Protests in Tibet

alexvisentin

Count me in, yogagal.I always wanted to go to tibet, but as my own little protest never did.In the west they keep on reminding us that the olympcs have nothing to do with politics, therefore athletes shouldn't boycott the games, but it seems to me that china itself is using the olympics politically.So, although i love the olympic games, i will not watch them this year.Have a feeling though that it will not change the situation,too many interest in the name of the new god, money.

Sama

there are some news videos about what is happening in Tibet on CNN.com right now

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crvlvr

there is no point watching it here in the US anyways. As they will zoom in on the american athelete, even if he is coming in last. And the viewer won't have a clue who won the race..

dzibead

At least nowadays it might be somebody other than a steroid-laden East German (not that who ever it is might not also be doing a little "performance enhancing" a la Marian Jones ...)

machadinha

The Dutch Tibet Support Group was on the national news today expressing their hope more athletes would boycott the coming Olympics. This link won't do much for you if you don't speak Dutch: http://www.tibet.nu/

They're affiliated to the International Campaign For Tibet I believe, which might offer some more and is worth checking out in any case: http://www.savetibet.org/

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Sama

the latest news I heard was that tourists are being kept from leaving their hotels, the monasteries are surrounded, and chinese police/solidiers are going from house to house searching for monks

edwardseco

Actually, I don't see much effectively going on for those and 20 or 30 other areas either. Its a sad world in some ways.

The problem is they have done just such in the past. When they feel really threatened the Chinese Communists have shown a great willingness to apply lethal force..

Shiver me Timbers

Dr. Funkenstein is there right now, probably in Lhasa.....

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Minnesota

The PRC government is sure to clamp down on the protests and ignore any international outcry. Money talks, and they have more than enough for some very convincing chats.

There is also a total blackout on this news in the PRC -- I was in China when this all started and nothing got through about it. Since domestic opinion is the most important for the PRC, this means their government as yet has no reason to worry. The fact that many of the victims are Han Chinese only ensures that public sympathies will be against the protesters if information does get out. (Whether or not the Han should be there is a separate question.)

One can only hope the protesters heed the Dalai Lama's call to abstain from violence.

In related news, the Chinese have also recently acted to prevent any protests on Everest by foreigners at the time of the Olympics. By acting to make sure no one is on Everest at the time. So much for a repeat of the previous protests (as extremely influential as those were ).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080314/..._china_everest

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Freereedsqueezer

Can't help myself here. The Chinese are of course brutal. I'm a long time practicioner of Dzogchen and have a special place for the teachings and culture that brought them forth.
What never gets mentioned is what brought about the Chinese occupation to begin with and how Tibet was back then. It was a feudal system where the poor and illiterate peasants were fleeced and beaten by monks and competing schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It was atrocious, not some idealistic Shangri-la. Feudal rule sucks, so does a dictatorship by the Chinese.

Is Tibet better now? I doubt it, but whether their overlords is the religious establishment or the Chinese won't matter to the people who suffer the most there. The best thing that ever happened to the Dalai Lama & company was the Chinese occupation otherwise no one would have paid any attention and found out what was great about Tibetan Buddhism.

Just a minor rant, sorry to offend...

LJ

vistet

Interesting chink in their armor : Woeser´s blog is still up and running : last posts shows army vehicles being pelted with stones in Lhabrang , and wrecked cars in front of the Jokhang.

Score one for Chinese propaganda : the recurring news threads that mention the foreign , American protesters at EBC , never mentioning that one of them was Tenzing Dorje.

This was posted on TT today , by what I´ve come to consider a good source :

"OK....its now official. The China Tibet Tourism Bureau announced on 14th March that ALL permits for foreigners to enter Tibet (that is the TTB Tibet entry permit) have been revoked. So this means that no-one from any agency (Chinese or Tibet....in Tibet, Nepal and mainland China) will be able to get permits right now. This also includes any permits that were booked/ordered in advance."

Earlier this week came the news that at least all climbs past the Tibetan EBC had been suspended until mid-May, and that China is pushing Nepal to do the same from their end.

Protests are in no way restricted to the TAR eiher ,photos show violent protest in Lhabrang and the Tibetan flag displayed in Gansu - which raises questions how long tourists will be allowed to travel freely there as well.

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dzibead

I just talked to a friend of mine this evening - US citizen but Tibetan born in exile - who was planning to go to Tibet later this month to bring back her four-year-old son who has been in Lhasa for about six months, staying with her in-laws. She said she was told yesterday by the Chinese consulate in San Francisco that she could still get her visa, but it sounds as if that's probably off now.

I don't know what's going to happen if her four-year old's visa expires. She had an issue like this a couple of year's ago when her older son went to stay with her in-laws and she had some health problems that caused a hitch in her plans to go get him. The Chinese wouldn't extend the kid's visa and had a sort of "tough shit" attitude about it!

She was able to talk to her in-laws on the phone and they said everybody's staying in their houses and foreigners are being confined to their hotels. I told her I had heard that about 80 to 100 people had been killed and she said her in-laws think there have been more than that.

The only up-side I can see to all this (and I'm being somewhat ironic here) is that it may help my current pro bono political asylum client if the immigration judge who presently has her case under review and scheduled for decision in April follows these news reports and is convinced that my client really does have a well-founded fear of persecution is she is deported to Tibet!

Minnesota

My comments focused on the Chinese media, which had been totally silent. Now they have begun reporting on the uprising, but predictably showing only the attacks on Han Chinese civilians and their property.

We can be glad there are blogs providing information. But Woeser's blog is hosted in the US and may well be blocked in the PRC. It is definitely not a significant source of information in China.

As for the, er, influential Everest protest: I don't think that makes any difference, except perhaps to show that the naivite was international.

It is possible that a protest during the Olympic torch run could have attracted wide attention. But by acting before the time was right, the protesters tipped off the Chinese. You can bet your bottom dollar that no Everest protests will happen at the time of the run, and anyone who attempts one will be thwarted and/or blocked.

Sama

Tibetans Clash with Chinese Police in Second City


this NY Times story includes a video



"BEIJING — Thousands of Buddhist monks and other Tibetans clashed with the riot police in a second Chinese city on Saturday, while the authorities said they had regained control of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, a day after a rampaging mob ransacked shops and set fire to cars and storefronts in a deadly riot.

Conflicting reports emerged about the violence in Lhasa on Friday. The Chinese authorities denied that they had fired on protesters there, but Tibetan leaders in India told news agencies on Saturday that they had confirmed that 30 Tibetans had died and that they had unconfirmed reports that put the number at more than 100.

Demonstrations erupted for the second consecutive day in the city of Xiahe in Gansu Province, where an estimated 4,000 Tibetans gathered near the Labrang Monastery...."

Nick-H

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