<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Tibet on boil as 10 die in China crackdown </b>
Agencies | Lhasa
China locked down the Tibetan Capital on Saturday after the largest and most violent protests against its rule in the region in nearly two decades. China said 10 people were killed in firing on demonstrators even though the Tibetan Government in Exile said in a Press release on Saturday that confirmation of 30 deaths had already come and that the unofficial toll could be as high as 100. Demonstrators rampaging through Lhasa dashed Beijing's plans for a smooth run-up to August's Olympics despite Chinese claims that nothing would be allowed to jeopardise the Games.
Streets in Lhasa were empty with a curfew in place. Eyewitnesses described baton-wielding police patrolling streets as fires from Friday's violence smouldered.
<img src='http://www.phayul.com/images/news/articles/0803150842239X.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image' />
<i>A protester burns a Chinese flag during a protest in the Tibetan capital Lhasa March 14, 2008. Protesters in Tibet's capital burnt shops and vehicles and yelled for independence on Friday as the region was hit by protests, prompting the Dalai Lama to urge Beijing to stop "brute force".</i>
<b>'China unleashing cultural genocide in Tibet'</b><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The Dalai Lama [Images] on Sunday accused China of unleashing a 'cultural genocide' in Tibet and demanded an impartial international probe into the situation in violence-hit Lhasa.
Addressing his first press conference in Mcleodganj, Himachal Pradesh, in the wake of the violence in the Tibetan capital since Friday, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader felt said that India has a few limitations as far as China is concerned and was 'too cautious' on the Tibet issue.
The Indian government, the 73-year-old monk said, had 'hostile views' on certain actions of Tibetans but 'we should not pick up one particular incident'. He did not elaborate
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
After having photos with Hollywood stars and other, he reacted. Now he can go back to foreign trips or cozy visit to Breverly Hills.
Dalai Lama should know Indian politicans and rulling government collects hafta from China, so ruling Government will favor China.
Location: UK
Subject: why is doesn't the 'west' support Tibet/His Holiness on a genuine level of action even in the UN?
I've thought about this quite a lot...and I know that ethnic Tibetan might well just think this is raving..but well, ha, you won't believe me. If these british polititions, these American polititions were to experience the manifestation of a Tibetan Lama type higher state of consciousness and reality, how do you think they would react? I mean them personnally experiencing this 'creator consciousness' (or whatever)? Do you think it would be like in science fiction, like Hollywood, like the starship enterprise? No, in the real world they react like, like it is a horror, an ultimate horror. Why? Because they cannot let go, they are trapped in a very very materialistic consciousness. Re-incarnate Lama's in western bodies in the west seem to have this ability..to manifest the most auspicious consciousnesses and reality to the community around them - and as I say, for the leadership, the 'power' in the west, this manifestation is like a real time hell - like they are facing infinity with an ego that cannot or is unwilling to let go...and they fight it, they seek to destroy it and they seek to contain this consciousness change within themselves and their countries.<b> So, I think the west, Britian, etc, kinda liked, found perverted pleasure to see the old school Tibetan reality being trashed by the Maoists..secret sados, deep down. </b><b>That why they didn't help. Thats why they don't really give a monkeys.</b>That why links should be made with other indigenous people who are awake and real and act with honour as real human beings - I propose a worldwide inter-tribal confederacy, the offical Tibetan government being part of this on an offical level. <b>See the frown on Geroge Bushs face? ... Its duplicated on Hu Jintaos face...and confusion and dismay for them is power and sovereignty for indigenous people.</b>
The Dalai Lama called Sunday for an international investigation into China's crackdown against protesters in Tibet, which he said is facing a "cultural genocide" and where his exiled government said 80 people were killed in the violence.
Communist killing fields: Singur, Nandigram, Kannur and now, Tibet. Dismantle chinatern, Hu, quit Tibet. Tibet is for Tibetans. Manasarovar is the cultural capital, for millennia, of a billion people and China has no right to be there.
It is the responsibility of the Free world and India, in particular, to help Tibetans, in this hour of need, and help them realize a Free Tibet. A friend in need is a friend, indeed.
China sets surrender deadline http://tibet97.blogspot.com/2008/03/china-...r-deadline.html
Today in morning news they are showing how brutally Indian Police were beating Tibetan peaceful citizens in India. Make me sick.
Had they Muslim, Moron Singh would have lost sleep.
^^ The Indian police have dealt better with the situation than their counterparts in NewYork, Canberra or the Brussels.
While in India when the tibetans held protest demos in front of the chinese embassy they were physically removed and then freed a few distance away from the chinese embassy. Tibetans are not allowed to hold political activities in India against other foreign government by an agreemnet between Indian government and the Tibetan government in exile.
For the past few days protests and marches against chinese oppresion in tibet are going on peacefully in Dharmsala and other parts of the nation but the government did not intervene.
If you look at how other police forces have dealt with the tibetans protests then in New york there were scuffles between tibetans and the police. The police used batons and sprayed some gas to disperse the tibetan protestors.
In canberra the tibetans attacked the cars with sticks(most likely of the chinese ambassador) and were beat back by the police. In brussels also there were clashes between police and tibetans.
If all of this is taken into account then Indian police dealt with the protests correctly rather than make excessive use of force.
When demonstration is peaceful it should be dealt differently. I am saying Tibetans were standing and shouting slogans , they were peaceful but Indian Police started hammering them.
In other countries, Tibetan did aggressive demonstration and Police used aggressive posture. There is a difference.
One can differentiate between peaceful and aggressive demonstration and reaction by law enforcement agencies.
When Bush visited India, Muslims aggressive demonstration and rioting was ignored, infact police and innocent Indians took beating from Muslim rioters.
So there is a difference, how Indian government handles Tibetans and Muslims in India (had they checked whether rioting Muslims nationality, I can bet lot are from Pakistan, Bangladesh and other sundry countries)
I think you are mistaking the violent Nepali police action against Tibetans in kathmandu with the Indian police. Please note the nepali police wear the distinctive blue color uniform and there are some video which wrongly describe them as Indian police.
All channels from NDTV,CNN-IBN or DD to the local channels are showing the protests but nowhere are the tibetans being beaten.
<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Mar 17 2008, 10:36 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Mar 17 2008, 10:36 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Here in USA,
They had shown, 2-3 days back beating by Indian police.
[right][snapback]79742[/snapback][/right]<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Did they mention the place in India were the video was shot? What was the color of their uniform?
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Tibet in ferment </b>
The Pioneer Edit Desk
Hu Jintao should learn from history
The rioting in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet that followed the commemoration of the 49th anniversary of what Tibetans refer to as their 'National Uprising Day' could not have come at a worse time for Beijing. Mr Hu Jintao, preparing for his second term as President of China, would not have wanted such a distraction from the proceedings of the National People's Congress, not least because they were supposed to set the tone and tenor of his fresh five-year tenure. The bloody clashes between Tibetans led by monks and the police, which have surpassed the skirmishes of recent times, have ensured that the world's attention is now focussed on Lhasa and not Beijing -- this is bad news for a man who is eager to lead China to the pre-eminent position it aspires for and to attain which much effort has been invested. The immediate impact of the spring uprising in Tibet could be felt on the Summer Olympics through which China wishes to showcase its admirable achievements -- a call to boycott the Games is inevitable, though it is anybody's guess as to how successful it will be in garnering international support. But irrespective of the fallout of the violence in Tibet -- which reports suggest is yet to be controlled by the security forces -- the Government of China needs to step back and ponder over its policy to contain dissent in the 'Roof of the World'. It is evident that the use of force and repressive measures to silence critics of Beijing, as well as the settlement of Han Chinese in Tibet to dilute the region's cultural identity, have not delivered the results China expected. Had this not been true, Tibet would not have been in fervent today. Mr Hu Jintao should have known this better than any of his comrades in the Communist Party of China. After all, two decades ago he had been given the task of suppressing another Tibetan uprising; he fulfilled that responsibility with remarkable efficiency, earning the admiration of his senior colleagues. But surely he would agree that what he had succeeded in achieving then was at best temporary -- it was neither a final nor a lasting solution to the issue of Tibet.
For that, Mr Hu Jintao must look at other options which are less dependent on the use of force. He could begin his new tenure by acknowledging the need to allow diversity in a country as vast as China, more so in Tibet. By seeking to forcibly stamp out the unique identity of Tibet, the Government of China has only helped strengthen the resolve of the Tibetans to preserve -- and assert, regardless of the consequences -- their identity. This is not to suggest that China should retreat from Tibet or accept the demand for Tibet's independence; these are issues that belong to the realm of China's internal affairs. Indeed, how it chooses to handle situations similar to that witnessed over this past weekend, too, is nobody's business. It would also be in order to point out that the outrage voiced by individuals and institutions in Western countries is contrary to the official policy of their Governments, which are happy to do business with Beijing. At the same time, repressive measures are bound to elicit adverse comment abroad, especially in this age of instant communications when events cannot be kept hidden from the world. Joseph Stalin tried to use force to stamp out national identities at a time when details could be kept under wraps; in the end, he failed in his endeavour. Mr Hu Jintao would do well to learn from history.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Harshvardan,
I know, how Indian mamey/thuley looks like. Sorry for my north Indian street language.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Turn in or else... </b>
Audra Ang | Beijing
Pioneer.com
Tibet Governor again warns of stern action
Tibet's Governor denounced anti-Chinese protesters in Lhasa as criminals and vowed to bring them to justice as a midnight deadline loomed on Monday for them to turn themselves in. Â
More clashes erupted in other Chinese provinces.
Champa Phuntsok said the death toll from last week's violent demonstrations in the Tibetan Capital had risen to 16 and dozens were injured. The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan Government in India has said that 80 Tibetans were killed -- a claim Champa Phuntsok denied.
The uprising, the fiercest against Chinese rule in almost two decades, and its spread to other provinces have posed a challenge for the Communist Government as it prepares for the Beijing Summer Olympics, which were supposed to raise China's world standing. After a weekend in which witnesses said Lhasa echoed with gunfire and armed police shut down the city to reimpose order, Champa Phuntsok steered a line between sounding reassuring and being tough. He told mediapersons security forces "did not carry or use any lethal weapons," but promised that authorities would deal harshly with rioters who defy the surrender notice.
"No country would allow those offenders or criminals to escape the arm of justice and China is no exception," said Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan.
"If these people turn themselves in, they will be treated with leniency within the framework of the law," he said. Otherwise, he added, "we will deal with them harshly."
The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said residents feared a military sweep after the midnight deadline. Authorities paraded handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in Lhasa on Monday, The Times of London reported in its online edition. The report said four trucks in a convoy drove through the city with 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing in the back, their wrists handcuffed and a soldier behind each one holding the prisoner's head bowed.
Going house-to-house, police checked identity cards and residence permits, detaining anyone without permission to stay in Lhasa, The Times said.
On Monday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice again called on China to exercise restraint and said Beijing should find a way to engage the Dalai Lama, who has been accused of helping organise the protest.
"There's been a kind of missed opportunity for the Chinese to engage the Dalai Lama," Rice said, adding that the spiritual leader is not a separatist and could "lend his moral weight" to reaching a more stable arrangement in Tibet.
But Russia said it hopes China's Government "will take all necessary measures to stop illegal actions and provide for the swiftest possible normalisation of the situation<b>." The Foreign Ministry also said that any efforts to boycott the Beijing Olympics were "unacceptable."</b>
<b>European Union nations and Olympic committees also echoed their opposition to a boycott of the Beijing Games over China's handling of the Tibet protests, saying sports should not be linked to politics.</b>
<b>"Under no circumstance will we support the boycott. We are 100 per cent unanimous," Patrick Hickey, head of the European Olympic Committees, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Not one Government leader has called for a boycott. A boycott is only a punishment of the athletes."</b>
<b>Australia's Olympic Committee also objected to any boycott over human rights concerns.</b>
While Lhasa was still swarming with troops, more security forces were mobilising across western China's mountain valleys and broad plains to deal with sympathy protests in Tibetan communities in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai.
In Gansu's Maqu county, which borders Sichuan, thousands of monks and ordinary Tibetans clashed with police on Monday in various locations, police and a Tibet rights group said.
"We have nothing to protect ourselves and we can't fight back," said an officer at the county police headquarters who refused to give his name or other details. He said about 10 policemen were injured.
In the city of Lanzhou, about 500 Tibetan students who gathered on Sunday on the Northwest Minorities University abandoned an overnight vigil.
The Government also began to tighten its already firm hold on information.
Officials expelled foreign mediapersons from Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu provinces, contravening regulations that opened most of China to foreign media for the Olympics.
Some of the few independent media remaining in Lhasa were also ordered out, making it difficult to verify casualties and other details.
Police in Lhasa kicked out mediapersons from three Hong Kong television stations -- Cable TV, TVB and ATV -- and made TVB delete footage of Friday's violence, TVB reported..Â
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I heard Louisa Lim's report on NPR/democracy now radio (cant remember which)
She said she was told to leave (from Lhasa, I am assuming, I tuned in mid-way) and her driver was told to take her to the airport of consequences would follow. Police/Army made sure of this by escorting her car for 60 miles, and for 200 miles after that her car was trailed by a black car (sic). After which she came to the airport (and headed to Beijing, if I remember correctly).
She said lots of people cannot talk freely because they have literally been frightened into silence.
Then the program said that the PRC says Dalai Lama wants independence and therefore should be stopped. Dalai Lama himself always says he wants just autonomy. And the PRC knows this, but they keep repeating that he wants independence, and so he is to be stopped. So DL is made to keep repeating that he does not want independence, and that is causing splits within the Tibet movement. Chinese know this and want this. They are waiting for DL to die.
PRC says current violence has been ordered by DL. They say they have evidence and will release it if things get worse. DL is telling journos to investigate for themselves whether he ordered violence.
<b>'I'm open to idea of Tibet's independence'</b>
Too little too late. I am sad lack push for this idea. Tibetan prefered to move out of India after getting education in Indian school and colleges free of cost. He is not motivating Tibetian but his efforts are towards meeting Hollywood stars and making passage for Tibetians in India to move to western country after using every single funds from Indian Government and UN.
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Tibetans living as refugees in India and elsewhere have a democratic system to govern community affairs outside their motherland. While spiritual leader Dalai Lama [Images] heads the government-in-exile from the headquarters in Mcleodganj near Dharamshala, it is 69-year-old Smadhong Rimpoche, who as prime minister heads the administration of the Tibetan Diaspora.
According to the Dalai Lama, Professor Rimpoche 'knows more about the Tibet issue' than he does. Rimpoche is considered reincarnation of the Smadhong lineage of Buddha. On matters related to diplomacy and politics of Tibet and China's control over it, Rimpoche's views are the most important after that of the Dalai Lama.
A renowned scholar of Sanskrit and Hindi, Rimpoche is fluent in English and heads a movement to preserve ancient Indian sciences and literature preserved in the Tibetan language but lost in the original. More than 100 precious Tibetan books have been translated in which the ancient Indian wisdom was buried or lost many centuries back. In 1959, when Tibetans took refugee in India, they brought many of those books with them.
Professor Rimpoche's mission to give back something to India when he was heading the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath near Varanasi has earned him respect amongst scholars in India. He was elected twice for the highest post in the exile government, garnering around 90 per cent votes of Tibetans. He is a popular monk; a simple man known for his sthitpragnya (unmoved by happiness or sorrow) attitude.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
via email
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>US STEPS UP BROADCASTS & TELECASTS TO TIBET </b>
B.RAMAN
Western Governments have come under contraditory pressures in relation to their response to the uprising of the Tibetans since March 10,2008. While growing sections of public opinion and human rights activists have been demanding a boycott of the Olympic Games similar to the boycott of Moscow Olympics in 1980, Western business companies, who have heavily invested in China, continue to be strongly opposed to any boycott.
2.The movement for a boycott has received the strongest public support in France. Mr.Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, has stated that even if the Western Governments are not prepared to call for a boycott of the Games by their national Olympic Committees, their leaders should at least refrain from participating in the opening ceremony. Amongst those who had announced last year their intention to participate is President George Bush of the US. Other Western Governments have not so far supported the suggestion of Mr.Kouchner.
3. Western human rights organisations have demanded that China should allow an international observer team to visit Tibet and Sichuan to enquire into the incidents and that an international team of lawyers should be allowed to defend the Tibetans being rounded up by the Chinese authorities. If the Chinese authorities reject these demands, the demand for a boycott of the opening ceremony may gather momentum.
4. In the meanwhile, the US authorities are reported to have taken action to strengthen the tranasmitting power of Radio Free Asia (RFA) and the Voice of America (VOA) in order to enable their broadcasts to overcome the jamming by the Chinese authorities. They have also announced an increase in their hours of broadcasts and telecasts to the Tibetan people with effect from March 18,2008.
5. Mr.James K.Glassman, the Chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), which is an independent federal agency which supervises all U.S. government-supported, non-military international broadcasting, announced on March 18,2008, as follows: "The violent crackdown by Chinese authorities in Tibet compels us to increase our broadcasts.Our audience clearly will benefit from these trustworthy sources of news and information, which differ sharply from Chinese government sanctioned broadcasts."
6.At present, RFA broadcasts eight hours daily to Tibet via shortwave radio. The VOA broadcasts four hours daily, also via shortwave. With effect from March 18, each has expanded its respective radio programmes by two additional hours daily. The VOA will also double its weekly Tibetan-language television programming from one to two hours via the AsiaSat 3 satellite.
7.Mr.Libby Liu, President of the RFA, said on March 18,2008: "RFA's Tibetan service is working round the clock to bring authoritative, breaking news to the Tibetan people. These additional hours will greatly enhance our capacity to deliver this news, including live updates, to people on the ground."
8.Lhasa and other areas of Tibet continue to be tense, but without any violent incidents since March 17,2008. Chinese troops on foot and in armoured personal carriers continue to patrol the streets and the Chinese authorities have continued to surround all the monasteries, keeping the monks under virtual house arrest and preventing any interactions between them and the general population.
9. Chinese troops and People's Armed Police (PAP) personnel continue to make house-to-house searches for suspected participants in the violent uprising of March 14,2008. The total number of persons detained for questioning so far has gone up to 300. The Chinese authorities have claimed that 105 self-confessed participants in the uprising have voluntarily surrendered to the authorities.
10.Sporadic incidents of violence continue to be reported from the Tibetan majority areas of the Sichuan province. Many of the Hans, whose shops in Lhasa were attacked by the Tibetan demonstrators on March 14,2008, were settlers from Sichuan. In retaliation for this, there have reportedly been attacks on Tibetans by Hans in Sichuan. According to Tibetan refugee sources, the Chinese military also opened fire on a large group of Tibetans demonstrating against the Government in the Aba County of the Sichuan province. According to other independent sources, there have also been sporadic incidents of stabbing in the Tibetan areas of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan. Tibetan exile groups have managed to obtain photographs of the Tibetans allegedly killed by the Chinese security forces in the Aba county and have been disseminating them through the Internet. (19-3-08)
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com )
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b>Yajiang, China, March 19: Chinese security forces have blocked foreigners from entering ethnic Tibetan areas of remote western China, amid reports of anti-government protests spreading to Tibet's neighbouring provinces.</b>
China has been grappling to quell unrest in several Tibetan towns and villages in the country's west, after Buddhist monk-led demonstrations in Tibet's capital Lhasa turned violent on Friday.
The government in recent days has asked foreigners in Tibet to leave and has suspended approving travel permits to the Himalayan region. <b>Media watchdogs have reported that authorities have expelled journalists reporting there.</b>
Foreigners travelling in western Sichuan province were taken off a public bus at a police check-point at Yajiang, a village on a major highway leading to Lhasa, and sent on a mini-bus to Kangding, a city further east.
"It is closed to all foreigners and tourists. There is nothing to see now, but you're welcome to come back some other time," a police officer at the check-point in Yajiang said.
When asked for a reason, the officer said: "It's not safe."
"The hotels are closed, the restaurants are closed, there is nothing going on," another police officer said.
"The further you go in that direction (west), the greater the difficulties," she said.
Yajiang lies on the route to Lithang, a town of about 40,000 people, where troops had surrounded a local monastery and Tibetans had been arrested, a resident said.
A Reuters correspondent in Sichuan said an army camp had been set up en route to the ethnic Tibetan town and saw convoys carrying troops driving west towards Tibet.
The authorities have said Lhasa was returning to normal but overseas groups have reported protests and heavy police presence in western Gansu province's ethnic Tibetan towns of Xiahe and Gannan.
The Tibetan government-in-exile says 99 people died when Chinese security forces moved to quell last week's rioting. The government puts the death toll at 13.
Wary that images of civil unrest and violence could tarnish China's image ahead of the Olympic Games in August, the government has clamped down on news reporting in its restive western region.
<b>Reporters in Lhasa and three other Chinese cities have been blocked from reporting in 30 separate incidents, including being tailed by authorities and having footage confiscated, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China said in a statement.</b><!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Recall Patel's prophecy</b>
G Parthasarathy
When the Chinese People's Liberation Army occupied Tibet in 1950, Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel wrote to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on November 7, 1950, saying: "The Chinese Government has tried to delude us by professions of peaceful intentions. My own feeling is that at a crucial period they managed to install into our Ambassador (academic KM Panicker) a false sense of confidence in their so called desire to settle the Tibetan problem by peaceful means."
Sardar Patel added: "(Throughout history) the Himalayas have been regarded as an impenetrable barrier for any threat from the North. We had a friendly Tibet which gave us no trouble... Chinese ambitions in this respect not only cover the Himalayan slopes on our side, but also include the important part of Assam... Chinese irredentism and Communist imperialism are different from the expansionism or imperialism of the Western powers, which makes it ten times more dangerous. In the guise of ideological expansion lie concealed racial, national and historical claims".
China's guise in concealing "racial, national and historic claims" soon manifested itself after the 1950 occupation of Tibet. The Tibetans were compelled to sign a Seventeen-Point Agreement affirming Chinese sovereignty over Tibet on May 23, 1951. This agreement contained explicit Chinese assurances that the Central authorities would not alter the existing political system in Tibet. The Chinese also pledged that they would not alter the established political status, functions and powers of the Dalai Lama, with Tibetan officials continuing to hold office.
Finally, the Chinese pledged to protect the freedom of religious beliefs and the income of monasteries and promote the development of the Tibetan language and culture. The Chinese violated all these assurances and Tibetan anger and frustration resulted in a full-fledged uprising in 1959, which led to the Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fleeing to India.
India also paid heavily for disregarding Sardar Patel's warnings on Chinese intentions. By 1954 Chinese incursions into Indian territory began along the Uttar Pradesh-Tibet border, just after India signed the infamous Border Trade Agreement between "The Tibet Region of China and India," on April 29,1954, which conceded Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. China's occupation of Tibet was sanctified, without securing any assurance on the border issue from China. The agreement also led to the handing over of Indian properties, the withdrawal of Indian military escorts, and the handing over of telephone, telegraph and communications equipment and facilities in Tibet, to China.
When Prime Minister Nehru took up the wrong depiction of borders on Chinese maps with the smooth and suave Chou en Lai in October 1954, he was assured that the maps in question "were really reproductions of old 'pre-liberation' maps" and that Chou had not had the "time to review them". Nehru was also assured in 1956 that though Chou found the term "McMahon Line" repugnant, China would recognise this border with both Burma and India. Chou, however, had no more intention of fulfilling these assurances any more than he had of fulfilling Chinese commitments of May 23, 1951, to the Tibetans.
The Chinese describe the Dalai Lama as a "splittist," determined to secede from China. The reality is different. In September 1987, the Dalai Lama proposed a demilitarised and denuclearised Tibet, while recognising that independence for Tibet is no longer an option and that the most that the people of Tibet can aspire for is genuine autonomy within a united China. In his address on the Forty-Ninth Anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day on March 10, 2008, the Dalai Lama said: "Since 2002, my envoys have conducted six rounds of talks with officials of the People's Republic of China to discuss relevant issues. These discussions have helped to clear away some of their doubts and enabled us to explain our aspirations to them. However, on the fundamental issue there has been no concrete result at all. And during the past few years, Tibet has witnessed increased repression and brutality. In spite of these unfortunate developments, my stand and determination to pursue the middle-way policy and dialogue with the Chinese Government remain unchanged".
Tibet has since witnessed yet another uprising, which has been ruthlessly suppressed by the People's Liberation Army. China evidently believes that the use of brute force and a massive settlement of Han Chinese, reducing Tibetans to a minority in their own homeland, coupled with its status as a permanent member of the Security Council, gives it the right to do as it pleases in Tibet.
While addressing the EU Parliament in November 2003, India's former Ambassador to Bhutan, Mr Dalip Mehta, has alluded to the continuous weakening of India's position on Tibet. Referring to the assertion in the Joint Declaration signed during Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit to China that the "Tibetan Autonomous Region of China is part of the territory of China", Mr Mehta noted that by referring exclusively to the "Tibetan Autonomous Region", India had further damaged the Tibetan cause, as Amdo and Kham, regarded by Tibetans as part of Tibet, were excluded, and by implication their absorption into neighbouring provinces of China accepted. Sensing India's weakness, China has stepped up its rhetoric that the whole of Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China as it has historically been a part of 'south Tibet'. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in turn, has been deterred from visiting Tawang quite evidently because of Chinese "sensitivities." Sardar Patel's words about Chinese ambitions are proving prophetic.
New Delhi's statement on the recent repression let loose by China in Tibet is welcome. The Government has forthrightly stated that India is "distressed by reports of the unsettled situation and violence in Lhasa and by the deaths of innocent people". India should assert that while it regards Tibet as an autonomous region of China, it hopes that China will abide by the assurances it gave in the agreement it signed with representatives of the Dalai Lama in 1951. India should not yield to foreign pressure on its Tibet policy. American policies on China oscillate like a pendulum and India has periodically been at the receiving end of Sino-American collusion during the Nixon, Carter and Clinton presidencies.
The international community cannot, however, ignore the elements of racial discrimination involved in the manner in which Han Chinese entities like Hong Kong are granted extensive autonomy, while Tibetans are reduced to a minority and their traditional institutions dismantled in their homeland.
