Tibet uprising cracks the face of modern China.“On the eve of China's first Olympics, as the world prepares to gaze more intently than ever on the grand spectacle of the 29th Olympics, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) deplores and expresses its deepest dismay on China's failure to uphold the Olympic principles arly with regard to continual of repression in Tibet. The communist regime continues to cling on to its old authoritarian ways and still ruthlessly suppresses peaceful dissent. Over the recent past the Chinese authorities under the pretext of security measures has intensified clampdown on the fundamental human rights of the Tibetan people.”
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Uprising in Tibet. Video hosted on Google. LOVE your country, love your religion, together let's build a harmonious society," reads the banner fluttering in the spring sunshine at the 400-year-old Tibetan monastery in remote Sichuan province. The Communist Party slogan, intended to reassure people that religion can co-exist with communism, rang hollow this week as Beijing mobilised its formidable security forces to contain the worst outbreak of Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in two decades. This tiny Sichuan monastery seems at first untouched by the crisis that escalated from peaceful protests by 400 monks in the Tibetan capital Lhasa last Monday into riots involving thousands of disaffected Tibetans that gutted hundreds of Han Chinese businesses before spreading like a bushfire to at least three neighbouring Chinese provinces with large Tibetan communities. Chinese authorities say at least 16 people, mainly Chinese, died; the Tibetan government-in-exile says at least 99 people, mainly Tibetans, were killed. Authorities claim to have arrested 24 people linked to the Lhasa protests. But Tibetan communities have an uncanny sense of solidarity, despite a decades-long policy of integration — Tibet independence groups describe it as intimidation and repression — with the Han Chinese majority. The abbot of the monastery of course knew about the troubles in Lhasa, and Xiahe, Langmusi and Aba and a dozen other monasteries and villages, through the religious grapevine. (And if he hadn't, local party cadres came visiting this week to remind him of the importance of maintaining a harmonious society.)
The Tibetan uprising could not come at a worse time for authorities, just months before the Olympic Games, China's big opportunity to show the world a modern, human face. It must at least appear to show restraint in dealing with the protests but cannot give ground on greater autonomy. The Communist Party promotes itself as the only force that can unify China. The shock of the unrest and the surprising solidarity of communities across western China will send chills through Beijing's elite. That same sense of unspoken solidarity emerged at a university in Lanzhou, the capital of neighbouring Gansu province, on Sunday, when hundreds of Tibetan students joined a silent protest in the middle of the football field. One student insisted it was not an organised protest, but a spontaneous expression of solidarity with Tibetans killed and injured in Lhasa and other places. Names have been withheld to ensure the safety of Tibetans who spoke with The Age.Asked to explain how such a big protest could materialise without leadership or organisation, the North-West Minorities University student said that Tibetans, as a minority in a country of 1.3 billion mainly Han Chinese, tended to stick together and look out for one another.
The students have since released a letter announcing a hunger strike until all arrested Tibetans are freed.
Every year, about 3000 Tibetans, mainly monks and nuns, risk their lives crossing the perilous Himalayan passes to escape from China into Nepal and then into the Indian border city of Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives in exile.
In September 2006, a Romanian cameraman mountain climber captured video images of Chinese border police apparently shooting a Tibetan nun in the back as she made the crossing. Chinese authorities later claimed the Tibetans "attacked the soldiers", who were "forced to defend themselves".
"Norbu" was 13 years old when he escaped from China to India with a group of monks. The trip took 27 days, during which they hid and slept during the day and travelled only at night. Several members did not survive.
His family, like many Tibetan families, was determined that he be brought up as a Tibetan, not the "Tibetan-lite" approved by the Chinese authorities, which includes banning anyone under 18 from entering a monastery. Norbu eventually returned to China to be with his family and the greater Tibetan diaspora within China.
It was of course easier to return than to leave and, although he is for the most part left in peace, his flat is among the first to be raided whenever Tibet protests erupt. Lately he has been warned by other Tibetans that he should disappear.
Like some other Tibetans, his mobile phones have tended lately to go abruptly on the blink. Others The Age spoke to feared their calls were being monitored and said that to continue talking jeopardised their safety.
Beijing has ordered monasteries to pull their monks into line. This week, thousands of armed police, riot squads and paramilitary troops continue to seal off huge swathes of western China, ejecting tourists and foreigners and all media.
And with Premier Wen Jiabao calling the Dalai Lama a hypocritical liar and accusing him of orchestrating the violence to disrupt the Beijing Olympics, after Tibet's exiled leader accused Beijing of committing cultural genocide against his people, there seems little room for reconciliation.
When it bid for the Games, China argued that hosting the event would improve openness and reform. But regardless of the Olympics, Beijing will not tolerate any perceived threat to its authority.
Tsering Shakya, Canada research chair on religion and contemporary society in Asia at the University of British Colombia, said giving ground on Tibet would undermine the Communist Party's two remaining claims to legitimacy: that the party is able to unify China and that the country's economic success is due to the party's wise leadership.
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being tibetan i want to tell all my brothers and sisters that we should be proud of being followers of h.h.the dalai lama. we have to pray for those who had given their lives for our land ......lets pray for our tibet will be free soon..........good job....who ever had taken this photo.....
