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Tibet monks disrupt China media event
FT ^ | 03/27/08 | Geoff Dyer

Posted on 03/27/2008 6:32:18 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster

Tibet monks disrupt China media event

By Geoff Dyer in Lhasa

Published: March 27 2008 12:27 | Last updated: March 27 2008 12:39

The simmering political tensions in Tibet burst into the open on Thursday in one of Lhasa’s most important temples when a group of 30 young Buddhist monks interrupted a government-organised visit by journalists with shouts about the lack of freedom in Tibet and in support of the Dalai Lama.

The monks were clearly agitated and several wept openly as they accused the authorities of lying to the visiting journalists and promised further demonstrations.

“We want a free Tibet, we want a free Tibet,” shouted one of the young monks, who was crying at the time.

The remarkable intrusion of the monks, who acknowledged that they were taking considerable personal risks with their acts, undermined a carefully choreographed visit which was designed to show that life was returning to normal in Lhasa following a widespread wave of protests in Tibetan areas against the Chinese government over the last two weeks.

The FT was part of a small group of journalists allowed into the Tibetan capital for the first time since rioting on March 14. With the Olympics taking place in Beijing in August, the Chinese government has been under heavy pressure to allow journalists more freedom to operate.

Tibet’s government-in-exile, based in northern India, welcomed China’s decision to allow journalists to visit Lhasa but demanded “full freedom to report on the ongoing crisis.”

Foreign reporters “must be given freedom to visit all the monasteries and prisons in Lhasa and elsewhere in Tibet and interview Tibetans without the presence of Chinese minders,” said Tibet’s government-in-exile in a written statement sent from Dharamsala.

It also pressed for an international investigation into the violent unrest in Tibet, medical assistance and release of all political prisoners. “The foreign reporters should ask the Chinese authorities what their response is to these requests,” said Tibet’s government-in-exile.

The Chinese authorities maintain that the riot and other anti-Chinese protests in recent weeks have been stimulated by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The dramatic intervention by the monks took place in the Jokhang Temple, in the centre of Lhasa and one of the holiest in Tibetan Buddhism. The reporters were being briefed by Quzhe, a monk at the temple and deputy director of its administrative office, who said that the city’s monasteries had now restored calm.

While he was talking, the younger monks - mostly in their early 20s - pushed in front of the journalists and started to air their grievances. As well as calling for freedom from Chinese rule of Tibet, several monks claimed that the journalists were being manipulated by the authorities. They said that the heavy military presence around the temple had been withdrawn for the visit and claimed that many of the people inside the inner sanctum of the temple were not actually worshippers but had been brought in by officials to make it seem as if normal religious life had returned.

Several monks insisted that the Dalai Lama had nothing to do with the recent wave of demonstrations in Tibetan regions and promised to continue their protests.

The group was soon surrounded by security guards and other officials who started shouting for the discussion to stop and tried to pull away some of the reporters. Several journalists were eventually dragged away from the site to prevent them from talking further with the monks.

“We know we will probably be arrested, but we have to keep fighting,” said another of the monks.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2008olympics; boycottchina; boycottolympics; china; internationalmedia; lhasa; monks; olympics; tibet; uprising

1 posted on 03/27/2008 6:32:19 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
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To: TigerLikesRooster; maui_hawaii; Jeff Head; Tainan; hedgetrimmer; Unam Sanctam; taxesareforever; ...

Ping!


2 posted on 03/27/2008 6:33:51 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (kim jong-il, chia head, ppogri, In Grim Reaper we trust)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

But we’re still going to the Olympics!!! YEAH!!! GO AMERICA!!!/sarcasm off/


3 posted on 03/27/2008 6:37:56 AM PDT by CWW (Make the most of the loss, and regroup for 2008!!)
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To: CWW
Bush41 and Bush43 can go there and win most of medals for U.S. Olympic Team. U.S. athletes may not even have to play there.

Bush41 to Hu Jintao "Give me X number of gold medals, Y number of silver, and Z number of bronze, or I will puke at your business suit."

Bush43 to Hu "My dad is not kidding. He ate too many toxic dumplings and is ready to puke at any moment. "

4 posted on 03/27/2008 6:46:04 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster (kim jong-il, chia head, ppogri, In Grim Reaper we trust)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

more here ...

Lhasa monks accuse Beijing of lying over unrest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080327/ts_nm/china_tibet_dc


5 posted on 03/27/2008 6:52:58 AM PDT by nuconvert (There are bad people in the pistachio business.)
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To: TigerLikesRooster

These young monks are brave and noble to expose the lies the Red Chinese minders were telling the journalists. If you love freedom and human rights, you have to lend support to the Tibetans. Red China must learn to treat its minority populations with rights equal to those allowed the Han peoples.


6 posted on 03/27/2008 6:55:12 AM PDT by RicocheT
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To: CWW
If Tibet had fought for their freedom in 1950, they may have kept their freedom or at least died fighting to keep it. By not fighting at all, they lost their freedom. Now they want the world's attention and support? Taiwan on the other hand, fought to keep their freedom, and still have it today. I choose to support Taiwan, not because they are free, but because they are willing to fight to keep their freedom.
7 posted on 03/27/2008 7:08:03 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: Dixie Yooper

You’re talking about a sparseley populated country like Tibet fighting a country like China, war-hardened and with the ability to field waves of millions of troops- the same country that kept the US-led troops from completely running over North Korea (in fact, the Chinese almost managed to do the opposite). Taiwan had its advantages, the most significant of which is that it is an island, and the Taiwanese troops had good experience fighting the Japanese in WW2.


8 posted on 03/27/2008 7:14:42 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick
Taiwan is all that is left of non-Communist China. They retreated to Taiwan after taking extremely heavy losses across the entire mainland. Perhaps if enough small enclaves like Tibet had joined with them back when Mao was first trying to gain support, Red China never would have happened.
9 posted on 03/27/2008 7:26:47 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: CarrotAndStick

When did the Taiwanese fight the Japanese in WWII? Taiwan was part of the Imperial Japanese Empire (1895 thru 1945). The Taiwanese (along with the Manchurians, Koreans and Chinese in Japanese occupied areas) were drafted by Japan to serve as occupation and construction troops for the Imeperial Japanese Army. These non Japanese people were part of the Japanese Empire and had no choice but to serve when they were drafted. Today, China and Taiwan do not have any veterans of any major wars, thus their militaries for all practical purposes is green. Tibetans are unfortunately located in the wrong place (between two rising powers China and India), sparsely populated holding a large region (7 million Tibetans against 1 billion Chinese). The best the Tibetans can do is find the proper time to fight and the proper time to lay low, so their culture will survive until the Han Chinese replace their oppressive/corrupt government with a democratic one. Only then the Tibetan rights and possible independence/autonomy can be addressed. Right now, fighting is going to be awfully tough because the Communist Chinese after the Olympics will severely crush them.


10 posted on 03/27/2008 7:30:45 AM PDT by Fee
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To: Fee

No, the government in Taiwan is what was left of the non-Communist, non-PRC China, who fled there when the Communists under Mao took over. It was these Nationalist Chinese who ruled China when Japan had attacked it.

The current permenant seat at the Security Council which PRC holds, was originally held by Nationalist China- who now rule Taiwan under the name, ‘Republic of China’.


11 posted on 03/27/2008 7:37:24 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: Dixie Yooper

Red China took advantage of Soviet support, and the WW2- Imperial Japan-weakened Nationalist military.

Whether they had banded together or not, Tibet had no chance.


12 posted on 03/27/2008 7:40:57 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: CarrotAndStick

You are referring to the Nationalist Chinese (KMT) forces. Many pro independence Taiwanese do not consider themselves Chinese and view the Nationalist Chineses as outsiders. Any way, the last time the Nationalist fought a full scale war was during the Chinese Civil War (1948-49) and many of the youngest vets are in their 70’s. The Nationalist do not have any combat vets left in their military (neither does the Chicoms). I consider both of their militaries well equipped, but combat inexperience from enlisted up to general.


13 posted on 03/27/2008 7:46:30 AM PDT by Fee
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To: Dixie Yooper
If Tibet had fought for their freedom in 1950, they may have kept their freedom

That's like faulting Luxembourg for not resisting the Nazis.

14 posted on 03/27/2008 7:49:49 AM PDT by dfwgator (11+7+15=3 Heismans)
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To: Fee

Yes, I understand that the ethnic composition of Taiwan is different from that of the P.R.C.


15 posted on 03/27/2008 7:57:59 AM PDT by CarrotAndStick (The articles posted by me needn't necessarily reflect my opinion.)
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To: dfwgator
That's like faulting Luxembourg for not resisting the Nazis

On that same note, there were many war criminals that swung from the gallows after WWII because they were afraid of resisting Hitler during his rise to power.

16 posted on 03/27/2008 7:59:05 AM PDT by Dixie Yooper (Ephesians 6:11)
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To: CarrotAndStick

The ethnic makeup of Taiwan is 98% ethnically Chinese and 2% aborigines. Of course, in a democracy, there will always be some people with different opinions. Some members in the sub-ethnic Chinese group, the Hoklo-speakers, are pushing for Taiwan Independence and dissolution of ROC. They argue for a new Taiwanese identity, although personally, I think their arguments are invalid and silly at times; exp. some argue they really don’t know where their ancestors came from :)


17 posted on 03/27/2008 8:36:41 AM PDT by Fishing-guy
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To: Dixie Yooper
If Tibet had fought for their freedom in 1950, they may have kept their freedom or at least died fighting to keep it. By not fighting at all, they lost their freedom.

In 1950 Tibet had an 8,000 man army in Chamdo and they fought to the last man with 18th century rifles against machine guns. In the Lhasa uprising of 1959 3,000 Tibetan army men, 10,000 Khampas, and 20,000 Buddhist monks fought the communist Chinese troops. By the time the uprising was suppressed in '67 over 87,000 Tibetans had been killed. The CIA armed and trained Tibetan soldiers from 1957 to about 1965 until the State Dept. ended the program in spite of the CIAs assessment that it had been very productive and successful. There have been other instances of armed resistance in Tibet since then.

Since the U.S. abandoned Tibet's armed resistance in 1965 who is going to help them? The Continental Army wouldn't have succeeded in our Revolutionary War if it had not been for assistance from France. They are still obviously willing to give their lives for freedom. Your insinuation that they are only now looking for world attention is false and self-serving.

18 posted on 03/27/2008 4:22:19 PM PDT by TigersEye (A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.)
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To: Fishing-guy

Actually Taiwan is an excellent example why the US should retain the electoral college system versus popular vote system. Taiwn been part of China since 1622. Under late Ming, throughout Qin rule, Taiwan was treated as a peripheral province and suffered benign neglect. The best governors were appointed to the richest and most populated provinces, investments from empire wide taxes were sent to these favored provinces, while Taiwan was a place to send an official if he pissed off his superiors in the Imperial Court. From 1895 to 1945 Imperial Japan ruled Taiwan, though the Chinese in Taiwan were treated as second citizens (like the Koreans), but the Japanese invested in roads, factories and public education. That is why a number of native Taiwanese have pro Japanese attitudes. When Taiwan was returned to the Nationalist Chinese rule after the defeat of Japan in WWII, the Chinese Civil War broke out and the defeated Nationalist Army vacated the mainland to Taiwan in 1949. Facing shortage of money to keep his soldiers paid, Chang Kai Sek seized the property of wealthy Taiwanese families under the pretext that these families supported Japan during World War II when Taiwan was part of Imperial Japan. This act made relations between the established Taiwanese families of Chinese descent and the newly arrived Nationalist Chinese worst and added to the fuel to Taiwanese separatism. Taiwan is really divided between the Chinese descendents of 1622 versus the Chinese descendents of the mainland Nationalists of 1949.


19 posted on 03/28/2008 8:48:14 AM PDT by Fee
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