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Protests began March 10 in Lhasa, the region's ancient capital,
coinciding with the anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising
against Chinese governance in 1959.
Buddhist monks calling for the release of other imprisoned
monks were soon joined by Tibetans making political demands,
including a call for independence from China.
Violent protests
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Protesters in Nepal, standing with the Tibetan flag, demonstrate
against Chinese control of Tibet. |
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The Tibetans rampaged
through the city's old quarter, burning and looting Chinese
shops and banks.
After the initial 24 hours of protests, during which police
seemed unsure how to respond, authorities cracked down on
demonstrators with tear gas and guns. Paramilitary police
searched Tibetan neighborhoods and seized suspects. One foreigner
saw four Tibetan men beaten so savagely that the police sprinkled
white powder on the ground to cover the blood, the New York
Times reported.
Chinese authorities said 18 "innocent" civilians
and one police officer were killed, but Tibetans living outside
of the region say the number is much higher and includes many
monks and other Tibetan protesters.
China has accused the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader
of the Tibetan Buddhists, of masterminding the protests.
The Dalai Lama denied involvement and urged his followers
to use only non-violent means of protest or he would resign
as their leader.
"Violence is almost suicide. Even if 1,000 Tibetans
sacrifice their lives, it will not help," the Dalai Lama
told reporters in Dharamshala, India, where he now lives as
the head of the government-in-exile. "If things are getting
out of control ... resignation is the only option."
The Dalai Lama has called on Chinese authorities to meet
for talks to discuss the situation, but the government refused,
saying any opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet must be eliminated.
"China must resolutely crush the conspiracy of sabotage
and smash 'Tibet independence forces'," an editorial
in the People's Daily, the communist government's newspaper
printed late last week.
Tibet
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A Tibetan woman walks near her mountain village in the
southwest region of China, near the Tibetan border. |
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Control of Tibet, which
is located in the Himalayas in Central Asia, has been disputed
since China's People's Liberation Army invaded in 1950. Although
a peace agreement in 1951 granted China rule of the area, many
Tibetans consider the deal to be illegitimate.
The current protests are the largest since a similar series
of protests in the 1980s, when Chinese authorities also dealt
harshly with protesters.
Since then, the Chinese government has worked to improve
the area economically, infusing lots of money into the region.
Ethnic divisions
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Two Tibetan girls walk amid prayer flags in southwest
China. Tibetan Buddhists are given limited religious freedom.
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In addition to financial
aid, the Chinese government also encouraged a large migrant
population of Han Chinese settlers to move to the region. The
government hoped that by diluting the Tibetan population, they
would prevent future calls for independence.
But many Tibetans resent the newcomers.
"Tibetans get the low-income and the hard-labor jobs,"
a Tibetan man told the Times. The Han, he added, "are
all paid as technicians, even though some of them really don't
know anything."
The Tibetans are also angry about government interference
in Tibetan Buddhism, placing limits on nuns and monks and
attempting to undermine the Dalai Lama's influence.
Conversely, many of the new Han migrants believe the Tibetans
to be ungrateful, and anti-Tibetan sentiment is spreading
in China.
"Our government has wasted our money in helping those
white-eyed wolves," Wang Zhongyong, a Han shop manager
whose shop was burned, told the Times. "Just think of
how much we've invested in relief funds for monks and unemployed
Tibetans," he added. "Is this what we deserve?"
The Olympics
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Anti-Chinese protesters disrupted the lighting of the
Olympic torch in Greece on Monday. |
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The protests come at a
time of heightened international awareness in the run up to
the summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China.
The journey of the Olympic torch from Greece to China began
Monday in Ancient Olympia. The lighting was marred by small
protests, including a Tibetan woman covered in red paint --
to symbolize the region's bloodshed -- who lay in the road
in front of a runner carrying the torch.
The planned torch route is through Tibet and even to the top
of Mount Everest along the border between Tibet and Nepal.
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Junior Arman Gupta's father was initially shocked when he brought up the idea of military school, but his father warmed to the idea.
