In my links of the day I try to find the links under the wire, articles all the top blogs miss. I'm not afraid to go to Al Jazeera, Kurd Media or to the Pakistan student movement page to bring the real daily news to you.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Links of the Day TIBET NEEDS YOU NOW! China Threatens Dalai Lama with Arrest!


What a night! Thunderstorms, wind and rain all night long. If this storms heading east to you look out. And the weather channel is telling me we have more coming. We’ve already had so much rain the ground is mushy and we may get 3 to 5 more inches.

Well the ducks are happy.

Some of you know I am on dial-up so if there is lightning and thunder I stay off line. I already lost one monitor to lightning ( yes I had a fancy guaranteed surge protector ). If you like me are stuck with dial up my I recommend www.indylink.org I’m happy with IndyLink and I’ve had all the dial up services.


TIBET AND HER PEOPLE NEED US NOW!


I hope everyone has looked at my Sunday blog, we need to put more pressure on China about Tibet. I posted phone numbers and email links of the UN and US Chinese Embassies.

Links of the Day 3/16/2008 Hey You Do Something! Get OFF the Couch!


UN - HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE TO MEET IN NEW YORK 17 MARCH – 4 APRIL

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.

JUST PRESS ZERO THEN ASK FOR THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE - BE POLITE ask WHEN the committee is going to issue a statement!


None of the news is good today about Tibet. Violence by China against the protestors continues as 1000’s are beaten and arrested. Hundreds are DEAD! And our MSM still continues the blackout and refuses to talk about what’s happening. Refusing because they would have to condemn China.

Even talk radio is ignoring what’s happening in Tibet no one mentioned it yesterday on AAR. Why is Myanmar important enough to talk about but not Tibet?

As I’m writing this blog CNN finally is reporting on Tibet-they showed dozens of bodies on the ground and report on seeing 1000’s of soldiers heading north.

I know there is a lot of news out there today but like Sunday today is all about Tibet.

If we do not push for the freedom of Tibet now, WHEN if not now?


Dalai Lama responds to Beijing


MUST SEE!

[BBC] Dalai Lama interview on Tibet protests 2008.03.16

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObCigAg-Tjk


Tibet Protests Grow -


About this video

March 17 2008
Violence spilled over from Tibet into neighbouring provinces today as Tibetan protesters defied a Chinese government crackdown while the Dalai Lama warned that the area faced "cultural genocide" and appealed to the world for help.

Supporters of the Dalai Lama said 80 people were killed during the protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with at least 72 others injured. It was the latest negative publicity for China ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Today Buddhist monks clashed with armed police in Sichuan province after the monks staged a protest, said a witness in Aba county who refused to give his name. He said one policeman had been killed and three or four police vans had been set on fire.

Protests were reported in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces. All have Tibetan populations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9CBLCGjiFU


Bad news for Beijing: Japan Coverage Tibet Protest

China's severe repression of rights in Tibet inevitably led to the recent violence.

"It shows the level of frustration that was building up. They seem to have reached breaking point against the policies that the Chinese have used in Tibet,"
Tibetan protests against Chinese rule have spread to another part of China, after days of demonstrations and violence in Tibet's main city, Lhasa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQWexgesyJo


Day 4 Tibet Protests NYC: March 16, 2008


Day 4 of NYC Tibet Protests at Chinese Consulate

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5cKp0SM6sg



MARCH 16TH NYC SOLIDARITY PROTEST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVuf8nivILM&feature=related



There are many more video’s at YouTube I posted the most recent ones.

Times Online has several good pictures

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=3555805&&offset=0&&sectionName=World&randnum=1205642850520




Dalai Lama threatens to resign over Tibet violence


Chinese premier blames Dalai Lama for unrest (Video)

The Dalai Lama today threatened to resign if the violence in Tibet increases, and denied accusations by the Chinese premier that he was orchestrating the unrest.

"If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign," Tibet's exiled spiritual leader told a news conference at his base in Dharamsala, northern India.

His comments came after the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, blamed him for the unrest, which he said was designed to wreck the Olympics.

The Chinese have tried to portray the protesters as a violent mob.

Wen defended the treatment of demonstrators in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, who he said "wanted to incite the sabotage of the Olympic Games in order to achieve their unspeakable goal".

"There is plenty of evidence proving this incident was organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Wen told a news conference, according to Reuters.

"This has all the more revealed [that] the consistent claims by the Dalai clique that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue are nothing but lies."

Yesterday, the Dalai Lama accused the Chinese of "cultural genocide" against Tibet. But to the frustration of some of his followers, his pacifism is so absolute that he considers even economic sanctions against China as illegitimate.

He has also refused to call for a boycott of the Olympics

.

Today he said there was no evidence that he had organised the protests.

"Investigate thoroughly. Check our various offices. They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything," he said.

His resignation threat was later clarified by one of his senior aides.

"If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence he would have to resign because he is completely committed to non-violence," Tenzin Takhla said.

The Dalai Lama has also signalled that he could abandon his call for greater autonomy for Tibet, and campaign instead for complete independence, if the majority of his followers supported that option in a referendum.

The government-in-exile's information ministry today told Indian journalists that the Buddhist monk had taken account of the feeling that "his people" wanted to re-examine the possibility of independence after the protests in Tibet.

Television channels reported that Thubten Samphel, secretary to the Tibetan government-in-exile's department of information and international relations, had said that "if the majority wants independence, His Holiness is ready to accept it".

In a 1997 referendum, almost two-thirds of exiled Tibetans backed the Dalai Lama's "middle way", a non-violent struggle for greater autonomy within China. Samphel said that another poll was an "option".

Many Tibetan groups, led by a new generation of younger leaders, have criticised the Dalai Lama's stance and advocated a harder line towards the Chinese.

The recent protests, led by monks, began peacefully on March 10, the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. But they grew increasingly violent, culminating last Friday in widespread street violence. Chinese officials have said 16 people were killed, but the Tibetan government-in-exile said 80 people died.

Thousand of paramilitary police have been massing in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas as part of a crackdown against the unrest.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/18/tibet.china3


China and Dalai Lama trade barbs over Tibetan riots


Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:32am EDT

By Chris Buckley and Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - China accused the Dalai Lama on Tuesday of orchestrating Tibetan riots to wreck Beijing's Olympic Games, but the exiled spiritual leader denied the charge and vowed to stand down if the violence spiraled out of control.

The Tibetan government-in-exile said from the Dalai Lama's base in the Indian Himalayan foothills that it now believed 99 people had died in clashes between Chinese authorities and Tibetan over the past week, including 19 on Tuesday alone.

Premier Wen Jiabao defended the security crackdown on Lhasa, capital of the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region, and on neighboring Chinese provinces where copycat rioting by Tibetans erupted over the weekend.

"There is ample fact and plenty of evidence proving this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique," Wen told a news conference in Beijing.

"This has all the more revealed the consistent claims by the Dalai clique that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue are nothing but lies."

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman later went as far as saying that the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, should face trial.

The Dalai Lama denied the charges laid against him and said he would resign as Tibetan leader if the violence got out of hand.

"If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign," the Nobel peace laureate told a news conference in Dharamsala, northern India.

Tenzin Taklha, a spokesman for the Dalai Lama, said the rioting started with one or two incidents. "Because of technology, because of word of mouth, word quickly spread," he said. "This was very spontaneous."

The Dalai Lama consistently says he is not seeking independence for Tibet and instead wants autonomy within China, which sent troops into the region in 1950.

"NO CALLS FOR BOYCOTT"

Several days of monk-led anti-China protests in Lhasa, the biggest in almost two decades, turned ugly last Friday, weighing uncomfortably on the Communist leadership anxious to polish its image in the build-up to the Olympic Games.

An exiled Tibetan rights group said on Tuesday that 30 Tibetan protesters were arrested after staging a demonstration near Lhasa.

A dozen Buddhist monks from the Dinka Monastery in Duilong Deqing County (Toelung Dechen in Tibetan) near Lhasa, held the protest on Monday evening and were joined by local lay residents, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on its Web site (www.tchrd.org), citing "numerous sources and witnesses".

Reuters was unable to immediately confirm the report. Foreign media are barred from traveling to Tibet without permission.

Chinese authorities have said that security forces exercised restraint in response to the Lhasa burning and looting, using only non-lethal weapons, and only 13 "innocent civilians" died.

Wen said the protesters "wanted to incite the sabotage of the Olympic Games in order to achieve their unspeakable goal".

Western nations have called on Beijing to exercise restraint, but International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge told Reuters in Trinidad on Monday that there had been "absolutely no calls" from governments for a Beijing Games boycott.

In Taiwan, which China considers its own, presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou of the opposition Nationalists, who have traditionally favored better ties with China, said on Tuesday he would consider an Olympic boycott if elected on Saturday.

"If the Chinese Communists continue to suppress the Tibetan people and the situation in Tibet continues to worsen and if I am elected president, I would not rule out not sending a team to the 2008 Beijing Olympics," Ma told reporters.

Foreign policy analyst Tony Kevin at the Australian National University said the muted international reaction to the crackdown was expected, given China's economic and strategic importance.

"China ... is subjected to different standards of human rights than less important countries," he told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim and Guo Shipeng in Beijing and Jonathan Allen in Dharamsala; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK26733920080318?sp=true


China spokesman proposes Dalai Lama go on trial


Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:21am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Chinese government spokesman on Tuesday proposed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, go on trial after rioting in the Himalayan region which may have killed dozens.

Premier Wen Jiabao earlier accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the riots and said his followers were trying to "incite sabotage" of Beijing's August Olympic Games.

The Dalai Lama had called for an investigation into a Chinese crackdown on the protests and whether it was deliberate "cultural genocide".

Asked to comment, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "In fact, what the international community should concern itself with and should ask about is precisely what role and function he played in this serious incident of criminal violence involving fighting, smashing, looting and arson.

"The one who should be tried and investigated is the Dalai Lama himself," Qin said.

Asked to clarify, the spokesman added: "I feel at least he should be put under moral trial."

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie and Sanjeev Miglani)

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSPEK31583520080318


See the young Tibetans have had enough of China’s repressive rule!! Lets join them and make those phone calls to the UN Human Rights Committee that is meeting NOW till April 4th!


MAKE THE CALL TO THE UN!


Younger generation rejects non-violent tradition


Violent protests in Tibet have emphasised the growing divide within the exiled community in how to win the propaganda war with China. The spiritual leader of the Tibetans, the Dalai Lama, abjures all violence and considers even hunger strikes and economic sanctions as illegitimate means of political protest.

Many younger Tibetans, versed in modern forms of political campaigning, appear to be rejecting the passivity required by their leadership. They have been emboldened by video footage and photographs showing fellow Tibetans revolting against Chinese "occupiers".

Some have even criticised the Dalai Lama publicly. Tsewang Rigzin, the president of the pro-independence Tibetan Youth Congress, rebuked him for refusing to call for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics, adding that the protests in Tibet should continue.

"The Chinese have taken the Olympic torch through Tibet, they want to use the games to show Tibet is part of China," said Rigzin, 37, who was educated in the US. "It is unacceptable. The Olympics should be boycotted. I don't know why the Dalai Lama says we should accept the games."

Among the Dalai Lama's own advisers there is an acknowledgment that the younger generation are frustrated with the leadership's "middle-way" policy, a non-violent campaign for autonomy within China, which has seen six rounds of talks but few concessions from the Chinese.

According to regional observers, there has been a shift in the methods employed by Tibetan groups abroad. Protests have been increasingly reinforced by high-profile endorsements.

On his visit to India in 2006, the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, was taken aback when he was asked by LK Advani, the leader of India's opposition, to let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet.

"We saw it again when Björk shouted 'Free Tibet' in her concert in Shanghai a few weeks ago," said Phunchok Stobdan, an expert in Tibet at New Delhi's Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. "These things are choreographed. You need someone to suggest it and someone to accept it needs to be done."

The protests in Tibet may not have been engineered, but there were "organised elements ready for them", he said. "I was in a meeting in Taipei organised by the Taiwanese authorities five months ago and I saw Tibetans talking in groups about what would happen if there was a 'happening' and how to respond. It seemed clear to me they were ready for it."

Others, however, said there was little evidence to suggest that the protests in Tibet were organised. Claude Arpi, an India-based expert on Tibet, said that it was an "act of desperation".

He added that the Dalai Lama was growing old and reincarnations - finding a successor - have often been tumultuous.

"There is also the Han Chinese influx into Tibet," said Arpi. "Four million come every year thanks to the new railway. Even if 5% or 10% stay the Tibetans will be swamped in a few years. This is their last chance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar/18/tibet.china2


China claims restraint! Well go to the link of this story to see the “Screaming Woman” picture.


Tibet protests intensify


2008/03/18

AT LEAST eight people were killed when police opened fire after a protest by monks in southwest China at the weekend, three activist groups said.

The latest incident took place on Sunday in Ngawa town in Sichuan province – which borders Tibet and has a large ethnic Tibetan population.

The monks and some laity were protesting against Chinese rule in their Himalayan homeland, the campaign groups said. The International Campaign for Tibet said one of the victims was a 15-year-old student. It further stated that more than a thousand monks had joined the protest at the Kirti monastery.

The London-based Free Tibet Campaign and the Tibetan Campaign for Human Rights and Democracy, in India, said at least eight dead bodies were brought into the monastery.

The protest was one of many that have broken out across China in the past week against Chinese rule in Tibet. These occurred on the anniversary of a 1959 uprising that led to the Buddhist spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fleeing into exile.

On Friday a protest in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, descended into violence which resulted in the deaths of at least 13 people after shops and markets were set on fire.

According to Tibet’s government-in-exile, a total of 80 people have been killed so far in the ongoing protest action.

In neighbouring Nepal, dozens of Tibetan protestors were arrested yesterday by police following clashes during anti-China demonstrations in the capital, Kathmandu.

The clashes erupted when Tibetan demonstrators, numbering about 400, tried to picket the UN offices in Kathmandu.

Police made baton charges and fired tear gas to disperse the Tibetan demonstrators gathered outside the UN offices.

“We will continue our protests in Nepal,” said Thupden Tenzing Zamphel, the leader of the Nepal-Tibetan Volunteer Youth Forum.

“We will not stop our protest in the face of police action.”

According to Zamphel, few protesters were injured during the clashes, but he said he did not know the exact figures.

“A few people sustained head injuries, while others have injuries elsewhere on the body due to the police action,” Zamphel said.

He also said the police had detained between 50 to 60 of the demonstrators who had gone to picket the UN offices.

In the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala, the seat of Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, five Tibetan non-governmental organisations condemned the “violent crackdown” by Chinese authorities.

“We fear the worst for our Tibetan brothers and sisters as the Chinese authorities lock down Lhasa and deploy armed police and troops across the country,” said Ngawang Woebar, president of GuChuSum Ex-Political Prisoners’ Movement of Tibet. — Sapa-DPA

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=183911


Hundreds dead in Tibet unrest: parliament-in-exile

Hundreds of Tibetans have died in unrest in Lhasa and elsewhere in the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region, the India-based Tibetan parliament-in-exile said in a statement Monday.

"The massive demonstrations that started from March 10 in the capital city of Lhasa and other regions of Tibet, resulting (in the) death of hundreds of Tibetans, and subsequent use of force... needs to be brought to the attention of the United Nations and the international community," the statement said.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080317090321.tp9mvvpd&show_article=1


CHRONOLOGY-One week of Tibet protests around the world


Tue Mar 18, 2008 2:11am EDT

March 18 (Reuters) - Tibet's largest anti-China protests in almost two decades broke out on March 10, sparking riots in Lhasa, demonstrations in nearby ethnic Tibetan provinces, and daily pro-Tibet protests around the world.

Here is a timeline of the largest and most sustained protests Tibet has seen since Beijing crushed pro-independence demonstrations in 1989.

* Monday, March 10: Five-hundred monks from the Drepung monastery defy Chinese authorities to march into Tibet capital, Lhasa, to mark the 49th anniversary of a quashed rebellion against communist rule. Monks from Lhasa-area Sera and Gamden monasteries also protest.

* March 12: Thousands of Chinese security personnel fire tear gas to try to disperse more than 600 monks from the Sera monastery taking part in another day of street protests.

* March 14: About 300-400 residents and monks take to the streets in Lhasa. Violence sees shops and cars set on fire. Chinese authorities seal off Drepung, Sera and Gamden monasteries. China says 10 people killed in the unrest in Lhasa, and that it was masterminded by the Dalai Lama. A spokesman for the Dalai Lama rejects the latter claim as baseless.

* March 15: Chinese authorities say Lhasa rioters will gain "leniency" if they give themselves up by midnight on Monday. Tibet's top government official, Qiangba Pingcog, denies Lhasa is under martial law on sidelines of government meeting in Beijing. Protesters in Sydney remove the Chinese flag at China's consulate building and try to raise a Tibetan flag.

* March 16: Armed police patrol streets of Lhasa. China suspends foreign travel permits to Tibet. Protests spread to ethnic Tibetan areas in Sichuan and Gansu provinces. Tibetans hurl petrol bombs and set a police station and market on fire in Sichuan's Aba region. In Gansu's Machu town, a crowd of 300-400 carry pictures of the Dalai Lama, in defiance of authorities. Tibet's government-in-exile, in Dharamasala, India, says 80 people have been killed in the riots. French riot police use tear gas to disperse about 500 pro-Tibet protesters by the Chinese Embassy in Paris. New York police say protesters throw stones at officers outside the Chinese consultate in Manhattan. March 17: Tibet governor Qiangba Puncog says security forces exercised "massive restraint" and did not use lethal weapons against protesters, but 13 "innocent civilians" were killed in the riots. He says unrest was engineered by the Dalai Lama.

March 18: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao dismisses calls for a boycott of Beijing Olympics, and says unrest was incited to sabotage the Aug. 8-24 Games. He accuses Dalai Lama of orchestrating the riots. In Australia, about 100 pro-Tibet protesters clash with police outside Chinese consulate in Sydney.

Source: Reuters

(Writing by Gillian Murdoch, Singapore Editorial Reference Unit)

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP151934 2 VIDEO’s HERE!




Olympic chief says no calls for Beijing boycott


By Benjamin Kang Lim

Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:57pm EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday after no foreign governments called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics over a crackdown on violent protests in Tibet even as it braced for more unrest.

The biggest protests in Tibet in almost two decades have spilled over into nearby Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans in the past week and likely to weigh uncomfortably on China, which is anxious to polish its image in the build-up to the Olympic Games in August.

"There have been absolutely no calls for a boycott, neither emanating from governments," International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge told Reuters in Trinidad.

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in an e-mail late on Monday there had been a fresh demonstration spearheaded by monks of Gaden Choekhor monastery in Linzhou county -- Phenpo Lhundup in Tibetan -- in the municipality of the regional capital Lhasa.

In a rare show of defiance in the host city for the Olympic Games, a small group of ethnic Tibetan students staged a candle-lit vigil in Beijing on Monday.

The Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala in India has put the death toll in Friday's protests in Lhasa 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.

It was not immediately clear if any protester had surrendered to the authorities or informed on suspected rioters after the passing of a midnight Monday deadline.

FOREIGN PRESSURE

The United States and the European Union have called on China to exercise restraint.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told parliament: "We believe that the way forward is a dialogue between the different parties ... We are calling for both restraint and an end to violence."

But the U.N. Security Council, of which China is a veto-wielding permanent member, is likely to keep silent about the crackdown, mostly due to worries that provoking Beijing would accomplish nothing, diplomats said.

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.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao denounced the attacks on Chinese missions abroad. Liu said the unrest had been organized by the Dalai Lama's followers at home and abroad.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959, has rejected the allegation that he orchestrated the protests. The Nobel peace laureate says he wants autonomy for Tibet within China but not outright independence.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists urged China to abide by a pledge and allow news coverage in Tibet.

Foreign reporters based in China are barred from the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan region.

PEN centers in the United States, Canada and China denounced "suffocating restrictions" on the press and the flow of information from Tibet.

(Additional reporting by Linda Hutchinson-Jafar in Port of Spain and Louis Charbonneau in the United Nations)

(Editing by John Chalmers)

http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSPEK26733920080317



China Blocks YouTube Viewing of Tibet Protests, Telegraph Says


By Kari Lundgren

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- The Chinese government has blocked access to Google Inc.'s YouTube in China to stop people from seeing images of protests in Tibet, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The government is also censoring Web sites with references to Tibet, and Tibetan Internet cafes have been closed, the newspaper said, citing a Tibetan journalist the Telegraph said wanted to be identified as Lhuboom.

CNN and British Broadcasting Corp. broadcasts of a speech by the Dalai Lama were also blocked, the newspaper said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at klundgren2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 16, 2008 21:15 EDT


Even Russia is speaking out!!!


Russia wants China to curtail "unlawful" acts in Tibet


By Guy Faulconbridge

Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:57pm EDT


MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Monday it hoped China would do what was necessary to curtail "unlawful actions" in Tibet, in a strong show of support for its ally Beijing after Tibetans rioted against Chinese rule.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement that China's relationship with the Dalai Lama, whose supporters Beijing accuses of stirring up the trouble, was an internal matter.

"We express hope that the authorities of the People's Republic of China will take all necessary measures to curtail unlawful actions and ensure the speedy normalization of the situation in the autonomous region," the ministry said.

The Dalai Lama's representative in Russia told Reuters that witnesses had seen scores of dead bodies in the local capital, Lhasa, and that protests were spreading to other regions.

But Russia, currently enjoying close ties to Beijing, made no criticism of China's actions in the short statement, which described Tibet as an "inalienable part" of China.

China says it has shown great restraint in the face of the protests and has accused followers of the Dalai Lama of stirring up trouble in a bid to tarnish the Beijing Olympics in August.

"We would like to underline that attempts to politicize the summer Olympic Games that are to be held in China in 2008 are unacceptable," Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

"Russia is convinced that the Chinese side will guarantee the highest level of organization of the Games, including the solution of issues of security of the sportsmen and guests at the Olympics," it said.

Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, is keen to export more energy, weapons and nuclear technology to China, Moscow's third largest trading partner and a key ally on major foreign policy issues.

The Dalai Lama has said he supports the Beijing Games and has flatly rejected the Chinese claims about his having a role in the protests.

The Tibetan spiritual leader's representative in Russia said the Chinese were presenting a one-sided view of the protests, which he said were spreading to other regions.

"We are getting some information from Tibet and the disturbances have spread. They are not only in Lhasa but also in the regions of Tibet," the representative, who is known as Tashi, told Reuters.

"The Chinese are trying to show just one side of things -- they are not showing how the Chinese army and riot police kill and arrest Tibetans," he said.

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

Beijing reviles him as a separatist but he says he wants only real autonomy for the region, which Communist troops entered in 1950. The last major rioting in Tibet was in 1989.

(Editing by Charles Dick)

http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSL1712670020080317?sp=true


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