March 15, 2008
Chaos continues in Dharamsala and Lhasa
We told you about the chaos happening simultaneously in Dharamsala, India and Lhasa, Tibet, and it looks like we're only at the start of something big, very big. Here are snippets of a conversation with a friend who is resident in Lhasa, but has since left the city to live in the countryside till some semblance of stability returns:
"It's like war out there – there are soldiers everywhere""There's been a curfew in place since Monday, when the monks started protesting, but now the local people are joining in"
"The local people are lighting fires in the streets"
"There are no Chinese people or foreigners anywhere, they are all too scared"
"No one can get to Barkhor – it's too dangerous. The Tibetans have closed the street off and have lit fires everywhere"
"My friend took some guests to the train station earlier and his car was attacked"
"I saw a Tibetan man who had been shot, he looked very bad"
"Hotels, shops, buildings all round the Jokhang have been smashed in"
Xinhua is by no means silent on the issue. First off, let's here what the Tibet party chief had to say in what must be the world's shortest news story ever:
"We fired no gunshots," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Government, told the press in Beijing on Saturday when asked about the unrest in Lhasa on Friday.
Naturally, the Dalai Lama and his ilk are to be blamed:
The government of Tibet Autonomous Region said Friday there had been enough evidence to prove that the recent sabotage in Lhasa was "organized, premeditated and masterminded" by the Dalai clique.The violence, involving beating, smashing, looting and burning, has disrupted the public order and jeopardized people's lives and property, an official with the regional government said.
The sabotage has aroused indignation of and is strongly condemned by the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet, he said in an interview with Xinhua.
"The relevant departments of the regional government are taking effective measures to properly handle the incident in line with the law," he said.
"We are fully capable of maintaining social stability of Tibet and safeguarding the safety of the people of all ethnic groups in Tibet and their properties," said the official.
"The plots by the very few people against the stability and harmony of Tibet run counter to the will of the people, and are doomed to fail," he said.
Also, here's what Xinhua had to say on police action:
Sources told Xinhua that policemen were ordered not to use force against the attacker. But they were forced to use a limited amount of tear gas and fired warning shots to disperse the desperate crowds.Xinhua reporters learnt that many policemen on duty were badly injured.
Police have not made any announcement of arrest, but an officer said the search for the vandals could be difficult as the mobs disguised themselves in plain clothes as ordinary citizens.
Meanwhile, according to AFP, the demonstrations have spilled over to Gansu province, which has a large population of ethnic Tibetans:
FRESH protests involving Tibetan Buddhist monks erupted in China's northwest Gansu province on Saturday, with security forces using tear gas to disperse the biggest rally, campaign groups said.The main protest was at and around the Labrang monastery, one of the largest Buddhist temples outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region, the International Campaign for Tibet and the Free Tibet Campaign said.
'Tear gas was fired into the crowd,' London-based Free Tibet Campaign spokesman Matt Whitticase said, citing eyewitnesses. He added that the protesters had destroyed some government offices in the city...
Xiahe police station could not immediately be contacted to confirm the reports, with the phone line constantly engaged.
The Free Tibet Campaign said at least 1,000 people were involved in Saturday's protests, while International Campaign for Tibet spokeswoman Kate Saunders said there was up to 5,000 involved.
'We have got confirmed reports of serious unrest in and around Labrang monastery,' Ms Saunders said.
'It was a major incident and it seems to have escalated. Chinese authorities are using tear gas and trying to suppress the protests.'
Reuters reports that a Monday deadline has been set for Tibetan rioters:
CHINA set a 'surrender deadline', announced deaths and showed the first extensive television footage of rioting in Lhasa on Saturday, launching a crackdown after the worst unrest in Tibet for two decades.The response came following torrid protests on Friday which flew in the face of official claims the region was immune from unrest as Beijing readies to hold the Olympic Games in August...
'Criminals who do not surrender themselves by the deadline will be sternly punished according to the law,' stated the notice on the Tibetan government Web site.
It added that those who 'harbour or hide' them also face harsh treatment.
The government offered rewards and protection for informers.
Over in Dharamsala, the Tibetan government-in-exile has demanded UN intervention:
TIBET'S government-in-exile on Saturday demanded the United Nations intervene to end what it called 'urgent human rights violations' by China in the region following deadly protests.The exiled government in Dharamshala in northern India, home to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, also said it had received 'unconfirmed reports about 100 people had been killed and martial law imposed in Lhasa'.
'The Tibetan parliament urges the UN to send representatives immediately and intervene and investigate the current urgent human rights violations in Tibet,' the administration said in a statement.
The Press Trust of India reports that the Tibetan protestors that were earlier arrested in Dharamsala have defied police orders and continued on their march back to Tibet:
Nearly 100 Tibetan protesters, including women and nuns, have been arrested by police for violating Centre's directive and heading towards Kangra district borders en route their journey to their homeland.The marchers were stopped at Dehra Bridge, about 50 km from Dharamsala, and when they defied the district administration's order and continued with their march, about 100 of them were arrested, DIG JR Thakur said.
Clearly, with all this bad news happening just a few months before the Olympics, it's a major cause of concern for the international community, and the International Olympic Committee in particular. Here's what an IOC member told the Daily Telegraph (UK):
"Clearly we are very worried about the situation. Our role is ultimately to organise a good Games but we have always been clear; when things start to affect the Games then we will react."An IOC spokeswoman added, however, that it was difficult for them to intervene. "We cannot interfere with sovereign matters," she said. "What we said when we awarded the Games to China was that we hoped the presence of the Games would be a catalyst for China to improve on human rights.
"It is not in the IOC's remit to try and sort out problems that have been beyond governments."
Beijing, however, insists the latest protests will have absolutely no impact on the Olympics and the upcoming torch relay:
The past week's unrest in Tibet will not have a negative impact on the Beijing Olympic Games and the torch relay, organizers said Saturday.Preparations to carry the Olympic torch up Mount Everest and across Tibet "have been proceeding very smoothly and according to schedule," said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the organizing committee, known by its initials, BOCOG.
Sun acknowledged that pro-Tibet groups and others have invoked the August 8-24 Olympics to publicize their causes, but said they represented only a tiny minority of global opinion.
"BOCOG opposes any attempt to politicize the Olympic Games because that runs counter to the very spirit of the Olympic Games," Sun told The Associated Press.
"We have been receiving tremendous support from the international community for the Olympic Games," he said.
Meanwhile, the whole event has raised yet more voices for an Olympic boycott. Certainly, the world is watching how Beijing handles the incident. Richard Gere says:
... [that] there "absolutely" should be a worldwide boycott of the Games if Beijing mishandled protests that official Chinese media say have left seven dead."In this situation if the Chinese do not act in the proper way, change their ways, acknowledge what is going on, allow free access to communication, then I think that absolutely we have to boycott" the Games, Gere told BBC radio.
"It would be unconscionable if we continued as if things are hunky dory and everyone's happy. It's impossible," he said.
Over in Taiwan, elections are just one week away. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party which favours independence is currently trailing the more mainland-friendly Kuomintang in opinion polls, and have capitalised on the latest developments to score a few more points:
"As we look at Tibet, we must think about our own fate," said Frank Hsieh, presidential candidate from Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party..."Tibet is a test case for China's application of the anti-secession law," Hsieh added, referring to Beijing's 2005 edict authorising use of force in extreme cases against Taiwan.
The Taiwan foreign ministry and the Mainland Affairs Council, Taiwan's main China policy maker, also condemned China's use of force in Tibet to quell rioters.
"We strongly condemn China's use of force to suppress Tibet and urge the international community to monitor the development in Tibet," the foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.
Our parent blog, Gothamist, reports of a demonstration outside the United Nations [Note: This specific page appears to have been GFW'ed]:
Roughly 100 protesters, most of them Tibetans, demonstrated outside the United Nations today against the Chinese government, which has been trying to put down protests and rioting in Lhasa. Three demonstrators were arrested for trying, unsuccessfully, to enter the U.N. and six were arrested for disorderly conduct.This demonstration coincided with demonstrations around the world and the anniversary of a failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule (the Dalai Lama fled the country). Psurbu Tsering of the Tibetan Association of NY and NJ told Newsday the group’s members had heard "70 people had been killed by Chinese authorities" in Tibet, "a thousand people had been arrested" and a lockdown on all monasteries.
Similar protests have been happening elsewhere around the world. A Sydney protest earlier today turned violent and seven people have been arrested. In London, several Tibetan youth stormed the Chinese embassy, and shouts of "Free Tibet", "Tibet Belongs to Tibetans" and "Stop the Killings in Tibet" were said to have been heard from within the walls of the embassy. Police in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu have also broken up a protest by 200 Tibetans today, beating them with bamboo batons and arresting at least 20 of them.
Related links:
Xinhua: Tibet regional gov't: Sabotage in Lhasa masterminded by Dalai clique
Xinhua: Dalai-backed violence scars Lhasa
Reuters: China sets Monday surrender deadline for Tibet rioters
AFP: Tibetans protest in China's Gansu province: campaign groups
AFP: Tibetan govt-in-exile demands UN intervention
Press Trust of India: Tibetans arrested on way to homeland
The Daily Telegraph: International Olympic Committee concern over China's clashes in Tibet
AP: China says Tibet unrest to have no impact on Beijing Olympics, Everest torch relay plan
AFP: Actor Gere calls for Olympics boycott if China mishandles Tibet
Reuters: Taiwan criticises China over Tibet
Gothamist: Tibetans Demonstrate Outside U.N., At Least 9 Arrested
The Age: Tibetans turn violent in Sydney protest
Phayul: Tibetan Youth Storms Chinese Embassy in London
IHT: Police break up Tibetan protest in Nepal's capital, arresting at least 20
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If the D. Lama is as committed to peace and non-violence as he claims, it would be nice if he would ask his followers not to beat the crap out of Lhasa's Hui Muslims. Has he spoken out about this, and if not, why not?
For an article with eyewitness accounts, look at the Christian Science Monitor, and go to the blog mentioned in the article, which is by an American Chinese guy.
I am not a Muslim or anything, but I find it really disturbing that these people have become targets of violence.
My guess is because Hui Muslims essentially look the same as Hans. And yes, the D.L. has called for calm and non-violence among the Tibetans. The protests actually started peacefully, but nobody really expected them to turn nasty.
Don't assume that the Tibetans are targeting Hui Muslims just because they look like Han Chinese. One thing I learned while living in a Tibetan community in Qinghai for the month of January is that there is a tremendous amount of mistrust and animosity between Tibetans and Huis.
Sure, the Huis might not have as much influence over policy in Beijing, but as unwelcome invaders they're just as bad as the Han Chinese in the eyes of most Tibetans.
You've missed out on a key angle to the story. I hope it was just oversight, rather than political bias.
Eyewitness reports from Western reporters include:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/15/tibet.china2
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3556473.ece
All of these eyewitness reports show that the deadly violence in Lhasa has been limited to Tibetans on a racial rampage. This is not political, it's ethnic-cleansing. The Chinese security forces are sitting by idly as Chinese are slaughtered... all in the hope of preserving face in the international community.
This is all Bjork's fault.
Does moving somewhere to work make you an invader? I don't think so. I wouldn't characterize Huis that way. I mean, should I say the family from Lanzhou who run the noodle shop near me "invaded" Shanghai? Or they just people trying to make a decent living?
Or, if you think violence by T.'s vs. other groups is okay because of past history, could I beat you up if you are German, because some of my relatives were killed by the Nazis? Or if you are white, would it be okay for Native Americans to beat you up in the US, because after all, the whole continent was stolen from them? When the shoe is on the other foot, and you are being targeted, is it still okay?
Thanks for all this Shanghaiist, this is the reporting that I'm talking about. Nice work.
It's crazy that the Chinese Government, after 50 years of oppression and subjugation, can turn one of the most peaceful and passive religious groups into a mob of frustrated and violent rioters.
The situation in Tibet right now is obviously very muddled and complex. The fact is that some people on this thread seem to want to be able to package this neatly as ideological battling between two easily identifiable opposing groups is also obvious. That is very simplistic thinking. When the damage is done and the bodies are counted we'll know better what is actually happening there. Meanwhile the demagogues on both sides of the issue use the suffering of others to push their own political views from the safety of their keyboard perches. Right now the important consideration must be that such violence is counterproductive to the aims of anyone who wants a peaceful Tibet. Whether there is justification for the police shooting rioters or Tibetans beating Han and Hui economic invaders we can decide when the violence is over. The naive political rhetoric that surrounds this issue is just more heat and really not helpful in solving a very complex multi-faceted problem.
What you write is all very reasonable, Les, but it's also a little too easy to call for measured objectivity and patience from your own keyboard perch. Tibet is an occupied nation, if we define "nation" in terms of a distinct language, culture, religion and ethnicity. That's an unavoidable fact. One can argue *for* the occupation if one wants, sure, just as one can argue for that of Iraq by the US or Northern Ireland by the UK or the Basque region by Spain. But it's dishonest to equivocate to the point where that basic fact of *occupation* disappears (as it has, by and large, in the official PRC narrative).
Another unavoidable fact is that if one nation occupies another, there will be resentment, resistance and violence, and that it will go on for a very long time.
"Justification" for that violence or that of the occupier isn't that easy to "decide" and will probably never be decided to the satisfaction of all. It's "simplistic" and "naive" to think that such a decision could me made. If you're waiting to "decide when the violence is over," I think you'll be waiting a very long time--a least a good dozen reincarnations (as long as the reincarnations are approved by the People's Bureau of Religious Affairs, of course).
Lez, mate, come on.
You say: "When the damage is done and the bodies are counted we'll know better what is actually happening there".
So ... who will count the bodies so that 'we'll know better what is actually happening there'"?
Nineteen years after a major event in which many lost their lives in China's capital, and still nobody knows the death count.
Who is being "naive", as you say?
The Hui are unfortunately caught in the middle of Beijing's game. They are encouraged to leave their native lands to dilute their population (don't want to many muslims in one place in China) and to supplant the native Tibetan population in the independent nation of Tibet.
China is a dirty, shameless disaster zone.
Answer that simple question, Lez.
Who will count the bodies?
If you cannot answer that question, then EVERYTHING you wrote before is apoligistic bullshit.
And I disagree with you watchbagdvd. You write that what Les says "is all very reasonable".
No, no, never. Those words are NOT reasonable.
They are the words of a yank so pissed off with the evils performed by his own country that he will stick up for the evils performed by another country, just to make himself feel better.
Dear Les ... answer this, please, if you can ... WHO ... WILL ... COUNT ... THE ... BODIES?
and when you say ... from far away, from shanghai ... "When the damage is done and the bodies are counted we'll know better what is actually happening there".
Well, that suggests to me that you don't give a f*ck about the deaths of individual people. About fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, lovers, friends.
Looking forward to that number count, that you are hoping for. Please post that count as soon as you have it on your hands.
yeah, gazjoe, i disagree with me too. i'd initially written that in a more sarcastic way but somehow edited it out. i meant he's posturing as this paragon of reason and objectivity and using it as a screen for a BS argument.
And meanwhile the Shanghai stock market is down to 3800 from above 5000. The savings of millions of Chinese are gone...*poof*!
Let the bodies hit floor!
Apparently gangs of Tibetans are going around killing and beating up people of other ethnicities, and destroying their property. It's possible to be entirely sympathetic to the Tibetan situation, and still be against killing people because of their ethnicity.
This movement obviously won't lead to a free Tibet, it's just racial violence that's not going to achieve anything except a bloody crackdown from the Chinese military.
I agree with fjiofojif
G-Joe- Sorry to take so long to get back to you but I have been traveling. I was trying to say what fjiofojif said so much more simply and cogently. We will never get an accurate count of the bodies from official government sources or sources with a political point to promote either. In a charged situation like this the 'body count' will emerge from an examination of murky eyewitness reports. You may be familiar with the Tlatelolco Massacre of Mexican university students before their politically charged Olympics in 1968. The government still insists '4 Dead, 20 Wounded' while eyewitness accounts range as high as 500 dead, shot by Army snipers from the buildings surrounding the square the students were protesting in. You are correct that the Chinese government will downplay their responsibility in this situation like any government would.
Most of my personal skepticism about the position of some of the people supporting the D. L. side is based on the historical record of the monk's treatment of women and minorities in Tibet pre-1959. I believe that there are no white hats and black hats in this situation. That's partly what I was alluding to with my "muddled and complex" statement. Unfortunately my entire comment itself is muddled. Some saw it as support of the PRC gov't which it definitely was not intended to be. As an aside, I do think there is an appearance that the government has acted with uncharacteristic restraint in this particular instance. Whether that appearance is reality only time will tell.
I guess the big lesson for me is that I shouldn't be posting from airports on stolen VIP accounts in the middle of red eye flights. This is a very emotionally charged political issue and I should have been more cogent in my comment. Please excuse...
PS. Its Les and I do care about the individuals which is why I think seeing this violence as moves in the Free Tibet vs. Inviolable China debate is somewhat simplistic. The Han and Hui victims are 'fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, lovers, friends' too and that is something I tried but failed to state in my first post. I'm sorry that I used the phrase body count because it obviously carries deep connotations, my apologies.
@Less,
"Most of my personal skepticism about the position of some of the people supporting the D. L. side is based on the historical record of the monk's treatment of women and minorities in Tibet pre-1959."
And China's treatment of women and minorities has been better since when? But that gives China the right to invade and exterminate. And before you go off on Iraq, remember that wonderland aka China supported or supports such global winners as Pol Pot and Kim Jong Il, and these are long term "friends of China".
Better to have enemies than friends like that.
Why no potty mouth from Mr. grouchuan? Why so reserved? Trying to regain some semblance of credibility? Too late crackpot... way too late. You won't address the well documented facts so you try to deflect, kind of an 'I'm rubber and you're glue' debating technique. Always the mark of a high intellect, in an elementary school student. You're weak, go away...
les ... you know who I am, and I know who you are. Your posts are always so cocky, as if you know more than most. You don't. I've read your posts where you have called strangers "morons" and told folk to "get a life". Mate ... you are arrogant and a pseud. Enjoy your break back in San Francisco.
Apologies for that last comment. This situation is making me increasingly irritable, and my blood can boil. I take back what I said. Very stupid and rude of me.
there is one thing very interesting in those Tibet news.
In China, all media is about Tibet's violent riot; whilst at western media, it is all about Tibetan as victim of Beijing, and this incident provides a good reason to boycott Beijing Olympic.
-- If everything is fine, Tibet will not have this riot. so there must be something wrong.
-- Were the rioters, stoning and killing Han Chinese, not violating human rights of another people? To the westerners, letting the Tibetan rioters free-killing Han Chinese on the streets is 'respect for human rights' maybe West just plainly don't believe Han Chinese are humans. -- quoted from an overseas Chinese living in Canada.
China and West media have 2 totally different viewpoints. How to talk and communicate with each other?
1989 -- Chinese thought that Beijing was wrong
2008 -- Chinese thinks that Beijing is right
gaz-you're probably right. I will engage in a rigorous regimen of self examination and excoriation while here in Sin City.
Less, I know how dirty talk turns you on and that's the last thing I or anyone else wants.
Get bit weirdo...
Great comeback kiddo! I thought being such a well-rounded liberal artsy-fartsy type you'd have something a bit more substantial to respond with.
@ bamboos
"China and West media have 2 totally different viewpoints. How to talk and communicate with each other?"
Actually, if you'll note the muted reaction of Bush and other Western leaders, who limit themselves to mild pleas for "restraint," and the degree to which this moderate and conciliatory posturing toward China is duplicated in much--but not all--of mainstream Western media, I think you'll realize that Chinese and Western media have very similar viewpoints on many issues. Namely, economic ones. The West and China have so much invested in one another that causes that don't result in fast profits for the already-powerful get a bit of lip service and then are ignored. So human rights and environmental protection, for example, are very low on the actual priority list in both the West and China, at least when we look at the global picture (the West, of course, has had the luxury of outsourcing a lot of dirty industry and low-wage human-rights-violating labor to China and other "developing" countries. Anyway, how's Tibet fit into this? Nobody, in China or the West, wants to upset the economic apple cart (which may be too late, but for entirely other reasons than Tibet), so the struggles of Tibetans (or Palestinians or Iraqis etc.) are more problems to be *managed* than to be resolved in ethically and morally directed ways. So my point is: the media in China and the West is full of whores to power on both sides. Absolute shameless whores. But there are big differences--a dissenting voice in the West is far less likely to end up silenced by the state than in China, where the Party seems almost as terrified of its people as its people are terrified of it. But this "2 totally different viewpoints" stuff is total crap.
"In China, all media is about Tibet's violent riot; whilst at western media, it is all about Tibetan as victim of Beijing, and this incident provides a good reason to boycott Beijing Olympic."
More total generalizing crap. In the West, it is *not* "all about Tibetan as victim of Beijing" etc.--there are a lot of stories in mainstream Western media about attacks on ethnic Chinese, on the Chinese viewpoint as expressed by CP leadership (who, I have to say, come off looking like total asses...China doesn't seem to need the West's help in embarrassing itself). But there is a diversity of opinion and reporting in the West. In China, diversity is stifled. This is clear to anyone who takes the time to survey the media landscape in general.
"-- If everything is fine, Tibet will not have this riot. so there must be something wrong.
-- Were the rioters, stoning and killing Han Chinese, not violating human rights of another people? To the westerners, letting the Tibetan rioters free-killing Han Chinese on the streets is 'respect for human rights' maybe West just plainly don't believe Han Chinese are humans. -- quoted from an overseas Chinese living in Canada."
Don't draw simplistic conclusions from overgeneralizations. And try learning a little history. If you can't understand why some Tibetans would feel so frustrated and angry at Han Chinese that they would go to the extreme of deadly violence, you're either deluded or ignorant. Get an education.
100 Tibetans killed and it is a massacre and a degrading of human rights!
100 Palestinians killed and it is an offensive against terror.
According to the education I got, 'crap' is not a civilized word, unless you specifically mention some specific thing. People have different views. It is OK if you donot agree with or angry at, but it is not necessary to name them as 'crap'.
Maybe I got the wrong education, attended wrong school, so, I had better not to argue with you, a well-educated person.
Human has a tendency to believe the first information/impression he got. then, he thinks he knows the truth, and then select the facts to favour the *truth* which he believes in.
I really feel sorry for all those people who lost their lives in that riot, whatever their ethnic are Han, Hui or Tibetan etc. I salute to some senior Tibetans and one Canadian tourist who protected Han/Hui Chinese during the violence. And, mostly, I hope law and order can be fully resumed in that land asap.
Please allow me to paste an article here which is written by an Chinese living in USA, that website is GFW'ed
Intentional Ignorance and Deliberate Wording
I feel furious about the criminal riots happened in Tibet and I am even more furious about the reports in the western countries regarding the riots in Tibet.
Let me start my points from a true story.
A couple of years ago, on a World Conference on Women, many Tibetan women also attended the meeting. These Tibetan women are mainly from the two groups; the woman delegates from the Tibetan autonomous region of China and the woman delegates from an NGO on behalf of the “Free-Tibet” which is financially supported by the major western powers.
As usual, the woman delegates from the NGO claimed that the Tibetan culture is being destructed and the only way to rescue the Tibetan culture is to reverse the history to let the Dalai Lama come back to lead an “Independent Great Tibet” or “Highly Autonomous Great Tibetan Area.” The voiced out their claims in English, so that their claims were easily passed and quoted by the reporters of major western countries.
When the Tibetan women from the Tibet Autonomous Region of China tried to discuss the Tibetan Cultural Destruction issue with the Tibetan women from the “Free Countries,” and they found there was no way to communicate directly between them because the Tibetan women from the “free countries” do not speak Tibetan while the Tibetan women from Tibet do not speak English.
Thus, we saw two groups of Tibetans; though they are common on similar faces and having the similar costume styles, the difference between them is the group of Tibetans from “Free Countries” can speak English only but not Tibetan while the group of Tibetans from Tibet can speak Tibetan but not English. When the two Tibetan groups are arguing on the Tibetan issues, the English spoken Tibetans took advantage of the Tibetan spoken Tibetans since their can voice out directly to the journalists of “free countries” while none of the reporters from the “free countries” speaks Tibetan. Nevertheless, the reporters from the “free countries” never bothered to listen to what the Tibetan-spoken Tibetans’ voices through the interpreters. Then, ironically, on the major media and newspapers of the “free countries” the claim of the “Tibetan culture is being destructed” by the Tibetans who have already forgotten how to speak Tibetan are widely quoted while the voices of Tibetan spoken Tibetans were ignored by the journalists of “free countries.” The ignorance is actually an intentional ignorance.
Recently, some Tibetan mobs, actually a number of organized Tibetan terrorist groups indiscriminately killing the civilians in Lhasa as well as in some other Tibetan areas. The victims also include many ethnic Tibetans. A Tibetan young girl was burned dead together with other four girls of other ethnic Chinese when the mobs surrounded their shop and burn them alive. A middle school that many Tibetan children are attended was set on fire by the mobs too. Facing the bloody facts of terrorist activities, the journalists of the “free countries” that had been keen on “Anti Terrorist War” are showing their capricious reacts.
When the local police of Lhasa took actions to suppress the criminals, the western media described police action as “suppressing the demonstration” so that in their reports, the criminal mobs become demonstrators and the terrorist activities become peaceful demonstrations; and the civilians killed by the criminals all become the victims of the police suppression.
The media of the “free countries deliberately” deliberately refer the mobs as the Tibetans and refer the policemen and civilian victims as Chinese, though many policemen and the local government officials are ethnic Tibetans, and the civilian victims of the riots include Tibetans, Muslims, Hans and many other religious and ethnic Chinese. By their de????ion, the event of the terrorists indiscriminately killing the civilians is deliberately worded as the conflict between ethnic Tibetan and other ethnics of Chinese.
Though many local policemen in Tibet are ethnic Tibetan, the majority of the local officials in Tibet who are leading the police suppressions are also ethnic Tibetans; the western media intentionally ignored this fact and deliberately describe them as Chinese officials and Chinese police. Since the Tibetan is an ethnic group of Chinese, describing a Tibetan as a Chinese is the same as describing a New Yorker as an American may be logically correct. However, their purpose to deliberately use the wording is to confuse and mislead their readers as if the event in Tibet were not a terrorist attack by criminals to the civilians but a conflict between the ethnic groups in China, and hint that the ethnic problem is cause by Chinese police suppression.
Actually, the criminals involved in this riot are not only ethnic Tibetans, there are also other ethnics of Chinese including Hans funded by the foreign organizations. The civilian victims also include many ethnics, many of them are Tibetans, all of them are so innocent and the badly violation of their human rights by the criminals are ignored by the media of “free countries” who have been chanting human right all the time. Just because this riot is a terrorist attack by the criminals in the name of Dalai Lama and Free Tibet funded and supported by the “free countries.”
The media of free countries are taking advantage of ignorance of the most audiences about Tibet so as to spread the biased publicity in favor of the Tibetan terrorists. That is why we can see some western newspapers “mistakenly” use the pictures of clashes between Tibetan demonstrators and Nepal police to describe that the Tibetan demonstrators are beaten by Chinese police, and we can also see many western newspapers “carelessly” ignored the fact that the Tibetan middle school was set on fire and the Tibetan girls were killed, and described the criminals as “demonstrators.”
Now we finally understand that the media of the “free countries” are so free that they can freely define any phrase and any event by intentionally ignoring some facts and deliberate use different wordings so as to mislead readers. The truth is always irrelevant for the media of the “free countries.”
-- An Overseas Chinese
@ Bamboo;
The western governments and media may be cowards but the regular people of the world are speaking up. Korea and Japan are well aware of the hideous, ugly, mass murdering nature of China and its 5000 years of cave man brutality. The internet is filled with disgust at Bad China's attack on Bhuddism and a harmless population.