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Pelosi Denounces Tibet Crackdown •
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China Blankets Tibetan Areas With Troops
By Greg Baker
The Associated Press
Thursday 20 March 2008
Zhongdian, China - China blanketed restive Tibetan areas Thursday with a huge
buildup of troops, turning small towns across a wide swath of western China
into armed encampments.
Beijing acknowledged that last week's anti-government protests had spread far
beyond Tibet's borders and that police opened fire on protesters. It warned
foreign tourists and journalists to stay away from a huge expanse of territory
across four provinces.
In an overture of peace, the Dalai Lama offered to meet with Chinese President
Hu Jintao and other leaders, reiterating that he was not asking for Tibetan
independence.
China has repeatedly ignored calls for dialogue, accusing the exiled Tibetan
leader and his supporters of organizing violence in hopes of sabotaging the
upcoming Beijing Olympics and promoting Tibetan independence.
Hundreds of paramilitary troops aboard at least 80 trucks were seen traveling
along the main road winding through the mountains into southeastern Tibet. Others
set up camp and patrolled streets in riot gear, helmets and rifles in the town
of Tiger Leaping Gorge, a tourist attraction in Yunnan province bordering Tibet.
Farther north, the largely Tibetan town of Zhongdian, renamed Shangri-la a
decade ago, was swarmed by 400 armed police. Many carried rifles and what appeared
to be tear gas launchers. Residents walked freely among the military, and there
was no sign of a daytime curfew.
The troop mobilization was helping authorities reassert control after the broadest,
most sustained protests by Tibetans against Chinese rule in decades. Demonstrations
had flared across Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces in support
of protests that started in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.
Led by Buddhist monks, protests had begun peacefully in Lhasa early last week
but erupted into rioting on March 14, drawing a harsh response from Chinese
authorities.
The crackdown drew worldwide attention to China's human rights record, threatening
to overshadow Beijing's attempts to project an image of unity and prosperity
in the lead-up to the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.
On Thursday, a group of 26 Nobel laureates said they "deplore and condemn
the Chinese government's violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters," calling
for Beijing to exercise restraint.
"We protest the unwarranted campaign waged by the Chinese government against
our fellow Nobel Laureate, his holiness the Dalai Lama," the group said
in a statement released by the Elie Wiesel Foundation.
Tibetan exile groups have said 80 people were killed in the protest and its
aftermath, while Beijing maintains that 16 died and more than 300 were injured.
Tibetan television in Lhasa showed video Thursday of black-clad police arresting
24 men. Handcuffed against a wall, the men - some young, some old - were charged
with "endangering national security, beating, smashing, looting and burning."
The two remaining foreign journalists in Tibet - Georg Blume of Germany and
Kristin Kupfer of Austria - were forced to leave Lhasa on Thursday, according
to Reporters Without Borders. Earlier this week, Economist correspondent James
Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong reporters were forced out.
Speaking from the seat of his government-in-exile in Dharmsala, India, the
Dalai Lama offered to meet with Hu and other Chinese leaders but said he would
not travel to Beijing unless there was a "real concrete development."
"The whole world knows the Dalai Lama is not seeking independence, one
hundred times, thousand times I have repeated this. It is my mantra - we are
not seeking independence," the 72-year-old Dalai Lama told reporters.
"The Tibet problem must be solved between Tibetan people and Chinese people,"
he said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, expressed "grave concern"
over a planned meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Dalai
Lama, telling Brown not to offer support to the Tibetans' exiled spiritual leader.
China says the riots and protests were organized from abroad by the Dalai Lama
and his supporters.
Reinforcing that claim, state broadcaster China Central Television aired a
15-minute program Thursday night, showing how Tibetan rioters rampaged through
Lhasa last week but none of the ensuing police crackdown.
Video from security cameras showed burned shops, wounded Chinese and a knife-wielding
Tibetan standing atop a police car. Buddhist monks were shown throwing sticks
and other debris at riot police in a scuffle on March 10, in an attempt to portray
the protests as having been started by monks.
But authorities have moved to clamp down on unrest in Tibet and surrounding
provinces, where more than half of China's 5.4 million Tibetans live. Moving
from town to town, police have set up blockades and checkpoints to keep Tibetans
in and reporters out.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China is "suggesting" foreigners
stay out of Gansu and Sichuan provinces for safety reasons.
But tour operators in the provinces said foreigners were barred from traveling
in those areas and tour groups were banned from Tibet, isolating a region about
four times the size of France.
An employee at the Nine Lakes Travel Agency in Lanzhou, Gansu province, said
she had heard about recent protests and unrest in many counties around the province.
"Tourists are not allowed to enter the seven counties affected because
it considered dangerous at the moment. It is not safe to travel here at this
time," she said, refusing to give her name for fear of reprisal.
Despite the massive security, protests have continued to crop up in towns in
Qinghai, Sichuan and Gansu provinces.
The official Xinhua News Agency said police shot and wounded four rioters "in
self-defense" during violent protests Sunday in Aba County in Sichuan.
It is the first time the government has acknowledged shooting any protesters
during the unrest.
A Tibetan resident in Aba County said Thursday she had heard of numerous arrests
of protesters.
"There are many, many troops outside. I'm afraid to leave the house,"
said the woman, who refused to give her name for fear of retaliation by authorities.
Police could be heard shouting from loudspeakers for protesters to turn themselves
in.
Troops blocked roads in nearby Sertar, also in Sichuan, confining residents
to their homes, said a woman reached there by phone. The London-based Free Tibet
Campaign reported that troops had been sent to the county after residents blew
up a bridge near the village of Gudu.
A hotel worker in central Luqu County, in neighboring Gansu province, said
she had not left the hotel in four days because she was afraid.
"On the 16th, hundreds of Tibetan protesters marched in the streets, throwing
rocks and breaking windows. The streets are now filled with police officers,"
she said, refusing to give her name for fear of reprisal. "Our hotel is
booked out with tourists, but no one feels safe enough to set foot outside."
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Pelosi Denounces Tibet Crackdown
The Associated Press
Friday 21 March 2008
House speaker is first major official to
visit Dalai Lama since crisis began.
Dharmsala, India - House speaker Nancy Pelosi called on the world Friday to
denounce China's crackdown of anti-government protests in Tibet, calling the
crisis "a challenge to the conscience of the world."
Pelosi, one of the fiercest Congressional critics of China, was greeted by
cheering Tibetans as she arrived to meet the Dalai Lama. She is the first major
official to visit the leader of Tibet's exile community since peaceful protests
turned violent last week in the Chinese-ruled region.
"If freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against
China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak
on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world," Pelosi said before a
crowd of thousands of Tibetans, including monks and schoolchildren.
"The situation in Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world,"
she said.
Pelosi, heading a Congressional delegation, was greeted warmly by the Dalai
Lama, who draped a gold scarf around her neck.
Warm Welcome for Pelosi
Hundreds of people lined the roads to the Dalai Lama's compound, some with
signs saying "Thank You for Your Support" and "Long Live America-Tibet
Friendship." About 2,000 more people waited in the temple's main courtyard,
many waving Indian, U.S. and Tibetan flags.
The crowds roared when she arrived, applauding for about ten minutes.
"Today we are here at this sad time together in shedding the bright light
of truth on what is happening inside Tibet," Pelosi said. "We insist
the world know what the truth is inside Tibet."
Kalsing Phuntsok, 37, a teacher who was in the crowd welcoming Pelosi, called
her "a very good friend of Tibet."
"America has a big role to play, a very big role," he said.
Chinese Crackdown
The visit was planned before protests against Chinese rule in the Tibetan capital
of Lhasa erupted into rioting on March 14, sparking a brutal crackdown by Beijing.
Thousands of Chinese troops have converged in Tibetan areas of western China,
ready to clamp down on any signs of further unrest.
"Perhaps it our karma, our fate, to be with you at such a sad time,"
Pelosi said. "It is our karma, we know, to help the people of Tibet."
The protests have been the biggest challenge in almost two decades to Chinese
rule in Tibet, a Himalayan region that the People's Liberation Army occupied
in 1950 after several decades of effective independence.
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