CHINA'S 'RULE OF TERROR'

Ordinarily, the undercover police would pounce on this person within seconds. A Tibetan woman openly carries a portrait of Dalai Lama in the streets of Lhasa on March 14, 2008. Screen capture from AP Television Network.

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onfirmations of a much higher death toll in Tibet, from the 10 acknowledged by China, have begun to come in as the occupying power declares a "people's war" of security and propaganda against support for the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama. Unrest continued in many parts of Tibet on Sunday with further killings of protestors reported.

"This grave incident of fighting, wrecking, looting and burning was meticulously planned by reactionary separatist forces here and abroad, and its goal was Tibetan independence," a Saturday meeting of senior regional and security officials announced, according to the official Tibet Daily on Sunday.

"Fight a people's war to oppose separatism and protect stability ... expose and condemn the malicious actions of these forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai clique to broad daylight."

In Ngaba County of the eastern Tibetan Kham region (now part of China's Sichuan province), TCHRD reports a demonstration of thousands of Tibetans this afternoon. They've since updated the death toll to 13.

According to the latest confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), at least seven people were known to have been shot dead including monks of Ngaba Kirti Monastery by the People's Armed Police (PAP) during the peaceful demonstration by thousands of people in Ngaba County (Ch: Aba) this afternoon [Sunday - ed.]. Hundreds of people are also known to have been injured in the incident following PAP crackdown on the protestors. The demonstration is still going on when the Centre received the information from the venue of demonstration.

The Tibetan capital Lhasa is under tight lockdown, with every Tibetan seen in the streets being stopped by Chinese forces checking ID's, a source told RFA on Saturday. Even Tibetan government workers are harassed, but the Chinese are free to move about unhindered.

"Today when the Tibetans were demonstrating, many Tibetans were killed. We Tibetans had no weapons to fight back. When the Tibetans were gathered in front of the Jokhang [temple], the Chinese fired at us. I personally saw more than 100 Tibetans killed when the Chinese fired at the Tibetan crowd," one man in Lhasa told RFA's Tibetan service late Friday.

RFA has many more eyewitness reports which they received on Saturday.

"I am in the Lhasa area. There was shooting today. Many Tibetans who were dead and barely alive were collected at the TAR [Tibet Autonomous Region] Security Office area, and I heard from a reliable source that there were 67 bodies. Some were alive and most were dead when they were brought in... This included male and female, and I don’t have the details… But it’s confirmed that there were in total about 67 bodies collected at this place. I cannot tell you the source of my information, but 67 bodies were seen by my source...Right now I was told that Tibetan monks in Samye monastery in Lokha are protesting too." -- Source in Lhasa

On Friday, BBC reported an account by a tourist who saw the outbreak of the violent crackdown against the monks of Sera monastery on Wednesday. He thought he was going to see the famous monks' debates.

Then the gate of the debating compound opened and this stream of maroon humanity poured out, several hundred monks. It was impossible to count but I think there were at least 300.

We thought it was part of the tradition but when you looked at the expression on their faces, it was a very serious business. They were pumping their hands in the air as they ran out of the temple.

The minute that happened we saw the police - two or three who were inside the compound - suddenly speaking into their radios.

They started going after the monks, and plain-clothes police - I don't know this for sure but that's what I think they were - started to emerged from nowhere.

There were four or five in uniform but another 10 or 15 in regular clothing. They were grabbing monks, kicking and beating them.

One monk was kicked in the stomach right in front of us and then beaten on the ground.

The monks were not attacking the soldiers, there was no melee. They were heading out in a stream, it was a very clear path, and the police were attacking them at the sides. It was gratuitous violence.

Among the 80 deaths now confirmed by the Tibetan government are 26 people who were reportedly taken by truck to a site next to the infamous Drapchi Prison, and executed. Dalai Lama today condemned China's "rule of terror."

"They simply rely on using force in order to simulate peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror," the Dalai Lama said in Dharamshala, his home since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959...

"Please investigate, if possible... some international organisation can try firstly to inquire about the situation in Tibet," the Buddhist spiritual leader said.

He says what everyone with eyes can clearly see: there is a problem whether China admits it or not.

"Whether the (Chinese) government there admits or not, there is a problem. There is an ancient cultural heritage that is facing serious danger," the Dalai Lama said. "Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place."

He is too diplomatic. Chinese policy is clearly intentional.

As protests against Chinese rule of Tibet spread across the country and around the world, examples abound that the communist regime will brook no dissent... anywhere. In Calgary, Canada, a 15 year old newly-immigrated Tibetan refugee was engaging in some civil disobedience on behalf of his homeland. He was draping a "Save Tibet" banner on the roof of the Chinese consulate, when several Chinese men came out a "secret door" and grabbed him, dragged him down to the consulate's basement and roughed him up.

They kept shouting propaganda phrases like "Tibet belonged to China", "We modernized Tibet", and "We have no respect for your Dalai Lama in Tibet!" One even yelled, "If you are in Tibet this moment, we would have shot you in the head!" The men also tried to rip the taped pro-Tibetan slogans off the boy's chest and abdomen.

Outside the building, the helpless, frightened and agitated crowd stormed the main entrance by screaming "Release our child!", "Let the kid go! He's only 15!", “Human rights!”, and "Shame on you, China! Shame on the Chinese Olympic!"

Ok, ok, they didn't kill him, and it might seem trivial in light of what's going on in his former country. It's just a symptom of the extreme ideological underpinnings of the Chinese sense of entitlement to do anything they want to Tibet and her people, and to lash out at any alternative expressions on behalf of Tibetans -- by anyone, in any place -- whether in Nepal, Greece or Canada. Young Gurmey was rescued after about half an hour by Calgary police.

Labels: China, Tibet

- posted by Agam @ 8:23 PM 0 comments

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