Also see below:
First Foreign Observers Into Tibetan Capital Find City Scarred by Violence •
Go to Original
European Leaders Press China Over Tibet
By Steven Lee Myers and Katrin Bennhold
The New York Times
Thursday 27 March 2008
Washington - European leaders sharpened their tone over Tibet on Wednesday,
as President Bush telephoned President Hu Jintao of China and urged a resumption
of negotiations with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader.
Even as Chinese diplomats sought to defend the crackdown on protesters in Tibet,
officials said they were considering sending a fact-finding mission to Beijing,
signaling an intensification of international concern over the violent repression
in the region.
In London, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France told a joint session of the
House of Commons and the House of Lords during a state visit that Britain and
France shared a responsibility to urge the Chinese leadership to respect human
rights and cultural identity.
That goal could only be achieved if there was "true dialogue" between
China and the Dalai Lama, he said, a day after hinting that France might boycott
the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing this summer.
French diplomats said they were in talks with other European capitals about
dispatching a European Union delegation to China. France, which will take over
the European Union's presidency in July, will seek agreement on the issue
during an informal foreign ministers' meeting at the end of this week,
said an official with knowledge of the draft proposal who would only speak on
the condition of anonymity before the meeting.
In Washington, the Bush administration made its most extensive remarks on the
turmoil after facing criticism that the president's response had been
fairly muted. Mr. Bush has already ruled out an Olympics boycott, which some
have called for, indicating that he hoped to maintain a constructive relationship
with the Chinese leadership.
In a statement, the White House said that Mr. Bush, in his telephone conversation
with Mr. Hu, had urged that diplomats and journalists be allowed access to the
region.
The statement noted that the two had discussed Tibet as part of a conversation
that included Taiwan's recent elections, negotiations with North Korea
about its nuclear programs and the situation in Myanmar.
Mr. Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, later said that
the president had "pushed very hard" on Tibet , urging restraint
and a renewed effort to address Tibetan grievances. Neither the statement nor
Mr. Hadley explicitly criticized China's government.
"There's an opportunity here," Mr. Hadley said, referring
to the possibility of renewed talks with the Dalai Lama's representatives,
"and China needs to seize it."
China reacted swiftly to the international criticism, comparing its handling
of Tibetan protesters to a recent French police raid after rioting in Villiers-le-Bel,
a volatile Paris suburb.
When asked whether China would accept an international fact-finding mission,
China's deputy ambassador in Paris, Qu Xing, told the French radio station
Europe 1, "Would you allow a United Nations mission to see what happened
in Villiers-le-Bel?"
The prospect of the Olympics being held against a backdrop of Chinese military
action in Tibet has forced European leaders to walk a narrow line between maintaining
their increasingly important economic and political ties to China while protests
among their own people against China's actions in Tibet intensify and
calls from leading figures in Europe's former communist east grow louder.
The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, acknowledged the importance
of those ties in an interview on Wednesday in the newspaper Libération,
saying, "We are constrained by a certain number of economic interests
in order not to boost unemployment."
Under pressure from the news media and human rights groups, more leaders are
now considering defying China and meeting the Dalai Lama, and while none have
supported an outright boycott of the Olympic Games in August, the possibility
of not attending the opening ceremony is no longer ruled out.
The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, on Wednesday
invited the Dalai Lama to speak to European Union legislators and questioned
whether European leaders should attend the opening.
Following the lead of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who met with the
Dalai Lama last fall, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain announced last
week that he would meet with the Dalai Lama when the spiritual leader visits
London in May.
Mr. Sarkozy hinted Wednesday that he might do the same, saying through a spokesman
that he would decide based on how the situation in Tibet evolved.
An appeal signed by former anti-Communist campaigners like Vaclav Havel, who
as Czech president also received the Dalai Lama, called for the Chinese leadership
to lift restrictions on foreign journalists, release political prisoners and
begin a dialogue with Tibet's exiled leader.
--------
Steven Lee Myers reported from Washington, and Katrin Bennhold from
Paris. Alan Cowell contributed reporting from London.
Go to Original
First Foreign Observers Into Tibetan Capital Find City Scarred by
Violence
By Jonathan Brown
The Independent UK
Thursday 27 March 2008
Foreign observers invited into the Tibetan
capital, Lhasa, reported a city badly scarred by days of unrest and a heavy
Chinese security presence still highly visible on the streets.
Operating under strictly controlled conditions, a group of 26 international
reporters was driven into the city yesterday by the Chinese government as part
of an effort to convince the outside world that life there is returning to normal
and that Beijing is back in control after facing its most sustained opposition
for 20 years.
It was the first time that foreign observers had been allowed in since fierce
rioting in protest at Beijing rule left dozens of people dead in Tibet and neighbouring
Chinese provinces.
As President George Bush expressed his concern at the military reaction to
the protests in a telephone call to the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, increasing
the international pressure over human rights in the approach to this summer's
Olympic Games, the observers described a city still under siege with heavily
armed police in camouflage uniforms stationed outside government buildings and
officers patrolling every intersection.
It is more than two weeks since the height of the violence and the Chinese
military crackdown in which anti-government campaigners say up to 140 Tibetans
died. The unrest prompted Beijing to deploy thousands of troops to the region
and order a news blackout on the country's interior. China puts the death toll
at 19.
The journalists were flown to the city and taken on a bus tour. Police questioned
by reporters said they were carrying out routine vehicle checks for fake licence
plates and people travelling without seatbelts.
There were signs of every day life returning. The Potala Palace, the traditional
seat of Tibetan power, was re-opened yesterday for the first time since 14 March,
while in nearby Potala Square reporters spoke to locals who said that although
security continued to be tight, they were allowed to move around the city.
Lhasa also bore scars from the rioting. Just a few blocks from Potala many
shops thought to be owned by ethnic Chinese were burnt out. Others, festooned
with white ceremonial scarves to signify their owners were Tibetan, remained
untouched. On Qingnian Road, a red banner bearing one of President Hu's favourite
slogans - Construct a Harmonious Society - remained intact but a
two-storey medical clinic on the same road had been destroyed.
The Dalai Lama, who Chinese authorities blame for orchestrating the protests,
described yesterday's visit as a "first step", saying he hoped journalists
would be allowed to operate "with complete freedom". He added: "Then
you can access the real situation."
The White House said that Mr Bush encouraged Mr Hu to engage in "substantive
dialogue" with the exiled opposition leader's representatives and to allow
the media and diplomats free access to protest areas.
Earlier Chinese state media announced the surrender of more than 600 people
who took part in the protests in Lhasa and in Aba county in Sichuan province,
home to ethnic Tibetans. But Beijing appeared to have failed to quell the insurrection
completely, with reports from the western province of Qinghai of hundreds of
civilians staging a sit-down protest after police stopped a march. Paramilitary
forces dispersed between 200 and 300 protesters and ordered people to stay inside.
One source told Reuters: "They were beating up monks, which will only
infuriate ordinary people."
The violence has prompted growing international condemnation. The head of the
European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, issued an invitation yesterday
to the Dalai Lama to address MEPs and paved the way for a vote on a possible
partial boycott of the Olympics.
-------
Jump to today's Truthout Features:
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.
Print This Story
E-mail This Story