Woeser: Voice of Tibet

Despite Chinas tight control over information flow within its society, a growing number of Tibetan literary elites are playing an important role writing, blogging and interacting with the Chinese populace, voicing their minds through stories, poems, and blogs. The focus of our discussion today is Tsering Woeser, who is at the forefront of this movement, speaking, blogging and constantly challenging Chinese authorities, fighting hackers, arrests and detention. She remains unemployed, her blogs shut down, and her movements restricted but yet she has become one of Chinas greatest woman writers. Our panelists today will speak of her life in context with this new movement of Tibetan literary elites and the struggles that they have to overcome everyday.

China blocked access to YouTube.com on Sunday after dozens of videos of recent protests in Tibet appeared on the popular U.S. video Web site.

The blocking added to the communist government's efforts to control what the public saw and heard about protests that erupted Friday in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule.

Access to YouTube.com, usually readily available in China, was blocked after videos appeared on the site Saturday showing foreign news reports about the Lhasa demonstrations, montages of photos, and scenes from Tibet-related protests abroad.

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Statement on Tibet, China and the Dalai Lama

"We the undersigned Nobel Peace Prize Laureates, human rights leaders and concerned individuals wish to express our concern at the current deterioration of the human rights situation in Tibet, and the apparent breakdown of the talks between the Chinese government and emissaries of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. We are dismayed at the lack of any concrete progress toward resolving the conflict over the autonomy and religious freedom of the Tibetan people, and urge all parties involved to redouble their effort to achieve this vital goal.

"To our dear friend His Holiness the Dalai Lama, we say: we stand with you. You define non-violence and compassion and goodness. Clearly China does not know you. It is our sincere hope that they will. We call on China's government to know His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as we and so many others have come to know him during the long decades he has spent in exile.

"We ask the esteemed Navi Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet, and request that she be given access to assess and report to the international community the current state of affairs for the Tibetan people. The High Commissioner should be allowed to travel with journalists and other observers and, working with all parties involved, assist in bringing these decades of struggle to a peaceful resolution.

"China is uniquely positioned to impact and affect our world. We ask you to please use this position to improve our world by listening to the voices of the Tibetan people, and creating a new solution for Tibet that allows this culture to flourish.

"This will help not only Tibet. It will help China. It will demonstrate to us that China is willing to be a responsible partner in international global affairs.

"Finally, we ask that China stop naming, blaming and verbally abusing one whose life has been devoted to peace. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is not simply a holy man. He is recognized throughout the world as one of our few true moral authorities. He is a teacher who has shown us all how to live our lives with compassion, non-violence and love."

In Ernest,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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Tibetan people put through 'hell'

The Dalai Lama has launched a fierce attack on Chinese rule in his Tibetan homeland, saying his people had experienced "hell on Earth".

Five decades of Chinese rule had caused "untold suffering", Tibet's exiled spiritual leader said, accusing Beijing of creating a climate of fear. He also repeated his demand for Tibet's "legitimate and meaningful autonomy". His words came on the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese troops which led to his exile.

The BBC's James Reynolds in Beijing says that the Dalai Lama's words were different from his usual peaceful comments. This is perhaps a sign of the exasperation and frustration he must feel over China's stance, our correspondent says. China says its troops freed Tibetans from effective slavery in a feudal society. It is planning to mark 28 March - the day in 1959 on which the Communist Party dissolved the existing local government in Tibet - as Serfs' Emancipation Day. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu described the Dalai Lama's statement as "lies". "The Dalai Lama clique is confusing right and wrong. They are spreading rumours. The democratic reforms [under Chinese rule] are the widest and most profound reforms in Tibetan history," he said, quoted by AFP news agency. On Monday, President Hu Jintao called for a "Great Wall" against Tibetan separatism.

Thousands of Chinese troops and paramilitary police are said to have been deployed in Tibetan-populated regions amid fears of fresh violence on the sensitive anniversary.

Campaign groups have already reported some unrest in areas around Tibet. China does not allow foreign journalists unrestricted access to Tibet or restive areas surrounding it, making it extremely difficult to verify these reports.

Beijing says it has tightened its border controls in preparation for "expected sabotage activities by the Dalai Lama clique". But there have been demonstrations around the Asia-Pacific region. Four people were arrested in clashes with police outside the Chinese embassy in the Australian capital Canberra but later released. In Nepal about 100 Tibetan exiles were blocked by police outside Kathmandu, as the government imposed a ban on protests outside the Chinese embassy, AFP news agency reported.

The Dalai Lama said hundreds of thousands of Tibetans had been killed, and thousands of places of worship destroyed.

But the two sides needed to work for "mutual benefit". "We Tibetans are looking for legitimate and meaningful autonomy, an arrangement that would enable Tibetans to live within the framework of the People's Republic of China," the exiled leader said. "I have no doubt that the justice of Tibet's cause will prevail." The Dalai Lama paid tribute to all those who had died since 1959, including victims of last year's deadly protests in Lhasa that spilled over into other ethnic Tibetan regions.

Successive Chinese campaigns - class struggle, the Cultural Revolution and "patriotic re-education" - had "thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth", he said from his seat in exile in India's Dharamsala.

"Even today Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them."

Tibet's religion, culture, language and identity were "nearing extinction", he said, and Chinese development was devastating the Tibetan environment and way of life.

He repeated an accusation that China has killed "hundreds of thousands of his people". "Many infrastructural developments... which seem to have brought progress to Tibetan areas were really done with the political objective of Sinicising Tibet," he added.

China has always denied any mass killings of Tibetans.

Referring to his "Middle Way approach" - offering to accept Chinese sovereignty in Tibet in return for genuine autonomy - the 73-year-old leader expressed disappointment that China had "not responded appropriately to our sincere efforts".

But he said the two sides should "look to the future and work for our mutual benefit".

"Fulfilling the aspirations of the Tibetan people will enable China to achieve stability and unity," he added.

The latest round of stop-start talks with Beijing last November concluded with China condemning the Tibetans' proposals as a bid for "disguised independence".

Our correspondent says it is very difficult to see where progress can happen at the moment.

In a separate statement, the Tibetan government-in-exile pledged to continue to push the "Middle Way approach" but said the continuation of contact depended solely on China.

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Beijing's Uneven Reporting of the Turmoil in Tibet

Above is the uncropped photo with a Chinese policeman in disguise holding a knife, distributed to news media by the Chinese Embassy. Below is a copy of the picture of the same scene in Lhasa but with the man with the knife now missing, which was distributed after the man's identity was revealed at a rally in Darmasala.

Montage of pictures from Tibetan riots.

The Chinese government-controlled media was silent for nearly a week after the bloody conflict broke out in Tibet. In the last few days, however, the media have used photos from the crackdown to show images of "rioting" Tibetans.
On March 22, the cover story of Xinhua.Net, official voice of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), included photos of the "Truth about the March 14 Lhasa Riot." One of the photos appears to have been staged by the CCP. It showed a policeman, dressed as a Tibetan, wielding a knife and damaging property. This finding cast doubt on the reliability of the CCP reports.
In addition, the CCP accounts of events have been inconsistent. Xinhua reported that some areas were placed under martial law by paramilitary police, who "shot into the sky." However, the local authorities initially said that they "did not fire a single shot." At first the CCP was adamant that no Tibetans were shot. Recently, they have admitted that some Tibetans were shot and killed "out of self-defense."
China Initially Silent
The Tibetan protest was the largest since 1989. The Chinese government reported 10 fatalities, while the Tibetan government in exile said that more than 100 Tibetans were killed.
Eight days after the conflict began, Xinhua.Net published a cover story about the conflict that criticized the Tibetan movement. It also reported "evidence" of rioting by the Tibetan people.
For full coverage please see Repression in Tibet
Usually when a brutal suppression such as this happens, the CCP engages the entire propaganda machine to frame the victims and hide its own crimes. This time, the CCP media were initially silent about the crackdown. Even reports by the local authorities in Tibet were extremely brief.
Analysts believe that the CCP is betting all its chips on the Olympic games. Although the human rights issue is frequently raised and has bothered the CCP, it has not been heightened to the extent of turning the opinions of international media. In addition, the CCP appears to think it should be able to control international public opinion until the Games begin in August.
March 10 is a politically "sensitive" date in Tibet. The CCP is usually on high alert for problems. It was therefore unusual for the unrest to occur under the CCP's close watch.
The CCP was put on the defensive when photos of Tibetans being killed were published online. The CCP found itself in a precarious situation and had to tell its version of the story in order to control public opinion.
The media were silent at first then suddenly focused on the situation in Tibet. It is difficult to say whether this was because of inadequate coordination or different opinions, within the government, about how to handle the situation. Policeman Dressed as a Tibetan
An interpreter from the Dalai Lama's Office told a Sound of Hope Radio reporter that a Chinese woman living in Thailand, who was traveling in Lhasa on March 14, saw a man, dressed as a Tibetan and holding a knife, join the riot. Later, she recognized him as a policeman in BBC TV footage and in news photos provided by the CCP.
The woman told a Tibetan organization in India what she had seen. At a gathering on March 17, the organization publicized the photos. The CCP embassy provided two sets of photos to the media. The fake "Tibetan" man had been removed from the second set.
However, perhaps due to the lack of communication, the "modified" photo was not sent to Xinhua.Net. As of March 22, a photo of the "armed Tibetan man" was still being published on Xinhua.Net as evidence of the need to use violence to control the Tibetan people.
Denial of Shootings
Another key issue is whether the police were firing at the rioters. According to sources in China, the Lhasa Police Bureau issued a statement on March 14, that allowed paramilitary police and police to shoot protesters.
However, since the very beginning, the CCP has denied the use of guns. At one point, it admitted to "shooting at the sky." It wasn't until the international community showed photos of Tibetans being shot that the CCP admitted to using guns "out of self-defense" on March 16 in Sichuan. The CCP claimed that four people were injured.
These contradictory statements are reminiscent of the CCP statement during the Tiananmen Square Massacre: "No bullets were shot on Tiananmen Square, and no one was killed."
Expelling Outside Media
As soon as the conflict started, the CCP expelled over a dozen reporters from Tibet, Hong Kong, and mainland provinces close to Tibet, using the excuse that they were protecting the reporter's personal safety. However, it also confiscated all audio and visual material obtained by those reporters.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association protested this treatment. Many other outside media expressed disappointment over the severe censorship. Such actions are causing concern about whether international media can openly and truthfully report on the Olympic games in the way the CCP promised it would allow.