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Dalai Lama Says He Would Step Down if Tibet Violence Spirals Out of Control •
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Worldwide Protests Over Tibet Crackdown
The Associated Press
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Sydney, Australia - Protesters in Australia burned Chinese flags Tuesday and
police arrested 50 activists in Nepal during renewed demonstrations against
Beijing's crackdown on Tibet.
In Sydney, about 100 Tibetan immigrants and supporters, many of them weeping,
waved flags, photos of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader,
and signs calling for freedom for Tibet. They demanded that Chinese authorities
stop killing their countrymen.
The protesters also burned Chinese flags while more than 20 police kept order
outside the Chinese consulate in Australia's largest city.
"Stop killing," the protesters shouted. "Shame! Shame! China, shame!" "We
will never give up!"
A female protester, her face red with anger, approached the consulate gate
and wound a Tibetan flag around her neck, pulling it tight to strangle herself
before friends loosened it. Another woman, overcome with emotion, fainted and
was carried to a waiting ambulance.
In Nepal, around 200 protesters gathered near the U.N. building to demand the
world body investigate the protests and riots in Tibet. It was the third demonstration
in the tiny country since last week.
Police said they were under orders to stop the demonstrations. Around 50 people
were arrested. It was not clear whether they would be charged, but most of those
detained in recent days have been freed by the evening.
Chinese authorities cracked down on several days of protests and riots inside
Tibet last week. China's government said 16 people have died in Tibet, but the
Himalayan country's government-in-exile put the toll at 80.
In Sydney, protester Passang Kyida, 23, sobbed as she told how she had been
unable to contact her family since the clampdown began.
"Our Tibetan people are dying. I don't understand why they are killing us,"
she said.
Demonstrations have taken place in several cities worldwide since the Chinese
clampdown began.
In Munich, Germany, on Monday, police detained 26 Tibetan demonstrators after
they tried to force their way into the Chinese consulate. Chinese flags were
burned and slogans including "Save Tibet" and "Stop Killing" were daubed
on the consulate walls. About 150 people also held a peaceful rally in Berlin.
In London, a group of about 80 pro-Tibet demonstrators hurled placards and
sticks at China's embassy and tried to storm the building. Police said there
were no injuries or arrests.
In New York, an unnamed 21-year-old man was arrested after trying to drape
the Tibetan flag over a billboard above the New York Police Department's substation
in Times Square.
Protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa, Tibet's largest city, began on March
10 on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in the
region that sent the Dalai Lama into exile in northern India.
Tibet was effectively independent for decades before Communist troops entered
in 1950.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday denounced supporters of the Dalai Lama,
saying they had incited violence by organizing the Lhasa protests.
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Dalai Lama Says He Would Step Down if Tibet Violence Spirals Out of
Control
The Associated Press
Tuesday 18 March 2008
Dharmsala, India - The Dalai Lama threatened today to step down as leader
of Tibet's government-in-exile if violence committed by Tibetans in his homeland
spirals out of control.
The rioting prompted Premier Wen Jiabao to denounce the Dalai Lama's supporters
as separatists and accuse them of instigating the violence in Tibet's capital
of Lhasa. It was China's highest-level response to date to the unrest.
The Dalai Lama, speaking to reporters, urged his countrymen to show restraint.
He said that "if things become out of control" his "only option
is to completely resign."
Later, one of his top aides clarified the Dalai Lama's comments.
"If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence he would have to
resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence," Tenzin Taklha
said. "He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not
as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama."
The recent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, led by monks, began peacefully
March 10 on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
But they grew increasingly violent, culminating Friday with widespread street
violence. Chinese officials say 16 people were killed, but the Tibetan government-in-exile
put the toll at 80.
While the situation inside Tibet remains unclear, much of the violence appears
to have been committed by Tibetans attacking ethnic Han Chinese, the majority
ethnicity in China. In the days since then, worries have grown that Chinese
troops trying to reassert control over Lhasa were exacting retribution against
the Tibetans.
The Dalai Lama also called on Tibetan exiles beginning a six-month march from
India to Lhasa to stop their march at the border.
"Will you get independence? What's the use?" he said.
The protests have focused world attention on China's human rights record ahead
of this summer's Beijing Olympics. The communist government in Beijing wants
to ensure that the Aug. 8-24 Summer Olympics boosts its international image.
"By staging that incident they want to undermine the Beijing Olympics
Games, and they also try to serve their hidden agenda by inciting such incidents,"
Wen told reporters at a news conference held at the end of China's national
legislative meeting.
The hardline stance taken by the normally mild-mannered premier underscored
the communist leadership's determination to regain control over the region and
ensure a smooth run-up to the Games.
"There is ample fact - and we also have plenty of evidence - proving
that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by
the Dalai clique," Wen said. He gave no details.
Wen dismissed claims by the Dalai Lama that there was "cultural genocide"
taking place in Tibet and said China will only consider dialogue with the Dalai
Lama if the exiled spiritual leader was "willing to give up his proposition
for so-called Tibetan independence."
Wen said protesters in Lhasa killed bystanders, smashed public utilities and
cars, and set fire to stores.
"They used extremely cruel means," Wen said. "This incident
has seriously disrupted public order and life in Lhasa. This incident has inflicted
heavy losses of lives and property of the people in Lhasa."
However, Wen said, the city was returning to normal.
"The situation is quiet and calm, and Lhasa will be reopened to the rest
of the world," he said.
China's deadline for protesters to turn themselves in or face severe punishment
was Monday at midnight. Hours after that deadline passed, the U.S. government-funded
Radio Free Asia on Tuesday quoted an unnamed witness as saying that authorities
in Lhasa had began arresting hundreds of people.
No details were given and the report could not be independently confirmed because
of China's tight control over information and ban on trips by foreign reporters.
Police in Lhasa refused to answer any questions.
An official at the Administrative Department of the city's Communist Party
office said Tuesday the city's markets, work places, schools were all back in
operation.
"There are no police or troops around our area. But as to whether there
are still police sealing off the downtown streets, I am not clear yet,"
he said. He refused to give his name.
Protests inside China have spilled from Tibet into neighboring provinces and
even the capital, Beijing.
As the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama was recognized at age 2 as
the reincarnation of the 13th Dalai Lama and enthroned before he turned 4. He
assumed full powers at age 15, in the year that troops from Mao Zedong's newly
founded communist republic entered Tibet and crushed its small army.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet following the 1959 uprising, setting up his government-in-exile
in Dharmsala.
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