This week violence broke out the capitol city of Tibet. Tibetans demanding independence from China took to the street in a rare act of defiance from almost 50 years of Chinese rule. Tibet's government-in-exile said 80 Tibetans had been confirmed killed by the Chinese while trying to squash the protests.
The Economist reports in-depth from Lhasa:
“China suppressed the worst outbreak of violence in Tibet since 1989 and perhaps since 1959 (when Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, was forced into exile). The violence spread from the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, to other areas of the region. China blamed the Dalai Lama for fomenting the violence even though he called for an end to it.”
US officials are urging China to ease up on the protesters and to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked that China “respect the fundamental and universally recognized right of all of its citizens to peacefully express their political and religious views, and we call on China to release monks and others who have been detained solely for the peaceful expression of their views.”
Rice also urged Chinese to reignite dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet who has been exiled from Tibet since 1959:
“We have really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue,” Rice said.
But as PRI's The World radio program reported, there are no signs of dialogue breaking out any time soon.
The tumult in Tibet ratchets up the scrutiny over China's human rights practices in advance of the summer Olympics, to begin in five months in Beijing. In an attempt to put pressure on China to reform its practices Nicholas Kristoff, New York Times columnist and genocide activist, deemed the 2008 summer Olympics the “genocide olympics,” in reference to China's support of the Sudanese government who is international pressure to act to prevent the genocide of its people in its Darfur region.
Here is a Washington Post editorial that foresaw the political issues surrounding China's dealings with Sudan and its hosting of the international games.
