Free Tibet 2008 -- A Friend in Need is a Friend Indeed -- Visiting Dalai
Lama, U.S. House speaker denounces Chinese oppression
International Herald Tribune
Visiting Dalai Lama, U.S. House speaker denounces Chinese oppression
By Somini Sengupta
Friday, March 21, 2008
http://img.iht.com/images/2008/03/21/21elosi550.jpg
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and U.S. House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi greet each other in Dharamsala, India, Friday. (Gurinder Osan/The
Associated Press)
DHARAMSALA, India: Using a visit to this country to poke a finger in the
eye of Beijing, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy
Pelosi, on Friday came here to the Dalai Lama's headquarters, described
the events in Tibet as "a challenge to the conscience of the world" and
pressed for an international investigation into whether the Dalai Lama
was its mastermind, as the Chinese government has alleged.
"If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against
China's oppression and China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority
to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," said Pelosi,
Democrat of California.
A few hours later came a tart response from the Chinese ambassador to
India, who called Tibet an "internal affair" and shunning interference.
"We don't allow anybody to meddle in China's internal affairs," Zhang
Yan said in New Delhi, according to the Press Trust of India. "Any
attempt to cause trouble to China is doomed to fail."
Within a couple of hours of his remarks, Tibetan protesters scaled the
fence of his embassy compound, ran around its lawns and unfurled Tibetan
flags. The police said that 33 protesters had been arrested and that
security around the mission had been further fortified.
The latest protests upped the ante for the Indian government, which has
had to strike a delicate balance between maintaining warm relations with
China and hosting the Dalai Lama and the largest number of Tibetan
refugees in the world - currently about 100,000.
No sooner had the police arrested his followers than the Dalai Lama
arrived in the capital on a commercial flight from Dharamsala for what
his aides said was a previously scheduled trip to teach Buddhist
philosophy to private students. He was whisked away in an Indian
government vehicle.
Asked for a response to the Chinese Embassy demonstrations, his
secretary, Tenzin Taklha, said Friday that while the Dalai Lama believed
in every Tibetan's "right to protest" he reminded them of their
obligation to "respect the laws of the land."
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied accusations by Beijing of having
instigated the violent protests in Tibet, and has extended an open
invitation, including to the Chinese, to investigate. He has repeated
that he abjures violence and does not want independence for Tibet, but
greater autonomy within China.
The visit by Pelosi, accompanied by nine members of Congress, most of
them Democrats, had been scheduled earlier as part of a visit to India.
Indeed, as far as visits by American officials go, it would be hard to
stage a warmer reception. In front of a horde of television news cameras
that had decamped here all week to cover the Dalai Lama, Pelosi and her
husband, Paul, descended the stairs of the main temple here to huge
applause, the 72-year-old Buddhist monk sandwiched between them, holding
both their hands. Nuns and school children waved American flags.
The Dalai Lama ordered his followers to rise and offer her a standing
ovation. One man held up a homemade placard that read "Thank You for
Recognizing Nonviolent Struggle."
"We are here at this time to join you in shedding bright light on what
is happening inside Tibet," she said. "Little did we know we would be
coming at such a very sad time. Perhaps it is our karma, perhaps it is
our fate we be with you at this time."
Pelosi spoke first to an overwhelmingly Tibetan audience of about 2,000
in the courtyard of the Tsulakhang Temple and then in the compound of
the Dalai Lama, where the congressional delegation was hosted for lunch.
After her speech, a monk who spent four years in a Chinese prison for
participating in the last round of major protests inside Tibet, in 1988,
said he hoped Pelosi would use her visit to put concrete pressure on the
Chinese government, including encouraging dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
Suspects' photos released
As China pursues it crackdown on Tibetan protesters, the government has
released photographs of the 19 most-wanted suspects it blames for
violent riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, last week, Howard French
re****ted Friday from Shanghai.
The grainy photographs, which have been circulated on major Internet
****tals in China, appear to have been taken from video footage of the
looting that swept the center of Lhasa last Saturday.
According to Chinese news re****ts, 2 of the 19 suspects have already
been arrested. The Internet circulation and the establishment of a hot
line for people to re****t sightings of fugitives comes a day after
Tibetan television began broadcasting similar bulletins identifying
suspects and calling for the public to turn them in.
On Thursday, the Chinese authorities said that 24 people had been
arrested after house-to-house searches of Tibetan neighborhoods and that
170 had turned themselves in after calls by the government for people to
surrender.
The search for suspects in the Lhasa unrest came against the backdrop of
sharply increased security deployments in many Tibetan areas of western
China. Witnesses have described the movements of large convoys of troops
into western Sichuan Province and other traditionally Tibetan areas.
A resident in Qinghai Province said about 300 troops were in the town of
Zeku after monks protested Thursday outside the county government
office, The Associated Press re****ted. Witnesses have also cited the
arrival of large numbers of riot police being deployed in n the largely
Tibetan town of Zhongdian, in the far north of Yunnan Province.
In recent days, most foreigners have been forced to leave Tibet and even
in neighboring provinces, the government has cordoned off areas where
Tibetans have demonstrated in sympathy with the Lhasa protesters,
barring access to Western journalists and independent observers.
China has placed the number of dead in the week of disturbances, which
have spread to many smaller towns on the Tibetan Plateau, at 19,
insisting that all of those killed were victims of the Lhasa riot.
Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said Friday that 623 people
had been wounded in the unrest.
Beijing has repeatedly claimed that it has exercised "maximum restraint"
in putting down the disturbances, notably avoiding the use of deadly
force. On Thursday, however, the government acknowledged for the first
time that civilians had been struck by police gunfire, in self-defense,
resulting in four injuries in Sichuan Province but no deaths.
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