That quote from Edmund Burke in ‘Thoughts on the Cause of Present Discontents’ has, in general use, come to be delivered as, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.’
But it’s
‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
WHERE ARE THE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS FOR TIBET?
CHINA SAYS YOU DO NOT CARE!
PROTESTS WON’T HURT OLYMPICS
Funny how when the Monks of Myanmar were marching for freedom and being arrested and killed I got tons of petitions to sign in my email box in support.
But let it be Tibetan Monks doing the marching and dying for freedom and where are the human rights organizations emails defending them? I’ve not received even one.
In the next article China is counting on you ignoring the uprising and dying in Tibet and looking at my in box I think that’s a pretty good bet on China’s part. Even Olbermann is ignoring the Monks.
So now I know how much people love the Dalai Lama they can’t be bothered to call for the freedom of Tibet. Where are all the celebrities who claim to love Tibet and the Lama? Sitting on the asses at home that’s where.
FREE TIBET BOYCOTT THE OLYMPICS!
DOWN WITH OPPRESSION!
FREE TIBET!
BUY NOTHING MADE IN CHINA!
LETS FLOOD THE CHINESE EMBASSY WITH EMAIL, FAXES AND PHONE CALLS!
DEMAND FREEDOM FOR TIBET!
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http://www.travelchinaguide.com/embassy/us/losangeles.htm#sections
THE TIME HAS COME FOR TIBET TO BE FREE!
IF YOU LIVE IN ONE OF THESE CITIES GO PROTEST IN FRONT OF IT!
BUY NOTHING MADE IN CHINA!
FREE TIBET!
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Tibetans face security clampdown
By TINI TRAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 19 minutes ago
BEIJING - Hundreds of armed police and soldiers patrolled the streets of Tibet's capital and enforced a strict curfew Sunday following protests against Chinese rule that turned deadly and embarrassed the country ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Lhasa was quiet but tense two days after Tibetans torched buildings and stoned Chinese residents. It was the fiercest challenge to Beijing's rule over the region in nearly two decades, and it drew sympathy protests elsewhere.
Tibet's government-in-exile on Sunday put the death toll from the unrest in Lhasa at 80; Chinese state media has said 10 people died.
Hong Kong Cable TV reported some 200 military vehicles, carrying 40 to 60 armed soldiers each, drove into the city center of Lhasa on Sunday. Footage showed the streets were mostly empty other than the security forces. Messages broadcast on loudspeakers warned residents to "Discern between enemies and friends, maintain order" and "Have a clear stand to oppose violence, maintain stability."
"It is fairly quiet this morning. The police are patrolling the streets," said a man at Lhasa city government offices, while a Lhasa resident who refused to give her name said "the police told us not to leave our homes."
The violence erupted just two weeks before China's Summer Olympic celebrations kick off with the start of the torch relay, which passes through Tibet. China is gambling that its crackdown will not draw an international outcry over human rights violations that could lead to boycotts of the Olympics.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China "to exercise restraint in dealing with these protests," while the State Department issued a travel alert for Americans in the region. Her statement also called for China to release monks and others jailed for protesting.
China's official Xinhua News Agency reported at least 10 civilians were burned to death on Friday. The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan government in India said Sunday that least 80 people have been killed since outbreak of violence — a number a spokesman said had been confirmed through multiple sources who saw the bodies.
Of those killed, 26 alone were killed Saturday next to the Drapchi prison in Lhasa, and five girls were killed in the town's central Tibetan neighborhood, said Tenzin Taklha, the senior aide to the Dalai Lama.
China restricts access to Tibet for foreign media, making it difficult to independently verify the casualties and the scale of protests and suppression.
The latest unrest began Monday on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. Tibet was effectively independent for decades before communist troops entered in 1950.
Initially, the protests were led by Buddhist monks demanding the release of other detained monks. Their demands spiraled to include cries for Tibet's independence and turned violent Friday when police tried to stop a group of protesting monks. Pent-up grievances against Chinese rule came to the fore, as Tibetans directed their anger against Chinese and their shops, hotels and other businesses.
Amid the clampdown that followed, foreign tourists in Lhasa were told to leave, a hotel manager and travel guide said, with the guide adding that some were turned back at the airport.
"There are military blockades blocking off whole portions of the city, and the entire city is basically closed down," said a 23-year-old Canadian student who arrived in Lhasa on Saturday and who was making plans to leave.
Even as Chinese forces appeared to reassert control in Lhasa, sympathy protests had erupted on Saturday in an important Tibetan town 750 miles away in Gansu Province.
Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Buddhist monks and other Tibetans after they marched from the historic Labrang monastery and smashed windows in the county police headquarters in Xiahe, witnesses said.
On Sunday, Gansu provincial Governor Xu Shousheng called the protests "a planned and organized destructive activity" and blamed the "outside Dalai group" for instigating the riots.
Also in recent days, demonstrations by Tibetan exiles and their supporters sprouted up in neighboring Nepal, New York, Switzerland and Australia.
Nearly 2,000 Tibetan exiles held a protest rally Sunday in Dharmsala, India, the headquarters of Tibet's government-in-exile. They waved Tibetan flags, burned Chinese flags, and held posters that said "No killings in Tibet, No Olympics in China."
The Chinese government is hoping a successful Olympics will boost its popularity at home as well as its image abroad. But Beijing's hosting of the Olympics has already attracted scrutiny of China's human rights record and its pollution problems.
So far, international criticism of the crackdown in Tibet has been mild. The U.S. and European Union called for Chinese restraint without any threats of an Olympic boycott or other sanctions.
"What is happening in Tibet and Beijing's responses to it will not affect the games very much unless the issue really gets out of control," said Xu Guoqi, a China-born historian at Kalamazoo College in Michigan.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Saturday he opposed an Olympic boycott over Tibet. "We believe that the boycott doesn't solve anything," Rogge told reporters on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. "On the contrary, it is penalizing innocent athletes and it is stopping the organization from something that definitely is worthwhile organizing."
The details emerging from witness accounts and government statements suggested Beijing was preparing a methodical campaign to deal with the unrest — one that if carefully modulated would minimize bloodshed and avoid wrecking Beijing's grand plans for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.
In Lhasa, law-enforcement agencies issued a notice offering leniency for demonstrators who surrender before the end of Monday and threatening severe punishment for those who do not.
Neighborhood committees went door-to-door handing out the notices, telling locals defiance would be treated as a criminal act and hinting of rewards if they turned protesters in, said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University, who talked with Lhasa residents by phone.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080316/ap_on_re_as/china_tibet
Dalai Lama: World must investigate possible cultural genocide in Tibet
Last update - 11:59 16/03/2008
By Ofri Ilani, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
The Dalai Lama said Sunday that the international community must investigate whether cultural genocide has been taking place in Tibet, two days after violent street protests against Chinese rule during which 100 people were reportedly killed.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader added that China was relying on force to achieve peace.
He said that the international community had the "moral responsibility" to remind China to be a good host for the Olympic Games, but added that China deserved to host the games.
"The Tibet nation is facing serious danger. Whether China admits or not, there is a problem," the Dalai Lama told a news conference at his base of Dharamsala in northern India.
On Saturday, for about a quarter of an hour, a few dozen Tibetan exiles stood in the plaza of the Tel Aviv Cinematheque and sang a lament in memory of some 100 kinsmen who were reportedly killed by Chinese authorities during demonstrations in Tibet on Saturday.
A few brought Buddhist prayer books. Most of the participants, who are attending an agricultural training program in the Arava, have never stepped foot in Tibet. They were born in India, in refugee camps for Tibetans in the north and south of the country. Saturday they came to Tel Aviv for an event organized by the Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People (IFTP) to mark the 49th anniversary of the March 10, 1959 uprising against the Chinese government.
The event was planned a few months ago, but the suppression of the demonstrations in Tibet lent it special significance. For Tibetan student Sunam Yangchen, the anniversary is connected to her family history. In 1958, the Chinese authorities arrested her grandparents and her family was forced to flee to India. "They crossed the border on foot," Yangchen related. "We wander from country to country but we don't forget our culture." Yangchen was born in southern India. She has never been to Tibet but has never given up her dream of returning to her homeland. "Everything I know about Tibet I learned from my parents. I'd like to go back there," she says.
For the past few years Yangchen has worked at Tibetan Buddhist Meditation and Study Center in Bangalore. Now she is training to become an agricultural counselor through the Arava Program. The program, operated in cooperation with IFTP, has trained more than 300 Tibetans so far.
Yangchen says that news about events in Tibet comes from international news outlets. "It is hard to get information from Tibet," notes Lobsang Yeshi, a Tibetan who lives in Tel Aviv with his Israeli wife and was the organizer of the prayer gathering. "Even if you manage to make contact by phone or through the Internet, you usually can only ask general questions, like 'How are you?.' The Chinese Internet police monitor communications," Yeshi said.
"The Olympic Games are the most shameful thing in the world," says Tenzin, another one of the organizers. "China enables genocide in Darfur, defends the oppression in Burma and beats down the Falun Gong," Tenzin says.
The IFTP was founded in 1994 by Israelis who sought to help Tibetan refugees after visiting Tibet and northern India. The organization has about 1,000 members. "As Jews, we feel a need and a duty to help oppressed peoples in other places," says Meira Abulafia, one of IFTP's leaders. "After Israel obtained international support for its independence, the time has came for it to offer support to other oppressed people. The likelihood of [Tibetan] political independence is very small, but we still believe there is a chance for cultural autonomy."
China cracks down on Tibetan protests as at least 100 people killed
Chinese security forces swarmed Tibet's capital Saturday and tourists were ordered out as Beijing gambled that a crackdown on violent protests against Chinese rule will not bring an international boycott of this summer's Olympics.
The tough response by the Chinese authorities came after fierce protests on Friday which contradicted China's claims of stability and tarnished a carefully nurtured image of national harmony as it readies to stage the Olympic Games in August.
Official Tibetan judicial authorities gave protesters until Monday night to turn themselves in and benefit from leniency.
"Criminals who do not surrender themselves by the deadline will be sternly punished according to the law," said a notice on the Tibetan government Web site.
International pressure mounted on Beijing to show restraint. Australia, the United States and Europe urged China to find a peaceful outcome, while Taiwan, which China claims as its own, predictably condemned Beijing for launching a crackdown.
Xinhua news agency said 10 "innocent civilians" had been shot or burned to death in the street clashes in the remote, mountain capital which has been sealed off. The dead included two people killed by shotguns.
Xinhua said 12 police officers had been "gravely injured" and 22 buildings and dozens of vehicles were set on fire.
A source close to the Tibetan government-in-exile, however, questioned the official death toll of 10. He said at least five Tibetan protesters had been shot dead by troops.
The Tibetan government in exile, based in northern India, said there have been 30 confirmed deaths until Saturday, and over 100 unconfirmed deaths."
The riots emerged from a volatile mix of pre-Olympics protests, diplomatic friction over Tibet and local discontent with the harsh ways of the region's Communist Party leadership.
The protests, the worst since 1989 in the disputed region, have thrust China's role as Olympic host and its policy toward Tibet back into the international spotlight.
A rash of angry blog posts appeared after the deaths were confirmed. Hollywood actor Richard Gere, a Buddhist and an activist for Tibetan causes, urged an Olympics boycott.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge opposed a boycott, saying only the athletes would suffer.
Accounts from the remote region were fragmentary and China restricts access for foreign media, making it difficult to independently verify the casualties and the scale of the protests and suppression.
Yet the details emerging from witness accounts and government statements suggested Beijing was preparing a methodical campaign - one that if carefully modulated would minimize bloodshed and avoid wrecking Beijing's grand plans for the Olympics in August.
Signs of violence persisted Saturday. Several witnesses reported hearing occasional sounds of gunfire. One Westerner who went to a rooftop in Lhasa's old city said he saw troops with automatic rifles moving through the streets firing, though did not see anyone shot.
Even as Chinese forces appeared to reassert control in Lhasa, a second day of sympathy protests erupted in an important Tibetan town 1,200 kilometers away. Police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of Buddhist monks and other Tibetans after they marched from the historic Labrang monastery and smashed windows in the county police headquarters in Xiahe, witnesses said.
The China-installed governor of Tibet, besieged by reporters as he entered a legislative meeting in Beijing, vowed to deal harshly with the protesters in Lhasa, but said no shots had been fired and promised that calm will be restored very soon.
"Beating, smashing, looting and burning - we absolutely condemn this sort of behavior," said Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan.
He blamed the protests on followers of the Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and is still Tibet's widely revered spiritual leader.
From Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama appealed to China not to use force. He said he was deeply concerned and urged Tibetans not to resort to violence.
Preparing the Chinese public for tough measures, state-run television on the evening newscast showed footage of red-robed monks battering bus signs and Tibetans in street clothes hurling rocks and smashing shop windows as smoke billowed across Lhasa.
"The plot by an extremely small number of people to damage Tibet's stability and harmony is unpopular and doomed to failure," a narrator said as the footage played.
Chinese newspapers and Internet sites, all state-controlled, ran no reports on the violence except a brief Xinhua statement vowing to reassert order - a further sign the government was managing public expectations.
Foreign tourists in Lhasa were told to leave, a hotel manager and travel guide said, with the guide adding that some were turned back at the airport.
Tibet's latest unrest began Monday, the anniversary of the 1959 uprising, with protests by Buddhist monks demanding the release of other detained monks. Sporadic, largely peaceful protests and spiraling demands - including cries for Tibet's independence - continued throughout the week until Friday when police tried to stop a group of protesting monks.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/964681.html
SHAME ON INDIA! LEAVE TIBETAN MARCHERS ALONE!
DEMAND INDIA STAY OUT OF THE OPPRESSION OF TIBET!
BOYCOTT INDIA TOO!
www.indianembassy.org
2107 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington, DC 20008
(202) 939-7000
80 Tibetans Arrested in India
Phayul[Friday, March 14, 2008 22:27] New Delhi, March 14 - Around 80 Tibetans have been arrested by police this evening. The Tibetans were protesting at the Chinese Embassy in the Indian capital against the massive crackdown by Chinese armed forces in Tibet's capital Lhasa and Labrang, Amdo.
Reports of Chinese police killing at least 2 Tibetans have enraged the Tibetan community in exile who have started carrying out activities in their localities.
The Tibetans in Dharamsala staged a peaceful candle light vigil today to show solidarity to the Tibetans in Tibet. At the time of filing this report, Tibetans in New York are carrying out a protest demonstration outside the Chinese Embassy to condemn the killing of innocent Tibetans by armed Chinese police.
Meanwhile, the 100 core marchers who had left Dharamsala for Tibet have been detained in Jwalamukhi near Kangra.
The women activists of Tibetan Youth Congress who were arrested earlier are sitting on hunger strike in jail.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=19639&t=1&c=1
Tibet: Guns shots fired as thousands of Tibetans hold fresh protest in Amdo Labrang
Labrang (Amdo), March 14: In yet another fresh protest incident in Tibet, thousands of Tibetan monks and laypeople staged demonstration in the streets of Sangchu County, Kanlho "Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture" ("TAP"), Gansu Province, accoriding to a reliable source.
Phayul.com has obtained set of pictures taken through mobile phone that show the intensity of the demonstration in Labrang.
Around 50 monks from the Labrang Tashikyil Monastery began staging demonstration carrying the banned Tibetan national flag and shouting “Tibet Independence” slogans around 2:00pm today.
Some 600 more monks from the same monastery later joined the demonstration.
The number later swelled up to few thousands when general public continued to join the procession of monks and the protest became more intensive.
The source said police started to fire live ammunitions in the air and started to beat the demonstrators when the procession reached the Sangchu County Public Security Bureau headquarter.
“Public security and armed police began firing shots later as it (protest) became very intensive. Whether it caused casualties is unclear,” the source said.
“Gradually the number increased and thousands of Tibetans gathered around in the main market. At the police station they shouted more loudly out of control, then the Chinese police started shooting among the protesters, as a result the mass scattered rapidly due to gunfire,” the source said.
The situation in Amdo is said to be extremely tense as unrest continues across Tibet. The public demonstration in Labrang has not entirely ceased at the time of filing this report.
BOYCOTT CHINA!
Monasteries under lockdown after three days of protest: fears of severe reprisals in Lhasa
Conditions are said to be increasingly tense within the three major monasteries in Lhasa, which are under lockdown and surrounded by troops following peaceful demonstrations over the last three days by hundreds of monks from Drepung, Sera and Ganden monasteries on the outskirts of the capital. Ganden monks demonstrated yesterday, marking the third day in a series of protests unprecedented in recent years that have now rippled through the Lhasa area, while others are reported in at least two remote rural monasteries and towns in areas of central and eastern Tibet.
All three monasteries are closed off to tourists according to several tourism operators. Two Drepung monks are said by Radio Free Asia to be in serious condition after stabbing themselves in a possible attempt to commit suicide, while monks at Sera are refusing to attend classes and are on hunger strike in a bold act of protest despite the crackdown at the monastery.
The number of Tibetans detained as a result of the protests could not be confirmed today. Although the initial response on the ground appears to have been more restrained than expected, there are indications that the authorities have begun a process of investigation in monasteries that could lead to detention and torture in a standard official pattern of reprisals followed by political re-education. There is an intensified atmosphere of fear and tension in Tibet's capital.
In a familiar official response, the Chinese authorities blamed the Dalai Lama for the protests that began on Monday, the 49th anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang called the protests "a deliberate political plot of the Dalai Lama group to cause social unrest, separate Tibet from China, and wreck the stable, harmonious, and normal life of the Tibetan people." (Xinhua, March 13).
A Tibetan scholar with connections in Lhasa told ICT: "Over the past few years the Chinese authorities have taken a heavy-handed approach with its policies on religion and culture. Combined with the economic marginalization so many Tibetans face, it seems that many people in Lhasa and other areas have reached almost a breaking point. Now there are real fears for how the authorities will respond. The typical reaction is what is happening now - the gathering of information, leading to reprisals."
Drepung monks in suicide attempt?
The two Drepung monks who stabbed themselves in the chest, hands, and wrists in an apparent suicide bid were identified by Radio Free Asia's Tibetan service as Kalsang and Damchoe, both originally from Kirti monastery in Sichuan province. According to RFA, the two monks are in critical condition and are not expected to survive. They refused to move from the monastery to be hospitalized and are in Drepung's clinic.
More than 100 Drepung monks held a demonstration on Monday, March 10, seeking the release of Drepung monks apparently detained following an attempt by monks to mark a major award for the Dalai Lama, the Congressional Gold Medal, last October. Drepung monks led the first in a wave of protests that began in October, 1987 and culminated in the imposition of martial law in Lhasa in March, 1989, presided over by the then Tibet Autonomous Region Party Secretary, Hu Jintao, now China's top leader. In the late 1980s, too, protests rippled through Lhasa's major three monasteries and the broader population.
In a show of defiance unprecedented in recent years, over the past two days, monks at Sera monastery are observing a hunger strike, and requesting the removal of paramilitary People's Armed Police forces from the monastery compound, according to Radio Free Asia and other sources. Several hundred Sera monks were dispersed by tear-gas on Tuesday (March 11) after they demonstrated and shouted slogans calling for freedom.
The Sera monks are also calling for the release of monks detained during a protest in the Jokhang on March 10. Radio Free Asia has identified 11 of the monks who participated in this protest as Lobsang Ngodrub, Lobsang Sherab, Lodroe, Sonam Lodroe, Lobsang, Tsultrim Palden, Geleg, Pema Karwang, Zoepa, Thubdron, and Phurdan. The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Dharamsala, India, reported that four further monks were in the group and identified them as a reincarnate lama, Tulku Tenpa Rigsang, Gelek Pel, Samten and Thubwang. Other reports suggest that two laypeople were also in the group, possibly both women.
The day after the protest, on Tuesday (11 March), Jampa Phuntsog, chair of the Tibet Autonomous Region, denied that any Tibetans were in custody as a result of the protests in response to a query from journalists in Beijing. But the Sera monks' actions indicate that this group of monks may still be in custody. It is not known whether any other monks are in custody due to restrictions on information flow which have led to fear over contact with the outside world.
Protests during visit of patriotic education team in Qinghai
Reports have emerged over the past two days of a protest at remote Ditsa monastery in Bayan (Chinese: Hualong) county in Haidong prefecture, Qinghai, which, significantly, took place during the visit of a 'patriotic education' work team. The protest was said to involve many if not most of the monks at the monastery and there was no violent retaliation, according to reports. This was possibly because officials were outnumbered and without access to immediate support. Troops have now surrounded the monastery and according to at least one reliable report investigations by the authorities have begun, generally the precursor to the official approach of reprisals followed by a period of political re-education.
A further report indicated that in one village near Lhasa local officials were instructed to check all registration permits (hukous) with the objective of checking who has been away for a long time. A source told ICT that the intention appeared to be to establish if local people had traveled to India recently. There is a particular sensitivity towards Tibetans who have escaped into exile and returned, as the authorities perceive them to have fallen under the influence of the 'separatist' 'Dalai clique'. Following the protests, it is possible that border security may be tightened in an attempt to block the flow of information about protests to the outside world, through Tibetans escaping into exile. The Chinese authorities impose severe penalties on Tibetans who are caught attempting to pass on news to people outside Tibet.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=19595&t=1&c=1
MONKS WILLING TO DIE FOR FREEDOM AND YOU CAN’T EVEN MAKE A CALL TO THE CHINESE EMBASSY?
Tibetan Monks in Critical Condition After Attempted Suicide, as Protests Mount
KATHMANDU—Two Tibetan Buddhist monks are in critical condition after stabbing their wrists and chests amid mounting anti-Chinese protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to authoritative sources in the region.
Two monks from Drepung monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa attempted suicide Thursday and were in critical condition at the monastery clinic, the sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.
The two monks were identified as Kalsang and Damchoe, both originally from Kirti monastery in Sichuan province and now resident at Drepung monastery. Sources said the men had stabbed themselves in the chest, hands, and wrists. Both refused to be moved to hospital but were taken instead to the monastery clinic, the sources said.
"There are many other monks who hurt themselves in desperation, and protests are going on inside the monastery as of March 12 and 13," one source said. Another source described the two monks' condition as critical and said they were not expected to survive.
Also Thursday, the Chinese authorities squarely blamed the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, for instigating “successive trouble by some monks in Lhasa” and voiced determination to oppose them according to Chinese law.
Monks at another major Lhasa monastery have meanwhile launched a hunger strike aimed at pressuring the Chinese authorities, as protests against China's heavy-handed presence in the region spread to other Tibetan Buddhist convents and monasteries, according to sources who declined to be identified.
“The monks in Sera monastery are observing a hunger strike inside the premises of Sera," one source said. "They vowed not to eat and sleep unless their demands are met." The monks are demanding the withdrawal of paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) forces from the monastery compound and the release of monks detained during an earlier protest on March 10, the source said.
China blames Dalai Lama for spreading protests
Other sources, all of whom declined to be identified, reported additional protests at Reting monastery, north of Lhasa, and at Ganden monastery. Authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region have also warned Tibetans employed as civil servants to stay away from monasteries and convents.
On Tuesday, armed Chinese police fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd of several hundred protesting monks near Lhasa. The protests began March 10 when hundreds of monks staged a rare demonstration on the 49th anniversary of a 1959 uprising crushed by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The Dalai Lama, now 72, subsequently fled into exile in northern India.
“There were probably a couple of thousand armed police, PSB personnel, wearing different uniforms. Police fired tear-gas into the crowd,” one witness told RFA’s Tibetan service. PSB denotes the China’s Public Security Bureau.
Lhasa neighborhood committees have mobilized to inspect every household in predominantly Tibetan areas of the city, searching for unregistered monks or nuns sheltering illicitly in private homes, sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.
Monks in two more monasteries in Qinghai province—Lutsang monastery in Mangra (in Chinese, Guinan) county, and Ditsa monastery in Bayan (in Chinese, Hualong) county—also staged protests Monday, sources said. Armed police surrounded Ditsa monastery during the protest but neither intervened nor detained anyone there, the sources said.
Tensions have been escalating in recent years in traditionally Tibetan areas of what is now western China, with Chinese authorities taking a tougher line against what they regard as ethnic “splittism,” or resistance to Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama is regarded by China as a dangerous figure seeking independence for his homeland, although he says he wants only autonomy and for Chinese repression of Tibetans to end.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang meanwhile called the protests “a deliberate political plot of the Dalai Lama group to cause social unrest, separate Tibet from China, and wreck the stable, harmonious, and normal life of the Tibetan people,” according to China's official news agency, Xinhua.
“The Chinese government is determined to safeguard the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the vast majority of the Tibetan people are determined to safeguard national unity and solidarity,” Xinhua quoted him as saying. "We are resolutely opposed to any plots attempting to separate Tibet from China. Relevant Chinese departments will handle the issue properly and strictly in accordance with law.”
In its dispatch, Xinhua said: "It is the common wish of all nationalities in Tibet to safeguard national unity, solidarity, and the harmonious society, Qin said, noting that the plots of the Dalai Lama group are doomed to failure.”
Original reporting in Uke, Amdo, and Kham for RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=19593&t=1&c=1
At least seven shot dead in demonstration in Ngaba County
TCHRD[Sunday, March 16, 2008 15:50] According to the latest confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), at least seven people were known to have been shot dead including monks of Ngaba Kirti Monastery by the People's Armed Police (PAP) during the peaceful demonstration by thousands of people in Ngaba County (Ch: Aba) this afternoon. Hundreds of people are also known to have been injured in the incident following PAP crackdown on the protestors. The demonstration is still going on when the Centre received the information from the venue of demonstration.
The demonstration started around 11.30 AM (Beijing Time), when thousands of Tibetan monks of Amdo Ngaba Kirti Monastery, in Ngaba County (Ch: Aba), Ngaba "Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture" ("TAP") Sichuan Province, gathered for a prayer session this morning. Shortly after the end of morning prayer session, thousands of monks erupted into spontaneous protest by raising slogans calling for "Tibet independence", "return of the Dalai Lama" and "freedom for Tibet". The demonstration was later joined by common citizens of Ngaba County total numbering thousands of people who were heading towards Ngaba County government headquarters.
TCHRD condemns in strongest terms the Chinese security agencies' use of brute force on the peaceful Tibetan demonstrators. The Centre will update on the situation as and when more information surfaces from the area.
CALL THE UN NO TO CHINA UNTIL TIBET IS FREE!
DEMAND THE UN UPHOLD THEIR OWN HUMAN RIGHTS DECLARATION!
READ IT!
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html
Independent UN investigation needed: Amnesty International
Amnesty International[Sunday, March 16, 2008 15:14] Press Release
"The Chinese authorities should allow an independent UN investigation into the events of the last week in Tibet, particularly in the light of the sealing off of the region in recent days and the long-term restrictions on human rights monitoring there," said Amnesty International today. "The situation also demands attention by the Human Rights Council at its current session."
The organization calls on the Chinese authorities to exercise restraint in responding to continuing protests, to fully account for all detainees in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas during the crackdown on protests over the last week, and to release those detained for peacefully expressing their views and exercising their freedom of expression, association and assembly.
"The Chinese authorities also need to address the underlying grievances of the Tibetan people and the long-term policies that have generated such resentment," said Catherine Baber, Director of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Amnesty International. Long-term grievances surfacing this week include perceived exclusion from the benefits of economic development, restrictions on religious practice and the weakening of Tibetan culture and ethnic identity through government policies.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Protests started last Monday when around 400 monks began a march from Drepung Monastery heading into central Lhasa, demanding the easing of a government-imposed campaign which forces monks to write denunciations of the Dalai Lama and subjects them to government political propaganda. Over 50 of them were arrested on the way to the city. Subsequent protests began in other monasteries in support of those detained, leading to more general unrest throughout Lhasa and in other parts of Tibet in which lay people joined in. Protests among Tibetans in the neighbouring provinces of Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan have also been reported.
Police and military forces were reported to have fired teargas into crowds, beaten protestors and fired live ammunition in an attempt to disperse them. On Friday protests in Lhasa turned violent, with some protestors setting fire to a police car, and specifically targeting and setting fire to Chinese-owned businesses. Official Chinese sources reported ten dead, largely businesspeople in Lhasa. There are unconfirmed reports of many more casualties.
A curfew is reported to be in place throughout the whole city, and all shops are closed. Entry into the city has been blocked off through check-points around the whole city, armoured vehicles and contingents from the People’s Armed Police are present throughout Lhasa. Reports suggest that scattered protests continued in parts of the city today.
Police and military forces have surrounded three major monasteries in the Lhasa area, confining monks inside and beating those who have attempted to leave. Monks from Sera monastery are reported to have started a hunger strike demanding the withdrawal of military forces from their monastery.
Peaceful protests by Tibetans have also occurred this week in India and Nepal. In India protestors intending to march to the Chinese border were subjected to a restraining order and detained. In Nepal, protests in Kathmandu were violently dispersed and demonstrators who were briefly detained reported being beaten and otherwise ill-treated.
http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=19697&t=1&c=1
TIBET IS NOT EVEN MENTIONED IN THE DAILY BRIEFING FROM THE UN!
THE UN IS NOTHING!
Spokesperson's Noon Briefing
http://www.un.org/News/briefings/docs//2008/db080314.doc.htm
PROTEST AT THE UN IN NYC!
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE TO MEET IN NEW YORK 17 MARCH – 4 APRIL
Wow talk about timing. Make them talk about Tibet! Tibet is not even on their agenda!
IT’S NOW OR NEVER PEOPLE!
FLOOD THESE NATIONS WITH PHONE CALLS AND FAXES!
The Human Rights Committee is composed of 18 independent experts who are persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights.
Membership of Committee
The States parties to the Covenant elect the Committee’s 18 expert members who serve in their individual capacity for four-year terms. Article 28 of the Covenant requires that “they shall be persons of high moral character and recognized competence in the field of human rights”. They are: Abdelfattah Amor (Tunisia); Yuji Iwasawa (Japan); Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (India); Jose Luis Sanchez Cerro (Peru), Christine Chanet (France); Maurice Glèlè-Ahanhanzo (Benin); Edwin Johnson Lopez (Ecuador); Walter Kälin (Switzerland); Ahmed Tawfik Khalil (Egypt); Rajsoomer Lallah (Mauritius); Michael O’Flaherty (Ireland); Elisabeth Palm (Sweden); Rafael Rivas Posada (Colombia); Sir Nigel Rodley (United Kingdom); Ivan Shearer (Australia);Zonke Zanele Majodina (South Africa); Ruth Wedgwood (United States); and Iulia Antoanella Motoc (Romania).
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights welcomes your queries. However, we advise you to follow the guidelines set out below. Otherwise it may not be possible to respond to your queries.
General inquiries:
Telephone: +41 22 917 90 00
Email: InfoDesk@ohchr.org
THIS TOOK SOME GOOGLING TO FIND. DEMAND to speak to someone about Tibet. The Human Rights committee is meeting Monday till April 4th!
United Nations
Telephone Directory Services
To obtain telephone numbers for staff members of the UN Secretariat in New York or of specific offices, please call: (212) 963-1234.
Your pictures: Tibetans protest
Check out the pictures
Mobile pictures show Buddhist monks protests are also growing in other areas.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7296502.stm
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