authorities came after fierce protests on 
Friday which contradicted China's claims of stability and tarnished a 
carefully nurtured image of national harmony as it readies to stage the 
Olympic Games in August.

Official Tibetan judicial authorities gave protesters until Monday night to 
turn themselves in and benefit from leniency.
"Criminals who do not surrender themselves by the deadline will be sternly 
punished according to the law," said a notice on the Tibetan government Web 
site

International pressure mounted on Beijing to show restraint. Australia, the 
United States and Europe urged China to find a peaceful outcome, while 
Taiwan, which China claims as its own, predictably condemned Beijing for 
launching a crackdown.

Xinhua news agency said 10 "innocent civilians" had been shot or burned to 
death in the street clashes in the remote, mountain capital which has been 
sealed off. The dead included two people killed by shotguns.

Xinhua said 12 police officers had been "gravely injured" and 22 buildings 
and dozens of vehicles were set on fire.

A source close to the Tibetan government-in-exile, however, questioned the 
official death toll of 10. He said at least five Tibetan protesters had been 
shot dead by troops.

The Tibetan government in exile, based in northern India, said tThere have 
been 30 confirmed deaths until Saturday, and over 100 unconfirmed deaths."

The riots emerged from a volatile mix of pre-Olympics protests, diplomatic 
friction over Tibet and local discontent with the harsh ways of the region's 
Communist Party leadership.

The protests, the worst since 1989 in the disputed region, have thrust 
China's role as Olympic host and its policy toward Tibet back into the 
international spotlight.

A rash of angry blog posts appeared after the deaths were confirmed. 
Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a Buddhist and an activist for Tibetan causes, 
urged an Olympics boycott.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge opposed a boycott, 
saying only the athletes would suffer.

Accounts from the remote region were fragmentary and China restricts access 
for foreign media, making it difficult to independently verify the 
casualties and the scale of the protests and suppression.

Yet 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 in August.

Signs of violence persisted yesterday. Several witnesses reported hearing 
occasional sounds of gunfire. One Westerner who went to a rooftop in Lhasa's 
old city said he saw troops with automatic rifles moving through the streets 
firing, though did not see anyone shot.

Even as Chinese forces appeared to reassert control in Lhasa, a second day 
of sympathy protests erupted in an important Tibetan town 1,200 kilometers 
away. Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Buddhist monks and other 
Tibetans after they marched from the historic Labrang monastery and smashed 
windows in the county police headquarters in Xiahe, witnesses said.

The China-installed governor of Tibet, besieged by reporters as he entered a 
legislative meeting in Beijing, vowed to deal harshly with the protesters in 
Lhasa, but said no shots had been fired and promised that calm will be 
restored very soon.

"Beating, smashing, looting and burning - we absolutely condemn this sort of 
behavior," said Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan.

He blamed the protests on followers of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile 
in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and is still Tibet's 
widely revered spiritual leader.

>From Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama appealed to China not to use force. 
He said he was deeply concerned and urged Tibetans not to resort to 
violence.

Preparing the Chinese public for tough measures, state-run television on the 
evening newscast showed footage of red-robed monks battering bus signs and 
Tibetans in street clothes hurling rocks and smashing shop windows as smoke 
billowed across Lhasa.

"The plot by an extremely small number of people to damage Tibet's stability 
and harmony is unpopular and doomed to failure," a narrator said as the 
footage played.

Chinese newspapers and Internet sites, all state-controlled, ran no reports 
on the violence except a brief Xinhua statement vowing to reassert order - a 
further sign the government was managing public expectations.

Foreign tourists in Lhasa were told to leave, a hotel manager and travel 
guide said, with the guide adding that some were turned back at the airport.

Tibet's latest unrest began Monday, the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, 
with protests by Buddhist monks demanding the release of other detained 
monks. Sporadic, largely peaceful protests and spiraling demands - including 
cries for Tibet's independence - continued throughout the week until Friday 
when police tried to stop a group of protesting monks.

http://www.kansascity.com/451/story/532563.html

Protests turn violent in Tibet
By EVAN OSNOS AND LAURIE GOERING
Chicago Tribune

http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Tibet under Chinese rule
The largest protests in Tibet in two decades, which have coursed through 
Lhasa, the capital, and left vehicles and shops in flames, pose a political 
dilemma for Beijing as it struggles to bring the unrest under control.
The Chinese government, already facing international pressure to improve its 
human rights record before the summer Olympics in Beijing, confronts two 
unappealing options: permit protests to continue and risk broader unrest, or 
clampdown and face scrutiny and censure from the world.
Varying accounts suggest that Tibet's three main monasteries have been 
surrounded by police and troop carriers, foreign tourists are confined to 
hotels, and ethnic Chinese-run businesses have been targeted for damage from 
angry Tibetans. Some Buddhist monks reportedly are on hunger strike and, in 
two cases, have attempted suicide to protest police handling of the 
demonstrations.
The scale and details of the events, however, remain hard to verify. The 
U.S. Embassy in Beijing "has received first-hand reports from American 
citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence," 
according to an advisory sent Friday. The embassy urged Americans in Tibet 
and especially in Lhasa to "seek safe havens" and "remain indoors to the 
extent possible."
As of late Friday, much of Lhasa was under a curfew. With only scattered 
reports of gunfire, Tibet experts said it appears, for the moment, that 
public scrutiny may have stalled or prevented a more forceful crackdown, 
though it's not clear how protesters will be dealt with after the initial 
violence subsides.
"I think we are seeing (public relations) considerations and I think that's 
helpful. They haven't used much shooting," said Robbie Barnett, the program 
coordinator in Modern Tibetan Studies, at Columbia University. "It's 
progress, but we're not yet seeing signs that it translates into 
open-mindedness and not notions of punishment and retribution."
China has sent stern warnings that it will not permit unrest to undermine 
the Olympic games. "Anyone who wants to sabotage the Games will get 
nowhere," Qiangba Puncog, the top government official in Tibet, was quoted 
as saying this week in state media.
With nearly five months remaining before the opening ceremony on Aug. 8, the 
clashes in Tibet deal another blow to Chinese leaders already struggling to 
defuse foreign criticism that threatens to taint what China hopes will be a 
showcase of the nation's integration with the world.
Activists have brought pressure on corporate sponsors, foreign heads of 
state who plan to attend, and celebrities involved in planning. Last month, 
Britain's Prince Charles said that he would not attend the games in protest 
of China's treatment of Tibet, and Steven Spielberg withdrew as an artistic 
advisor, blaming China's continuing support of the government of Sudan, 
which has failed to quell violence in its Darfur region.
China considers foreign support a critical measure of a successful games, 
and a crackdown in Tibet could risk the prospect of international 
condemnation or a boycott.
The tension in Tibet comes just days after the U.S. State Department removed 
China from a list of the world's worst human rights violators, despite 
objections from human rights groups. However, China's "overall human rights 
record remained poor" in 2007, according to the State Department's annual 
human rights report released Tuesday, which cited stricter controls on the 
Internet and the press, and limits on the freedom of religion in Tibet and 
the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/13/wtibet113.xml

Tibet's anti-China protest monks gassed

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 2:35am GMT 16/03/2008

Tibetan Buddhist monks, staging the most serious protests against Chinese 
rule in years, were driven back with tear gas and electric batons, according 
to reports from Lhasa, the capital.
·  US drops China from worst human rights list
Two days of protests led by hundreds of monks shouting "Independence for 
Tibet" and "Long live the Dalai Lama" were broken up by thousands of police

Tibetan exiles protest march
Scores of monks were reported to have been arrested, with the remainder 
surrounded by security forces in their monasteries and in many cases shut up 
in their rooms, according to reports.
Meanwhile, the Chinese authorities sent a letter to mountaineering 
organisations saying that the Tibetan side of Everest, and the nearby 
mountain Cho Oyu, were being closed to climbers until the middle of May.
This was interpreted by Tibet support groups as an attempt to disrupt plans 
to take the Olympic torch relay to the top of Everest as part of its advance 
on Beijing for this summer's games.
The report was denied by the Chinese authorities, which said the letter had 
been "misunderstood", but tourist authorities have been warned to pay extra 
attention before issuing the permits that foreigners need to enter the 
region.
The protests on Monday, first reported by the Tibetan-language service of 
Radio Free Asia, marked the 49th anniversary of the uprising in 1959 which 
led to the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile, where he has remained ever since.
The monks marched on Lhasa from different directions, including Drepung, 
once the largest monastery in the world.
What happened next was described in a dramatic blog entry by two European 
tourists, who said they saw hundreds of ordinary Tibetans gather in Barkhor 
Square to try to protect the small group of monks.
"They form a strong, silent, peaceful circle around the police who keep the 
middle of the square open," wrote Steve Dubois and Ulrike Lakiere.
"Soon they call for backup. Undercover agents, not so difficult to 
recognise, film the whole happening. Especially the faces. This is one 
method to create fear.

"Suddenly there is panic. Six or seven monks are arrested and driven away. 
Tibetans are very scared because of the stories about the prisons and 
tortures. In the meanwhile big numbers of policemen arrive. They drive 
everybody apart."
On Tuesday, the protests were apparently aimed at freeing the monks, 
estimated to be 60 or 70, who were under arrest.
"A sort of momentum seems to be building up," said Kate Saunders, of the 
International Campaign for Tibet.
Unusually, the Chinese authorities confirmed Monday's protests, saying 300 
monks had been involved.
Jampa Phuntsok, the ethnic Tibetan governor of Tibet, who is in Beijing for 
the annual meeting of the National People's Congress, said the incident was 
"really nothing".

http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=431578&sid=NAT

Chinese policies responsible for tension in Tibet: Dalai Lama
Zeenews Bureau

Dharamsala, March 20: Dalai Lama – the exiled spiritual head of the 
Tibetans – on Thursday held China responsible for the unrest and tension in 
Tibet. In a direct reference to the Communist State, Lama said that 
ambiguous Chinese polices were responsible for problems in Tibet and it has 
nothing to do with the people of China. However, he expressed his 
willingness to hold parleys with the Chinese leadership over the issue of 
autonomy status for Tibet, but not without full preparation.

Dalai Lama assured the international community that he is committed to 
remove negative feelings amongst Tibetans and distrust among Chinese 
citizens.

Hardening his stand, the spiritual leader said that he has no moral 
authority to stop the agitating Tibetans, who have for long cherished the 
unfulfilled dream of an independent homeland. He further cautioned that the 
Chinese establishment needs to show more concrete signs for the restoration 
of peace in the region.

His statement comes at a time when hundreds of Tibetans living in India are 
likely to hold protest marches to Lhasa in batches to press for freedom.

Exiled Tibetans, who have gathered in large numbers in Dharamsala, are also 
seeking the immediate intervention of the international community to yield 
more pressure on Beijing to stop its crackdown in Tibet.

Last week, on March 10, a group of about 100 marchers were detained by 
police on orders of the Indian government, but a second group, which picked 
up the route from where the first group was stopped, has been allowed to go 
ahead. The marchers are planning to get to Tibet via New Delhi, where they 
hope to coincide with the arrival the Olympic torch as it passes through the 
Indian capital.

According to reports, anti-China sentiment is at its peak, where hundreds of 
monks, nuns and young children, holding placards and banners, are demanding 
urgent action by the international community to restrain China.

The proposed march is being backed by the Tibetan community spread across 
the globe, which has been expressing its solidarity for their brethren 
living in the Communist State by demanding freedom for Tibet.

The organizers of the march are demanding that the Beijing Olympic Games be 
stopped. Apart from this, the marchers have called for allowing their 
spiritual head - the exiled Dalai Lama - to live in Tibet.

The Chinese crackdown following the recent unrest in Tibet and neighbouring 
Chinese provinces is believed to have claimed hundreds of lives and sparked 
calls for a boycott of the Games.

At the height of the row, establishment in Beijing has accused the Dalai 
Lama, of masterminding the recent monk-led protests and rioting.

However, Dalai Lama has categorically denied masterminding the protests, 
which culminated last Friday in Lhasa.

The Tibetan protests are said to be the most serious in the Himalayan region 
for nearly two decades, which aims to wreck the start of August 8-24 Olympic 
Games.

A war of words has already started between the exiled Tibetan Government and 
the Chinese government as the former claims that so far 99 people have died 
in the clashes in Lhasa and other Tibetan cities. Beijing, however, says 
that only 13 "innocent civilians" have been killed in the violence.

The issue also holds significance as US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 
on an “only India visit” is likely to discuss the Tibetan cause with Indian 
leaders and Dalai Lama.

Beijing has reportedly deployed hundreds of its troops to contain the 
protest march. China is apparently keen to stamp out the unrest as quickly 
as possible and restore stability in the far-west before the Olympics, which 
they hope will showcase China`s prosperity and unity.

New Delhi is treading a delicate balance with its giant neighbour, with whom 
it is trying to expand diplomatic and trade ties after decades of rivalry 
that included a brief war in 1962.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-03-22-voa1.cfm

Situation Tense in Tibet Neighborhood of Southern Chinese City
By VOA News
22 March 2008

Chengdu, China covered in a heavy haze (file photo)
Authorities in a major city in southwestern China have clamped down on a 
Tibetan neighborhood where there have been unconfirmed reports of protests 
this week.
Witnesses in Chengdu say security forces have locked down the neighborhood 
in the capital of Sichuan province near the Wuhou Temple and the Southwest 
University of Nationalities.
There were unconfirmed reports of a protest in the neighborhood earlier this 
week and of a Tibetan stabbing a Han Chinese man.
Police told a VOA correspondent in Chengdu that the situation is normal and 
that the rumors of Tibetans planning bomb attacks are false. But the 
correspondent says there is a heavy police presence near the Tibetan 
neighborhood and vehicles are not allowed through. Han Chinese taxi drivers 
told the correspondent they are refusing to take Tibetan passengers because 
they fear for their safety.
The United States and six other countries, France, Germany, Pakistan, 
Singapore, South Korea and Thailand maintain consulates in the city. But a 
State Department spokesman Thursday declined to say if U.S. diplomats are 
able to confirm reports of protests in Sichuan province and other Tibetan 
areas.
Chinese authorities have admitted firing on Tibetan protesters in Sichuan's 
Ngaba prefecture, but denied killing anyone. The Indian-based Tibetan 
government-in-exile says 19 people were shot and killed by police during the 
protests.
Rights group have released photographs of several bodies with bullet wounds 
that they allege were caused by police gunfire.
The Foreign Correspondents Club of China has reported official interference 
with journalists working in Chengdu, and authorities have tried to prevent 
foreigner reporters from traveling to other areas of the province where 
there have been demonstrations.
A Time Magazine correspondent earlier this week reporting seeing about 150 
military vehicles traveling on the road to the Tibetan city of Lithang in 
Sichuan.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLdtNvaCDIMR-qxvbf_BLS2Cj_ng

China reports fresh Tibetan unrest, police fire warning shots
Apr 4, 2008
BEIJING (AFP) — China on Friday reported a fresh outbreak of violence as it 
sought to contain the biggest challenge to its rule of Tibet in decades, 
saying police were forced to fire warning shots to quell "rioters."
One local official was seriously wounded during the "riot," which took place 
in a Tibetan-populated area of Sichuan province in southwest China on 
Thursday evening, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhua said security forces showed restraint during the incident but the 
International Campaign for Tibet and the Free Tibet Campaign, citing various 
sources there, said eight Tibetans had been killed when police opened fire.
The protest was the latest in three weeks of deadly unrest pitting Tibetans 
against Chinese security forces, which has angered and embarrassed China as 
it prepares for the Beijing Olympics in August.
China has blamed exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama for the 
protests and accused him of trying to sabotage the Olympics, claims he 
strenuously denies.
Nevertheless, an envoy of the Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyari, on Thursday urged 
Beijing to cancel plans to run the Olympic torch relay through Tibet, saying 
to do so would be "provocative and insulting" given the unrest.
The protests began in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, to mark the anniversary of a 
failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of the remote Himalayan region.
Four days of peaceful protests erupted into rioting in Lhasa on March 14, 
and the unrest spread to other areas of western China with Tibetan 
populations, including Sichuan province.
China says Tibetan rioters have killed 18 civilians and two policemen. 
Before the latest unrest, Tibetan exiled leaders said 135-140 Tibetans had 
been killed in the Chinese crackdown.
Communist China has ruled Tibet since 1951, after sending in troops to 
"liberate" the Buddhist region the previous year.
In the latest incident, in Garze county of Sichuan, Xinhua said rioters had 
attacked the local township government office, seriously wounding one 
official.
"Local officials exercised restraint during the riot and repeatedly told the 
rioters to abide by the law," Xinhua quoted a local government official as 
saying.
"(But) police were forced to fire warning shots and put down the violence, 
since local officials and people were in great danger."
Xinhua did not give other key details in its brief dispatch, such as how 
many "rioters" were involved or why they had marched on the government 
office.
But the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, citing one source in the region, 
said security forces opened fire when 370 monks from the Tonkhor monastery 
and about 400 other Tibetans staged a protest.
Eight Tibetans were killed after security forces opened fire on the 
protesters, Free Tibet Campaign spokesman Matt Whitticase said.
The International Campaign for Tibet, another overseas activist group with 
strong Tibetan connections inside China, also said its sources had told it 
eight people had been killed.
Campaign spokesman Kate Saunders and Whitticase said the Tibetans had been 
protesting over the detention of two monks on Thursday.
Tensions had escalated when authorities came to the Tonkhor monastery to 
conduct "patriotic reeducation," which involved denouncing the Dalai Lama, 
according to Whitticase and Saunders.
All the monks at the monastery reportedly refused to do so.
Independently verifying what happened, as with the previous three weeks of 
unrest, is extremely difficult because China has barred foreign reporters 
from travelling to Tibet and the other hotspot areas.
In his comments to a US Congressional hearing, Gyari said the Olympic torch 
should not climb to the top of Mount Everest next month and should not 
travel through Lhasa in June, as is currently scheduled.
"This idea of taking the torch through Tibet, I really think, should be 
cancelled precisely because that would be very deliberately provocative and 
very insulting after what has happened," he said.
Gyari said that if the Chinese authorities went ahead with the torch run in 
Tibet, it would "bring more adverse publicity" to the Olympics in Beijing --  
which China wants to be a national showcase of its rising standing.
Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Olympic organising committee, said 
Gyari's comments were further proof the "Dalai clique" wants to sabotage the 
Olympics.
Meanwhile, the Tibet Commerce newspaper said late Thursday that more than 
1,000 people had either been caught by police or had turned themselves in 
for their involvement in the unrest.
Trials of at least some would begin this month, the paper reported, citing 
the deputy chief of the Lhasa communist party, Wang Xiangming.

 22-March-2008
RADICALISATION OF TIBETAN YOUTH
By B.Raman
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/papers27/paper2639.html

1. The world-wide demonstrations of Tibetans of all ages against
China and the uprisings in Greater Tibet since March 10,2008. have
come as the culmination of a long debate in Dharamsala and among
Tibetan refugees all over the world, including India, over the
wisdom of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's continued adherence to his
Middle Path policy. By Middle Path, he meant autonomy and not
independence and a non-violent struggle to achieve that objective.
By autonomy, he meant on the Hong Kong model of one country, two
systems and not the present Chinese model of total integration and
Han colonisation in the name of autonomy. He was seeking a dialogue
with the Chinese leadership in the hope of thereby making his Middle
Path a reality.

2. Tibetan youth organisations such as the Tibetan Youth Congress
(TYC), formed in 1970 under the blessings of His holiness, and
Students For A Free Tibet went along with him till 2003 despite
having serious reservations as to whether the policy would work and
about the insincerity of the Chinese. The action of Shri
A.B.Vajpayee, the then Indian Prime Minister, in agreeing to Tibet
being described as a part of China in a statement issued during his
visit to China in 2003 set off alarm bells ringing in the Tibetan
community abroad as well as in Greater Tibet.

3. Large sections of the Tibetan youth felt that even while
pretending to keep the door open for a dialogue with the Dalai Lama,
the Chinese were undermining his political and spiritual authority,
encouraged by the silence of the Indian authorities. While they
continued to respect and venerate the Dalai Lama as their religious
and spiritual leader, the Tibetan youth started looking upon him as
politically naive. They began stepping up pressure on him for giving
up the Middle Path policy.

4. The disenchantment of the Tibetan youth over the policies of His
Holiness and their concern over the perceived headway being made by
the Chinese in strengthening their occupation of Greater Tibet was
reflected in the seventh session of the Tibetan Parliament held at
Dharamsala in March, 2004. It adopted a private member's resolution
which called for a review of the policy of the 'Middle Path' after a
year, if the Chinese failed to start formal negotiations with His
Holiness to solve the Tibetan problem. The elder members of the
Tibetan community criticised the resolution as disrespectful to the
Dalai Lama and as tending to undermine his political authority.

5. An editorial on this subject in the September,2004, issue of the
journal of the TYC said: "The on-going Middle Path policy came into
being after the then Chinese supreme leader Deng-Xiaoping set the
precondition that we should abandon the demand for independence. For
the last 24 years, our leadership has been sincerely trying to
hammer out a compromise solution but from the Chinese side, there
has always been deceit, double-dealing and delaying tactics so that
we have not even managed to make the beginning of a meaningful
dialogue. Many thinking Tibetans, Tibetan supporters and China-
watchers have now come to honestly conclude that the Chinese have no
intention to conduct negotiations. They are only biding time for the
Dalai Lama to pass away and in the meantime evade international
pressure and condemnation by indulging in the periodical delegation
diplomacy. It is vitally important that we Tibetans should not fall
prey to their devious ploys. Another important matter to be taken
into consideration is the so-called Chinese 'White Paper' of May
last. With the finality of the tone and tenor of that document, all
our hopes for a negotiated settlement on the lines of the One-Nation-
Two-Systems theory of Hong Kong and Macao or a genuine autonomy have
been dashed irrevocably. The only choice given to the Tibetans is to
accept the arrangement under Tibet Autonomous Region as the best one
and return. This, surely, is not the answer to the Middle Path! The
Chinese 'White Paper', in one go, has fully rejected what the
Tibetan government has been trying to achieve during the last nearly
25 years through that policy. Therefore, a rethinking on the part of
our leadership is called for whether we like it or not. The present
resolution is nothing new or surprising. In fact, the need to review
the Middle Path policy has become more urgent and relevant after the
issuance of the Chinese 'White Paper'."

6. The trend towards the radicalisation of the Tibetan youth and
their disenchantment with theMiddle Path policy became pronounced as
the TYC came increasingly under the influence of American citizens
of Tibetan origin. Tibetan youth, living in India, paid heed to the
words and advice of the Dalai Lama even while criticising his Middle
Path policy. They went along with his advice against any attempt to
sabotage the Olympics even while taking advantage of the opportunity
provided by the Olympics for drawing attention to their cause. They
contined to respect the authority of the Dalai Lama as a spiritual
and political leader.

7. But, the Americans of Tibetan origin, who had migrated to the US
from India and obtained US citizenship under a special dispensation
of the US Immigration Department, which granted the US citizenship
to 1000 Tibetan refugees, came increasingly under the influence of
anti-China groups in the US, which egged them on to sabotage the
Olympic Games in order to embarrass China. This group was every
vocal in the criticism of the Middle Path policy and started
expressing its reservations over the wisdom of the policies of His
Holiness on political issues. The Tibetan youth, who continue to be
resident in India, shared His Holiness' gratitude to India for
giving shelter to the refugees and looking after them, but the
youth, who had settled down in the US and obtained US citizenship,
did not share this gratitude. Under the advice or instigation of the
anti-China groups in the US, it started itching for a confrontation
with China even if this caused unhappiness in the Dalai Lama and
created difficulties for India.

8. The influence of American citizens of Tibetan origin on the
policies and activities of the TYC increased after Mr Tsewang
Rinzin, an American citizen, was elected as the President of the
Executive Committee of the TYC at its session held at Dharamsala
last September, and Mr.Tenzin Yangdon, another US citizen, was
elected as a member of the Executive Committee. Many Tibetans in
India were surprised as to how Mr.Rinzin was elected as the
President and who proposed his name and influenced his election.
Some claim that even His Holiness was surprised by his election.
Since his election, he has been following the agenda of the anti-
Beijing Olympics groups in the US, which want to sabotage the
Olympics in contravention of the wishes of His Holiness that nothing
should be done to sabotage the Olympics.

9. The Dalai Lama's own views on the Olympics are as follows: "I
have, from the very beginning, supported the idea that China should
be granted the opportunity to host the Olympic Games. Since such
international sporting events, and especially the Olympics, uphold
the principles of freedom of speech, freedom of expression, equality
and friendship, China should prove herself a good host by providing
these freedoms. Therefore, besides sending their athletes, the
international community should remind the Chinese government of
these issues. I have come to know that many parliaments, individuals
and non-governmental organisations around the globe are undertaking
a number of activities in view of the opportunity that exists for
China to make a positive change. I admire their sincerity. I would
like to state emphatically that it will be very important to observe
the period following the conclusion of the Games. The Olympic Games
no doubt will greatly impact the minds of the Chinese people. The
world should, therefore, explore ways of investing their collective
energies in producing a continuous positive change inside China even
after the Olympics have come to an end."

10. As against this, Mr.Rinzin has warned of attempts to disrupt the
passage of the Olympic torch and the Games itself. The "Wall Street
Journal" (March 20,2008) has quoted him as saying as follows: "This
is a golden opportunity for our struggle." He is the son of a
Tibetan driver in South India.He migrated to the US in 1993 and
obtained US citizenship. Till his election last September, he was
working in a bank in Portland/ Vancouver in northwest United States.
He was also the President of the local chapter of TYC. Since his
election, he has shifted to Dharamsala, but his wife, also an
American citizen of Tibetan origin, and their two children continue
to live in the US.

11. In January last,the Tibetan Youth Congress, the Tibetan Women?s
Association, Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet, the National Democratic
Party of Tibet, and the Students for a Free Tibet, India, issued a
statement announcing the launching of a Tibetan People?s Uprising
Movement (TPUM). They described it as " a global movement of
Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet taking control of our political
destiny by engaging in direct action to end China?s illegal and
brutal occupation of our country. Through unified and strategic
campaigns we will seize the Olympic spotlight and shine it on China?
s shameful repression inside Tibet, thereby denying China the
international acceptance and approval it so fervently desires.We
call on Tibetans inside Tibet to continue to fight Chinese
domination and we pledge our unwavering support for their continued
courageous resistance. " It called upon the international community
to cancel the Beijing Olympics.

12. In February last, the TPUM is alleged to have held two training
camps in Dharamsala for selected Tibetan youth in subjects such as
the Importance of a Co-ordinated Movement, Contemporary Chinese
Political Scenario, Strategy and Vision, the Situation inside Tibet,
Olympic politics, Media and Messaging, Non-Violent Direct Action and
Fund-Raising Strategy."

13.On March 10, the TPUM launched synchronised protests and
demonstrations all over the world, including in Lhasa, to mark the
49th anniversary of the flight of the Dalai Lama from Tibet. The
protests and demonstrations in Lhasa took a violent turn on March
14,2008. On coming to know of this, the Dalai Lama threatened to
resign as the political leader of the community if the violence
continued and also called the office-bearers of the TYC to express
to them his unhappiness over their activities.

(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat,
Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For
Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai
Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2 at gmail.com )