03-20-2008, 08:41 PM
<b>China announces arrests in Tibet crackdown</b>
Mar 20, 2008
<b>BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities arrested 24 suspects for "grave crimes" after troops cracked down on anti-Chinese riots that swept the mountain region, casting a shadow over preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games.</b>
The prosecutor's office in the local capital Lhasa said the suspects were arrested for "endangering national security as well as beating, smashing, looting, arson and other grave crimes" in bloody riots on Friday, the Tibet Daily reported on Thursday.
More arrests are likely to follow, although <b>some outside groups say hundreds of Tibetans may have already been detained.</b>
China's unyielding response to the unrest has brought demands for a boycott of the Games opening ceremony in August. The Olympic torch relay across 19 countries that starts next week, and which will also pass through Tibet, is likely to be dogged by protests.
<b>Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government was considering whether to send a delegation to the ceremony to start the Aug. 8-24 Games.
"If the situation does not change, we will want to express our criticism in regards of what is going on in China. I do not exclude that (shunning) the inauguration celebrations of the Olympics would be a way to mark this," Tusk said.</b>
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama urged the United States to speak out for human rights in Tibet following the crackdown. The Bush administration has urged China to show restraint, as has the European Union.
The eruption of Tibetan discontent against the Chinese presence brought bloody rioting to Lhasa on Friday, and ripples of unrest have continued across Tibet and neighbouring areas.
Beijing launched a sweeping counter-offensive in Tibet and neighbouring provinces that are home to many ethnic Tibetans. Troops have poured into isolated towns on winding mountain roads, and foreign reporters are barred from the area.
"The facts of the crimes are clear and the evidence is solid, and they should be severely punished," a Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor, Xie Yanjun, said, according to the news report carried on the Tibet government Website.
Beijing responded with clear irritation to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plan, announced on Wednesday, to meet the Dalai Lama on a visit to Britain in May.
China's Foreign Ministry said it was seriously concerned by the planned meeting, urging Britain to recognise the Dalai Lama was trying to divide China "under the camouflage of religion".
<b>Minxin Pei, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank in Washington, called the unrest a "nasty surprise for Beijing" after 20 years of relatively untroubled control in Tibet.</b>
"The Chinese government is now engaged in a damage control PR campaign...the last thing the Chinese government wants to see is some eruption of similar violence or protest closer to the Olympics," he said.
<b>China Human Rights Watch, a New York-based monitoring group, said it had unconfirmed reports suggesting hundreds of arrests.</b>
State media have poured vitriol on the Dalai Lama, using language that echoes past political purges in the Communist country. The Tibet Daily said Buddhist monks who joined the riots had betrayed their faith.
"They are not real followers of Buddha but hidden separatists," the paper said, calling the Dalai Lama a "running dog of Western anti-China forces."
Mar 20, 2008
<b>BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese authorities arrested 24 suspects for "grave crimes" after troops cracked down on anti-Chinese riots that swept the mountain region, casting a shadow over preparations for the Beijing Olympic Games.</b>
The prosecutor's office in the local capital Lhasa said the suspects were arrested for "endangering national security as well as beating, smashing, looting, arson and other grave crimes" in bloody riots on Friday, the Tibet Daily reported on Thursday.
More arrests are likely to follow, although <b>some outside groups say hundreds of Tibetans may have already been detained.</b>
China's unyielding response to the unrest has brought demands for a boycott of the Games opening ceremony in August. The Olympic torch relay across 19 countries that starts next week, and which will also pass through Tibet, is likely to be dogged by protests.
<b>Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government was considering whether to send a delegation to the ceremony to start the Aug. 8-24 Games.
"If the situation does not change, we will want to express our criticism in regards of what is going on in China. I do not exclude that (shunning) the inauguration celebrations of the Olympics would be a way to mark this," Tusk said.</b>
U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama urged the United States to speak out for human rights in Tibet following the crackdown. The Bush administration has urged China to show restraint, as has the European Union.
The eruption of Tibetan discontent against the Chinese presence brought bloody rioting to Lhasa on Friday, and ripples of unrest have continued across Tibet and neighbouring areas.
Beijing launched a sweeping counter-offensive in Tibet and neighbouring provinces that are home to many ethnic Tibetans. Troops have poured into isolated towns on winding mountain roads, and foreign reporters are barred from the area.
"The facts of the crimes are clear and the evidence is solid, and they should be severely punished," a Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor, Xie Yanjun, said, according to the news report carried on the Tibet government Website.
Beijing responded with clear irritation to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plan, announced on Wednesday, to meet the Dalai Lama on a visit to Britain in May.
China's Foreign Ministry said it was seriously concerned by the planned meeting, urging Britain to recognise the Dalai Lama was trying to divide China "under the camouflage of religion".
<b>Minxin Pei, at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank in Washington, called the unrest a "nasty surprise for Beijing" after 20 years of relatively untroubled control in Tibet.</b>
"The Chinese government is now engaged in a damage control PR campaign...the last thing the Chinese government wants to see is some eruption of similar violence or protest closer to the Olympics," he said.
<b>China Human Rights Watch, a New York-based monitoring group, said it had unconfirmed reports suggesting hundreds of arrests.</b>
State media have poured vitriol on the Dalai Lama, using language that echoes past political purges in the Communist country. The Tibet Daily said Buddhist monks who joined the riots had betrayed their faith.
"They are not real followers of Buddha but hidden separatists," the paper said, calling the Dalai Lama a "running dog of Western anti-China forces."