The Chinese Saga of Olympic Shame Deepens : Tibet deaths, arrests and
protests shadow Olympics / Reuters
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6glri1XkxQ&NR=1
Tibet deaths, arrests and protests shadow Olympics
25 Mar 2008 15:26:56 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Chris Buckley and Lindsay Beck
BEIJING, March 25 (Reuters) - At least two people have died in fresh
protests in a Tibetan part of western China, re****ts said on Tuesday, as
authorities made arrests in Tibet's capital Lhasa in an effort to
reassert control over the restive region.
State media said one police officer was killed and the exiled Tibetan
Centre for Human Rights and Democracy re****ted one Tibetan protester
shot dead and another critically hurt after unrest in Sichuan's Ganzi
(Garze) Tibetan Prefecture.
"The police were forced to fire warning shots, and dispersed the lawless
mobsters," the brief Xinhua news agency re****t said, without mentioning
any deaths of protesters, who it said attacked with rocks and knives.
The latest news of unrest and arrests comes after protesters seeking to
put pressure on China tried to disrupt the Beijing Olympic Games
torch-lighting ceremony in Greece, an act that Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Qin Gang called "disgraceful".
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged China on Tuesday to show
responsibility over the unrest and refused to rule out a possible
boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games.
"I don't close the door to any option, but I think it's more prudent to
reserve my responses to concrete developments in the situation," Sarkozy
said, when asked about a possible boycott.
In Wa****ngton, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, reacting to
Sarkozy's remarks on the Olympics, said there was no change in Bush's
plans to attend the Games.
"We believe that China should respect minority cultures -- particularly
in this case, the Tibetan culture -- and we want to make sure that there
is freedom of the press and international access to the area," Perino
said.
Beijing had hoped the torch's journey around the world and through China
would be a symbol of confident national unity ahead of the Games, which
open on Aug. 8. Instead, it is caught in a war of words with the Dalai
Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's spiritual leader, and his sup****ters.
SNOW LION
Beijing has accused the Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk of masterminding
monk-led marches in Lhasa and then an anti-Chinese riot there in
mid-March, which authorities say killed 19.
Since then, Tibetan parts of western China have seen ongoing protests,
despite a massive influx of police and troops. The Dalai Lama, 72,
denies he is behind the unrest and his government-in-exile says 140
people have died in the violence.
China's Communist authorities, which entered Tibet in 1950, have barred
foreign journalists from the remote, mountain region, making the
competing claims difficult to independently check.
In Lhasa, 13 people were arrested for a March 10 protest, the Tibet
Daily re****ted, the first announcement of consequences for those
involved in that largely peaceful march.
Monks yelled "reactionary slogans" and held up a banner of snow-mountain
lions, the Tibet Daily said. The snow lion symbolises demands for
Tibetan independence and the march came on the anniversary of a failed
1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch said the arrests of apparently
peaceful protesters marked a turn in the security crackdown in Tibet
towards political targets.
"This official account gives credence to the fact that the protests in
Lhasa started peacefully, and only in subsequent days, after repeated
police suppression, did they become violent," said Bequelin.
China's Minister for Public Security, Meng Jianzhu, made an inspection
tour of Lhasa and vowed stricter management of Tibetan Buddhist
monasteries, the Tibet Daily re****ted.
The riot "not only violated the law, it also seriously violated the
fundamental teachings of Tibetan Buddhism", the newspaper quoted Meng as
saying, adding the Dalai Lama had long been disqualified as a true
Buddhist.
Buddhist monks were involved in protests leading to the March 14 riot,
and threw rocks and hot water at police, the Tibet paper said, calling
them "loyal running dogs of the Dalai clique".
But China's assertion that protests outside of Lhasa have faded after a
massive influx of troops across Tibet and nearby areas was shaken when
state media announced the Ganzi unrest.
The ongoing unrest -- and China's response to it -- heightens prospects
of worldwide protests as the Olympic torch circles the globe. Protesters
sought to disrupt the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece on Monday
despite a tight police cordon, a moment that went unmentioned in the
Chinese press which instead described the day as "a perfect start on the
road to gold".
Press freedom group Re****ters Without Borders said three of its members
had tried to stage Monday's protest, and exiled Tibetans have pledged to
demonstrate against the torch.
Human Rights Watch said the torch should not go through Tibet unless
China agrees to an independent investigation into the unrest there.
(Additional re****ting by Emma Graham-Harrison in Beijing and Krittivas
Mukherjee in New Delhi; Editing by Jeremy Laurence) ("Countdown to
Beijing Olympics" blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china)
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