Their situation is nearly hopeless but many Tibetans seem willing to sacrifice themselves to draw attention to their plight and to show the world the brutality of the Chinese government.
The protests, sparked by the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising that sent Tibet’s Dalai Lama into exile, are the latest embarrassment to hit 2008 Olympic-host China, which has attracted international criticism over its human rights record.
Quoting the Tibetan government, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said 10 were killed in Lhasa Friday after police blocked a march by monks, sparking the violence.
“The victims are all innocent civilians, and they have been burnt to death,” an official with the regional government told Xinhua.
Tibetan exiles in India meanhwile cited unconfirmed reports that at least 100 people were killed and many more injured.
Video broadcast on China’s CCTV Saturday showed flames and black smoke rising the market, where hundreds of rioters used hands, feet and sledge hammers to break down doors and shatter windows.
One of the targets of their violence was a Bank of China branch. Protesters, including some monks dressed in red robes, could be seen overturning cars and throwing rocks to chase away other people. There was no sign of Chinese police in the video.
The protests in Tibet began Monday when hundreds of monks rallied on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Beijing that forced the Dalai Lama into exile.
Police used gunfire and tear gas to quell the Lhasa protest, according to witnesses, human rights groups and Xinhua.
Demonstrators set fire to vehicles and shops. One source said late Friday that up to a third of the city may be on fire and that power lines had been cut.
Tibetan Uprising has more information, including photos.
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Video, China
March 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Please can we see more coverage given to this. Governments need to condemn China.
March 15th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
rediculous american,
anyone hv been to tibet? any idea abt the current situation?foolish controled by cnn!!
you can see the difference of the two pics!
http://www.wforum.com/specials/upload/6538_14184242.jpg
March 15th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
http://www.wforum.com/wmf/posts/1115784794.html
March 15th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Why don’t you mention the fact that the 100 killed are all Chinese civilians living in Lhasa, they were killed by the angry lynching mobs.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Don’t be biased by these misleading reports, poor man.The rebels with sharp knives were robbing, smashing and trying to kill any civilians who are not Tibetant and foreigners. The dying man on the ground is Han people and was hurt by the rebels. However, the local police were asked not to fight back even their lives were threatened by the brutal rebels. DO YOU REALLY SUPPORT THESE VIOLENT REBELLS?
March 15th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Their situation is nearly hopeless but many BINLADEN’s supporters seem willing to sacrifice themselves to draw attention to their plight and to show the world the brutality of the American government.
March 15th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Will you be happy to see the above comment when the terrorist attack on 911 occured?
March 15th, 2008 at 3:48 pm
And Yet CNN has very little coverage of this..I’d of the thought it would headline..This is so odd given the status of the Olypics coming up..the censorship imposed regarding the Olypics, and the fact that the Chinese are about to swarm in and slaughter many more..pathetic
March 15th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
those monks think they can gain they freedom with violence. if they canceled the olimpic, tibet will be a masacre. I wish they could stop the olimpic just to see if I am right or wrong.
March 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
Just shows what a communist government is.. Brutal, Represive.. What are the Han people doing their? Colonialists that’s what.. Put there by the stupid government.. (And probably not their first choice)
Time for the industrious smart Chinese to kill this stupid government and join the real world..
Too much money involved for the USA.. They are two faced.. Boycott Cuba but not China.. Stupid
Remember the Tiananmen Square Massacre..
I was in Beijing for 2 weeks.. It’s turned into a craphole.. It’s so polluted..
March 15th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
CNN .. What a joke.. It’s buried the story..
So proud to be an American.. Money before principle
Must be the Walmart lobby
FREE TIBET!!!!
March 15th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
To those who think that China illegally invaded and conquered Tibet in 1950s, I’d like to suggest you do some history study of Tibet. A fairly good source is Wikipedia at the following link,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibet
After studying the history, you should realize that Tibet was conquered by Moguls and for the first time became a part of Chinese Yuan Dynasty during 1200s. Later in 1700s, the Chinese Qing Dynasty re-secured Tibet, and since then, Tibet has been undoubtedly a part of China and never gained official and recognized independence. Yes, China did conquer Tibet, but not in 1950s! It was rather in early 1700s! About 60 years prior to that, even China herself was conquered by Manchu, and that’s how the Qing Dynasty came to being! Such things happened all the time in ancient history.
When Tibet was secured as a part of China in early 1700s, there was no United States in North America. Everybody knows what European colonists did to American Indians, how they persecuted and killed American Indians and conquered their land back then, and that’s partly how the United States came to being. Some tens of millions of American Indians died because of the persecutions and killings by the European immigrants, and American Indians were almost at the brink of extinction! The racial genocide of American Indians is considered as the Forgotten Holocaust, and is not much better than Hitler’s Holocaust of Jews. Nowadays in United States, there is not much a movement of Free Native America or Free American Indian America, one of the most important reasons is that the American Indian populations are too small, and are not concentrated in one region. If the Qing army had learned from the European colonists, they should have killed almost all Tibetans back in 1700s, and there would have been no Free Tibet movement today, as the European immigrants did to American Indians and therefore no Free American Indian America movement nowadays.
Keeping the unity of a country is always that country’s central government’s duty. Even for the United States herself, about 150 years ago, after the southern states declared independence through a democratic way, everybody knows what happened next. Given that the back then U.S. Constitution allowed individual states to secede from the union if they chose to, the U.S. federal government answered them with brutal military force, and some 600 thousand men were killed in the Civil War. Where was the law and order, where was the democracy, human rights and freedom of American southerners back then?
What’s now happening in Tibet is just a regional ethnic riot; it’s not about so-called human rights or freedom. Human rights and freedom are two good terms that have already been exploited and misused too much and too often. If similar things happened in United States, there is no doubt that the U.S. government would have taken the same measures to put down the riot.
In China, ethnic minorities are generally treated better than majority Chinese by the government and have more privileges. For example, the One-Child Policy does not apply to ethnic minorities; they can have more than one child per family. They also have better opportunities in getting higher education and government jobs even though they are less competent, etc. The Chinese government also makes a lot of effort and spends a lot of money to preserve the culture, languages and traditions of ethnic minorities. Even the Buddhist monk monasteries in Tibet that are involved in this riot are funded by the Chinese government. Actually, I think that the Chinese government did too much and too well in preserving minorities’ culture and languages. Otherwise, like the American Indians, if the ethnic minorities hadn’t kept much of their culture and languages, they wouldn’t have much a motive to seek independence.
March 15th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
Just to point out that Tibet was conquered by Mongolian and Machurian, not by Chinese. During the same time, Mongolian also conquered China, and a large portion of middle east, and many southeast asian countries like Vietnam. During the Manchurian and Mogolian period, China was destroyed. We can say that Tibet is part of Mongolian empire or Machurian empire, but it wasn’t part of China. The communist in China brutally take over Tibet in 1959. The Yuan dynasty or Ching dynasty is really just the Chinese way to tried to comfort themselves when in fact the Chinese was governed their historical enemy, Mongolian and Machurian. It’s an irony to see that the Chinese claimed Tibet as part of themselves during the Machurian and Mongolinan empires when in fact the Chinese didn’t govern Tibet during those time. The truth is, Chinese were treated as 2nd class citizens during those two empires.
Just imagine, if one day the Ireland conquered England and then build an Irish Empire. It then claim that United State are part of Irish Empire because United State were part of British colony? That’s what Chinese is doing right now…so funny.
The Chinese has killed over 1 million Tibet people since they brutally take over Tibet in 1959. They didn’t think that adding 100 people to the murder list make any difference any way. Most Chinese, even the intellectual, were heavily brain wash by their government. They do not really know the history. A lot of them didn’t even know that Tianmensquare massacre occurs. That’s the power of Chinese government and the power of Chinese people.
March 15th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
I’m wondering if American Indian community uprise in voilence in US, what would happen. Anyone remember the Los Angles riot in 1992.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Why not tell the truth to the people. The photo will mislead the people. Please watch the original photo.
Tibetans throw stones at army vehicles on a street in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa after violent protests broke out yesterday.
http://www.wforum.com/specials/upload/6538_14184242.jpg
March 15th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Western countries headed by America, tolerate the illegal occupation of a peace-loving country like Tibet which in their opinion, is not strategically situated, by bully country like Communist China, which in their opinion, is a potential huge market. International events like Olympic are just used as propaganda by the Communist Politburo.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
If China really did kill 1 million Tibetans, we wouldn’t be having this discussion at this moment because there wouldn’t be any Tibetans left to talk about. In 1950, Tibetan population is only a few hundred thousand. So where did those extra people came from? Do you actually believe China, if really wanted to “destroy Tibet”, would first let them breed to more than two million, then kill 1 million of them, but left the other million around so stupid westerners can criticize them for it? Are you people so dumb that you would believe everything? Forgot how that Iraqi dissident lied through his ass about Iraq’s weapons program just so US would overthrow Saddam and put him in Charge? Wake up, people!
March 15th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
To the one who support “free Tibet”, do you really know what happen in Tibet? Or just because you believe communism is evil? Please do some home work, both Dalai Lama and Communist Beijing are liars. Suggest reading “A History of Modern Tibet” by Melvyn C. Goldstein.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:08 am
To Christina,
Thank you for your message! Yes, China was conquered by Manchu in mid 1600s, and the last Chinese dynasty – Qing Dynasty was founded by Manchu. But this Manchurian dynasty is considered the legitimate successor of the previous Chinese dynasty. This is the way of history – conquering and being conquered. Huge empires were always created this way. Before Manchu conquered China, they were once an ethnic minority group in China. They later became more powerful and became independent. And later they took advantage of Chinese civil war and conquered China. After Manchu conquered China, they accepted and learned Chinese culture and language, and eventually were assimilated into Chinese. So when Qing Dynasty was overthrown in 1911, there was essentially no difference between Manchurian Chinese and ethnic majority Chinese, and no Manchurian Chinese were expelled and no Manchurian nation was recreated in the original Manchu region. It was not the case though when the Yuan Dynasty was overthrown – the Mongolians went back to the Mongolian region and kept their Mongolian nation. In 1911, the Republic of China became the legitimate successor of Manchurian China, and later in 1949, the People’s Republic of China became the legitimate successor of the Republic of China.
Since 1700s, Tibet has never gained legitimate and recognized independence. That’s not the case for the United States though – the U.S. gained legitimate and recognized independence in late 1700s. So if Ireland conquers England, it cannot legitimately claim that the U.S. is a part of the Irish Empire, even if it is considered as the legitimate successor of the British Empire. Mongolia was like the case of U.S. The Outer Mongolia region was a part of the Manchurian China, but after the Qing Dynasty fell, they declared independence with the support of Russia in 1920s. The Outer Mongolia’s independence was not legitimate and not recognized by the world until in 1940s China and other countries recognized its independence legitimately. You don’t see that China is claiming Mongolia as a part of China.
Also for the Tibetan sympathizers who are descendants of English or European colonists, how can you claim that this land of North America was a part of the British Empire a few hundred years ago, and that this land is yours now? Don’t you think that this land belongs to American Indians and you should move back to England or Europe? Don’t you see the hypocrisy in your reasoning?
I must admit that I am a Manchurian Chinese, and I received half of my education here in the U.S., and I have lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. Being able to live in both countries for long times, I feel lucky to be able to look at things from both sides and get a whole picture in my mind about complex issues. I admit that China’s media is biased, but I also need to point out that, based on my over 10 years of life in the U.S., I think the U.S. media is also biased, and even more biased on issues related to China than Chinese media on issues related to the U.S. The U.S. media is also brain-washing most American people’s mind, but in a more clever and stealthy way. When I was in China, and even a couple of years after I came to the U.S., I was quite anti-Chinese-government. But after I studied in the U.S. more knowledge and history (Some knowledge may not be easily accessible in China) and became spiritually grown-up, I was surprised that I actually became pro-Chinese-government. Surely the Chinese government is not perfect and makes a lot of mistakes, and wrong doings, or even evil doings, but I believe most of what they did in the last is correct. The situations in different countries are different; we cannot always use the standards here in the U.S. to judge things in other countries. Some standards and policies may work great in this country, but they may be disastrous in other countries. Democracy is a good thing, but we all know what happened to Russia when Russia abandoned communism and adopted democracy in early 1990s. The nation of Russia basically collapsed overnight, and its economy plunged to the bottom, and the common people suffered tremendously. There was a Russian joke about that harsh time – people said, under communism, we had everything but no freedom; now under democracy and capitalism, we have freedom but nothing else. The things (including human rights, freedom, etc) in China are no doubt constantly improving, and China is rising during the past 30 years. By the way, China is not really a communist country any more; it is now basically a capitalistic country. It takes time for China to develop and catch up with the western standards. There is a western saying - Rome was not built in one day. Westerners should not use today’s western standards to judge things in China. The U.S. did not develop to today’s level in one day either. When the U.S. was founded, it was written in the U.S. Constitution, Every man was born equal. But it took this country about 100 years to abolish slavery, and it took this country another 100 years to abolish laws of racial discrimination and segregation. However, even nowadays, black people and other colored people are still being discriminated in this country. Also, American women were not allowed to vote until 1910s.
I suggest that you go to live in China for a few years if you have a chance, and that will help you get closer to the real truth.
March 16th, 2008 at 12:11 am
If this kind of riot happened in New Orleans or New York, the police would have hasitated to shoot the rioters. Do you think the police should stand by watching civilians to be knifed and burnt? I’m suppriced by Secretary Rice’s “concern” about increased police presence in such a dire situation.
March 16th, 2008 at 1:04 am
To those who are abusing ‘free’, please learn a phrase - ‘Tibetan serf’ at the age of the ‘peace’ nobel laureate.
March 16th, 2008 at 1:17 am
why so many people here think tibet is not part of chn even they merged hundreds of years earlier than usa? am i stupid or??
March 17th, 2008 at 12:21 am
It’s China’s anti-terrorist action. Tibet is absolutely a part of China. Any riot is not right. Peace is the most important thing. Dalai Lama caused mysery to people. He should be blamed. His man set fire to the shops and burned the markets. Terrirists!