Pro-Tibet vigil held in Beijing

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 3/17/08 | Ian Ransom and Chris Buckley

[NormsRevenge]

BEIJING (Reuters) - Ethnic Tibetan students staged a candle-lit vigil in Beijing on Monday, saying it was to pray for the dead, after authorities warned anti-Chinese rioters in the Tibetan capital to surrender.

Police kept reporters well away from the peaceful protest by dozens of apparently ethnic Tibetan students gathered inside the Central University for Nationalities.

It was a small, rare show of defiance in the host city of this year's Olympic Games, where Communist Party authorities are especially eager to prevent public shows of dissent.

"It was only to pray for the souls of the dead," said an ethnic Tibetan student from northwest China's Gansu province, who was kept away from the sit-in by security guards.

The vigil was broken up by authorities hours before a deadline in Tibet's regional capital, Lhasa, for protesters who rioted through the city on Friday to hand themselves in to police by Monday night or face harsher treatment afterward.

Exiled representatives of Tibet in Dharamsala in India on Sunday put the death toll in Friday's protests against Chinese rule at 80.

Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet regional government, said only 13 "innocent civilians" had been killed and dozens of security personnel injured.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was "increasingly concerned" about reports of violence and loss of life in Tibet and urged restraint from authorities there.

"I'm increasingly concerned about the tension and reports of violence and loss of life in Tibet and elsewhere," Ban told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

"At this time I urge restraint on the part of the authorities and call on all concerned to avoid further confrontation and violence."

A Tibetan shopkeeper near Lhasa's marketplace, badly hit by the violence, said he had not heard of anyone surrendering to the police or informing on suspected rioters.

"We are just waiting for the time to pass," he said.

As the deadline approached, a Chinese spokesman told reporters his government would not compromise with Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, or reexamine its policies in Tibet.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the often bloody unrest had been organized by the Dalai Lama's followers at home and abroad.

"It's not an ethnic issue, not a religious issue or a cultural one," he said. "At the root, it's the fundamental problem of the Dalai clique seeking to separate Tibet from China."

The Dalai Lama says he wants autonomy for Tibet within China but not outright independence, and he has strongly rejected the allegation that he launched the protests.

RESTRAINT AND TROOP CONVOYS

China said it had shown great restraint in the face of violent protests by Tibetans and Lhasa was returning to order.

Troops poured into areas neighboring Tibet which are largely inhabited by ethnic Tibetans but ethnic Tibetan people there said angry anti-Chinese demonstrations were still sporadically erupting.

An ethnic Tibetan in remote, mountainous Aba prefecture in Sichuan province said fresh protests flared near two Tibetan schools on Monday, with hundreds of students facing police and troops.

About 40 students from a high school for Tibetans in Maertang county, Aba, were beaten and arrested for protesting, the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy later said. Repeated calls to the school went unanswered.

The resident, who asked not to be identified, said 18 people, including Buddhist monks and students, had been killed when troops opened fire on Sunday. Earlier a policeman was burned to death, he said. His account could not be immediately verified.

The violence of the past week is likely to weigh uncomfortably on the Chinese state, which is anxious to polish its image in the build-up to the Games.

"If the Tibetans in Lhasa take to the streets again in large numbers and really challenge the Chinese authorities, I think we'll see a very harsh crackdown," said Kenneth Lieberthal, a political scientist at the University of Michigan.

INTERNATIONAL REACTION

The European Union has called on both authorities and protesters to refrain from violence and said a boycott of the Olympics would not be the right answer.

Russia said it hoped China would do what was necessary to curtail "unlawful actions" in Tibet. A brief Russian Foreign Ministry statement made no criticism of Beijing.

There have been daily pro-Tibet protests around the world since last Monday. On Sunday, French police used tear gas against around 500 demonstrators at the Chinese embassy in Paris, and there were incidents at missions in New York and Australia.

"We strongly condemn the violent action of Tibet independence activists," spokesman Liu said, denouncing attacks on its missions abroad.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959 and set up a government-in-exile in Dharamsala in northern India.

Spokesman Liu said the riots were a blow to the Dalai Lama's claim to support peaceful protest. "His act is getting harder and harder to keep up," Liu said.

[NormsRevenge]

Tibetan monks hold up a banner as they are driven away in a police van after being detained during a Tibetan solidarity protest outside the UN office in Kathmandu March 17, 2008. Police fired tear gas on Monday at about 200 Tibetan exiles, including monks and nuns, who staged a brief protest in front of the United Nations office in Kathmandu, police said. Seven Tibetans and five police were injured. Police used batons to break up the protests and detained dozens of protesters. REUTERS/Euan Denholm (NEPAL)

[ZULU]

THESE are the inhuman fiends our toy and prodcut purchases make wealthy.

Some day they will be carting US away also.

[the anti-liberal]

And you can thank environmentalists for forcing industry to move to China.

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

"Mr. Bush, you found it in your heart to save Kosovo,
please extend your mercies to my beloved land of Tibet."

[the anti-liberal]

You mean “give Kosovo to Albinian Muslims, letting them ethnically cleanse it more thouroughly of non-Albinian Muslims”?

[Brian S. Fitzgerald]

You mean “give Kosovo to Albinian Muslims, letting them ethnically cleanse it more thouroughly of non-Albinian Muslims”?

Would Bush actually admit that to the Dalai Lama?

[the anti-liberal]

Well, I suppose it's possible that the Dalai Lama doesn't know what's going on in the world, or gets his news from the MSM...

But you're right - and our President doesn't seem to realize he's helping those whom he himself has declared our enemy. It's sad.

[TigersEye]

[NormsRevenge]

That says it all. Thanks!

[BJungNan]

Even I have to admit it is funny. But there is more to say...

[TigersEye]

It came from some British website. It sure sums up the PRC doesn’t it? My way or the highway and we have tanks on the highway.

[ZULU]

Don’t forget the Unions.

But the Federal Government has a responsibility to our national security to stop this. They didn’t. Not only did they not, they have exacerbated the situation by increasing government regulations on businesses which choose to remain here, and facilitating the rape of the American dollar by globalists who choose to relocate there.

[Mike Powell]

Careful buddy, your words will offend the Serbians.