Lhasa Rising | Tibet Will Be Free

It’s official: Polish PM boycotting Olympic opening ceremony

Posted by Lhasa Rising on Mar 27, 2008 in Beijing Olympics 2008 | 1 comment

Bravo Poland! The BBC reports:

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said he does not intend to go to the opening of the Olympics in August in the wake of China’s crackdown in Tibet.

In comments to the Dziennik newspaper, confirmed by his spokesman, he said Poland was a medium-sized country and was not looking to take the first step.

“But my opinion is very clear: the presence of politicians at the Games’ inauguration seems inappropriate.”

EU foreign ministers will discuss Tibet at a meeting in Slovenia on Friday.

As we previously said, the Polish people understand what it’s like to suffer under foreign occupation. So we thank them and their prime minister for this courageous step.

With the French President also considering a boycott, the pressure should build on President Bush and other wavering world leaders. Their presence at the opening ceremonies would only legitimate the brutal regime in Beijing’s claim that it is a respectable power. This cannot happen; the opening ceremony must be boycotted.

New danger for Tibetan monks: starvation in besieged monasteries

Posted by Lhasa Rising on Mar 26, 2008 in Protests in Tibet | 0 comments

As the Chinese government continues its inhumane siege of major monasteries in and around Lhasa, a new danger is emerging for Tibetan monks: death by starvation.

Chinese military forces have surrounded the monasteries, cut off electricity, and are refusing to let Tibetans bring food and medicine to the monks.

The major monasteries of Sera, Drepung, and Ganden are cut off, and unconfirmed sources in Lhasa report near-starvation among the monks. Tibet.net, the website of the Tibetan government in exile, is reporting that at least one monk has starved to death at the smaller Ramoche Monastery in central Lhasa.

Because the Chinese government is refusing independent access to Tibet by journalists, aid agencies, or diplomats, these reports are impossible to confirm. They could be true, they could be exaggeration. We have no way of knowing right now. Of course, if the Chinese government had nothing to hide, it would allow access.

If these reports are true, China’s inhumane collective punishment against Tibet’s monks cannot be allowed to stand. This tactic is particularly barbaric, and yet historically appropriate for the Chinese Communist Party, which has a long history of massive collective punishment as a way of maintaining its control.

Does this sound like proper conduct for an Olympic host? Does this sound like proper conduct for any civilized country? Or does this sound like something out of the Middle Ages? We cannot jump to conclusions until the reports are confirmed. But they are troubling, to say the least.

(Click on this map for a larger image showing locations of the major monasteries in Lhasa)

Images of bravery in Tibet

Posted by Lhasa Rising on Mar 26, 2008 in Protests in Tibet | 0 comments

Monks of Rebkong monastery defying the Chinese authorities in Gardze town (Qinghai) by holding high a banned picture of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan National flag. The banner reads “Invite the Dalai Lama, Freedom Now”. This photo was taken on the 17th, March, 2008. (Copyright: Free Tibet Campaign)

Tibetans in Machu County protest against China /March 17 2008 (note poster of the Dalai Lama being carried aloft).

France and Belgium consider Olympic boycott over Tibet; pressure builds

Posted by Lhasa Rising on Mar 26, 2008 in Protests in Tibet | 1 comment

From the AP:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday that he cannot rule out the possibility he might boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics if China continues its crackdown in Tibet.

An official from France’s state television company said the broadcaster would likely boycott the games if coverage was censored, and the European Union urged China to show restraint as it tries to quell continuing unrest in its Tibetan areas.

Also from the AP, Belgium is not ruling out a boycott of the entire Olympics (some great arguments for a full boycott are here, from Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post):

The Belgian government was not ruling out a boycott of the Beijing Olympics if the situation in Tibet worsened. [...]

The sports minister of the northern Belgian region of Flanders said he will not attend the opening ceremony in Beijing, as it could be used for propaganda purposes.

And in the European Parliament, some members wore T-shirts with the five Olympic rings shaped as handcuffs during Wednesday’s session in Brussels. Some also had Tibetan flags draped over their seats. (see photo)

To recap other boycott news:

The Polish prime minister is boycotting the Olympic opening ceremonies.
Prince Charles declared that he would boycott the entire Beijing Olympics
Thai Olympic torchbearer Narisa Chakrabongse courageously withdrew in protest
An Australian torchbearer is considering withdrawing

And the killings in Tibet continue…

Posted by Lhasa Rising on Mar 25, 2008 in Protests in Tibet | Comments Off

The killings in Tibet continue. As usual, Tibetan protesters are massacred, and China’s state-run media tries to make China the victim (claiming a police officer was killed by the “lawless mob”).

This reminds me of how China once claimed no one was killed in Tiananmen Square, and then changed the story to how innocent soldiers were killed by those “counterrevolutionary” students.

From The Times:

Paramilitary police opened fire on hundreds of monks, nuns and Tibetans who tried to march on a local government office in western China yesterday to demand the return of the Dalai Lama.

Residents of Luhuo said that a monk and a farmer appeared to have been killed and about a dozen people wounded in the latest violence in Tibetan areas of China. Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, said that one officer was killed when police confronted a “lawless mob” in Luhuo.

The demonstration began at 4pm when about 200 nuns from Woge nunnery and a similar number of monks from Jueri monastery marched towards the Luhuo Third District government office. They were joined by several hundred farmers and nomads, witnesses said.

Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “Tibet belongs to Tibetans”, they approached the office. The paramilitary People’s Armed Police appeared and ordered the crowd to turn back. Witnesses said that shots were fired and two people appeared to have died. They identified one as Congun Dengzhu, a farmer, and the second as an unknown monk.

Clearly, the message we are getting from Tibetans in Tibet is very consistent. One, they want His Holines the Dalai Lama back. Two, they want Tibetan independence. End of story.

What is really aggravating, however, is how the media is twisting the story of Tibetan violence on ethnic Chinese colonists. This is what The Times reported:

Security was already tight in Luhuo county, as in other Tibetan communities in China. The turmoil began with a riot in Lhasa on March 15, in which Chinese officials say 19 people were killed when Tibetans rampaged through the Tibetan capital, stabbing ethnic Han Chinese and setting fire to Chinese shops and offices.

We are not excusing violence committed by any party (we addressed this issue here). But The Times conflates a few days of violence in Lhasa with weeks of largely peaceful protests all over Tibet, following five decades of oppression and largely nonviolent resistance. The protests started on Monday, March 10, not the 15th as The Times reported. They were peaceful (at least from the Tibetan side — not from the Chinese soldiers) until that Friday. That day, the BBC revealed, there was a confrontation between unarmed monks and armed Chinese forces that set off the violence.

So let’s get some perspective here. Any oppressed people, after five decades of occupation, will rise up. Tibetans have been remarkably nonviolent, considering what the Chinese government has perpetrated on them. So if we want to talk about Tibetan violence on ethnic Chinese colonists in Lhasa over the course of a few days, fine. Let’s also talk about the overwhelming, state-sponsored violence perpetrated by the occupying Chinese forces.

And in any case, there’s no excuse to paint the whole uprising we are seeing all over Tibet to have been started by a violent “riot” in Lhasa. It is much more than that, and it does an incredible disservice to the brave Tibetans risking their lives to call for their county’s freedom.