Communist Boss: Tibet Ready for Torch
BEIJING (AP) - The Communist Party boss of Tibet says the region is stable after anti-government riots last month but warned of possible sabotage against the Olympic torch relay, state media reported Sunday.
In comments carried Sunday by the official Xinhua News Agency, Zhang Qingli, was quoted as saying “that the social order in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet has resumed (as) normal.”
Tensions have been simmering in the Tibetan capital and in Tibetan areas of nearby provinces since before anti-government protests exploded in mid-March into violence.
Chinese authorities say 22 people died in anti-Beijing riots that broke out March 14 in Lhasa. The Tibetan self-proclaimed government-in-exile says up to 140 were killed in the protests and ensuing crackdown.
Last week, eight people were killed when police or paramilitary police opened fire on a protest in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in nearby Sichuan province, overseas activist groups reported.
The protests are the longest and most sustained challenge to China’s 57-year rule in the Himalayan region. They have also focused increased international scrutiny and criticism on China in the run-up to this summer’s Olympic Games.
China plans to take the Olympic torch to Tibet twice. One torch will be taken up Mount Everest, the world’s tallest peak, in early May, while the regular torch will go through Lhasa in June.
But Zhang was quoted as warning “that grave challenges remain ahead, as the Dalai clique is plotting for new sabotage activities.”
He said that authorities had “to spare no efforts in preparing for the torch relay to ward off any possible mishap.” Xinhua give no other details.
Beijing has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of orchestrating the violence, a charge the spiritual leader has repeatedly denied.
China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand.
Taking the Olympic torch to the top of the mountain is seen by some as a way for Beijing to underscore its claims to Tibet, and has drawn criticism from Tibetan activist groups.
The torch relay has become a rallying point for a wide range of groups angry at China, with protests expected later Sunday when it is taken through London. Demonstrations are also expected Monday when it is in Paris and Wednesday when it makes its only North American stop in San Francisco.
China has imposed a security clampdown on Tibetan areas in the western part of the country in an effort to rein in the anti-government riots and protests.
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It has been the policy of the “Olympics” to put aside the politics and the ideologies of “governments” in favor of the pure concept of personal and team competition and excellence.
However, as it has been said: “No man is an island” … and no team without a country, and with that, THAT country’s ideals.
It appears that after decades of this practice of denial, the Olympics organization and governing members are about to lift their heads to find their eyes, ears and mouths filled with sand …
I don’t know how [bad] it has gotten over there for the Tibetans, as the complacent world MSM has chosen to turn this story out in very small doses that dissolve quickly on the world community’s tongue. I have read hundreds have died at the hands of the Chinese “authorities” in order to squelch this uprising and protest for human rights …
But I DO know that if it becomes even the slightest bit more ugly the United States should … and MUST … pull our Olympic team out of the Games.
I tend to equate this 21st Century Pollyanna practice/attitude of the Olympic committee to holding the Games in Nazi Germany as Hitler prepared to trample, murder, and exterminate his way through Europe, eventually costing millions upon millions of lives. I cannot look at that grainy B/W footage of those Games without feeling my stomach rise up into my throat and mouth, and think what a horrific and senseless “event” was to take place while evil sucked the very blood from “the glory of the Olympic Games on their soil”.
April 6th, 2008 at 8:38 am