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Tibetans from New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Charlottesville and Washington gather in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC to protest China's killings in Tibet. Monday, March 31 2008,Phayul photo:Tenzin Wangyal Tsuiltrim

A Tibetan Buddhist monk, centre, cries as he and fellow monks disrupted an official news briefing at the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibet's holiest shrines in capital Lhasa Thursday, March 27, 2008. About 30 Buddhist monks ambushed the government-managed tour, screaming that there was no religious freedom and that the Dalai Lama was not to blame for Lhasa's recent violence. The group protested against Chinese rule, as AP reporter at the scene described one young monk who yelled “Tibet is not free! Tibet is not free” and then burst into tears.

A Nepalese police go after a Tibetan monk protestor with a baton during a protest rally in front of the visa section of Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, 25 March 2008. Nepalese police on Tuesday arrested over 100 out of several hundreds of demonstrating Tibetans targeting the Chinese embassy as their campaign against Chinese rule in their homeland continue since their protests started nearly two weeks ago.
An Olympian headache for Beijing torch

Phayul[Thursday, April 03, 2008 06:52]

by Tenam Paris April 2: As Paris revealed the route that the Olympics torch will take, her Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said the city hall will sport a giant banner in defense of human rights when the Olympic flame arrives here on April 7. The historic Hotel de Ville, the city hall, will hang "a banner with the texts 'Paris defends human rights everywhere in the world' on city hall," Delanoe told a press conference today. The Socialist mayor said Paris hoped to defend the values "of all humanity and of human rights," saying all people "have the same right to dignity, and I am thinking in particular of the Tibetan people." Similarly French athletes are planning to wear a distinctive sign showing their concern about human rights during the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in August, double Olympic judo champion David Douillet said on Wednesday. "We have things to say and we will say them," Douillet, the joint president of the athletes' recommission of the French Olympic committee, told a news conference in Paris. On April 6, Tibetan Community of France will welcome former political prisoners of Drapchi prison and Team Tibet athletes when they arrive from London with the Tibetan Freedom Torch. The Beijing torch will arrive in Paris on 7 April from London. Tibetans, Tibetan supporters and other human rights activists have vowed to make their presence felt around the route. Tibetans will be joined by Tibetan supporters, Uighurs, Chinese democracy activist, Taiwanese student group, Vietnamese, Burmese, and Committee Organisation for Boycott of Beijing Games on 7 April at Trocadero near the Eiffel Tower for a day-long protest "against Chinese repression in Tibet and China and to defend Human Rights, justice, liberty and democracy in Asia", said a press release by the Tibetan Community of France.. "Every time the flame crosses a city we will be there to say, 'Don't forget the reality of Tibet, don't forget the reality of China’," said Reporter Sans Frontiers head Robert Menard, who is calling for a boycott of the August 8 Olympic opening ceremony. The first torch bearer in Paris will be former world 400 metres hurdles champion Stephane Diagana. "I think you can speak out and let the torch travel to Beijing as well but you must send the message to China that they failed to meet their commitments," Diagana was quoted as saying by Reuters. French pole vaulter Romain Mesnil, and the President of the Union of French Athletes pointed out that like most of his peers, he wants to show that the "athletes have a civic conscience and cannot close our eyes to the lack of progress of China vis-à-vis respect of human rights". He called on for an initiative by the athletes, suggesting they could wear a green ribbon during the Games in Beijing. About 80 athletes will carry the torch over a 28-kilometer route that begins from the first floor of Eiffel tower around 12:35 PM and snakes round the Trocadero, Arc de Triumph, down the famous Champs-Elysees street, then toward City Hall, then crosses over the river Seine to the left bank past the National Assembly, before ending at around 5 PM at the Charlety stadium in the southern edge of Paris.

Paris City Hall and athletes to highlight human rights during Olympic torch relay

AP[Thursday, April 03, 2008 06:49]

A banner supporting human rights will be draped over Paris City Hall when the Olympic torch relay passes through the French capital on Monday. Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said City Hall will display the banner because "Paris defends human rights all over the world." Delanoe spoke Wednesday at the announcement of the route for the torch relay, which will start at the Eiffel Tower. David Douillet, a two-time gold medalist in judo, said torch carriers will wear badges as a "distinctive sign" celebrating free expression, without saying what will be written on them. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) promised to protest China's crackdown on demonstrations in Tibet. Robert Menard, the group's president, condemned China as "the biggest prison in the world" and said his members would wear T-shirts during the relay with the five rings of the Olympic logo depicted as handcuffs. "(There is) a contradiction between the International Olympic Committee and human rights," said Menard, adding that not enough has been done by France's Olympic Committee (CNOSF) to pressure the IOC over China. "The French Olympic Committee did not want us to reach an understanding with us (over Tibet)," said Menard, who was wearing the handcuffs T-shirt. "We will take action the day of the procession." CNOSF president Henri Serandour backed Delanoe's banner initiative and called the procession "a message of peace," but urged RSF not to disrupt the relay because "respect must be shown to the athletes carrying this torch." About 80 athletes will carry the torch over a 28-kilometer (17.4-mile) route that snakes round the Trocadero, down the Champs-Elysees toward City Hall, then crosses over the river Seine to the left bank past the National Assembly, before ending at the Charlety track and field stadium. Protests in Tibet last month then spread to other parts of China. The Chinese government said 22 people died in the violence and crackdown, but Tibetan exiles claim about 140 people were killed. The violence has cast a spotlight on China's human rights record in the Himalayan region, and shattered the Chinese government's hopes for a peaceful run-up to the Olympics in August. The Chinese embassy in Paris doesn't want the route to pass the French parliament. "There have been many discussions with China's embassy. Our position is to keep the route the same," Serandour said. The Olympic Charter forbids any kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda during the games. Douillet, the 1996 and 2000 Olympic champion, said the badge will carry "a sign that is known by everyone." He added that no French athletes had told him they wish to boycott the Aug. 8-24 games. French pole vaulter Romain Mesnil wants athletes to wear green ribbons — the color of hope — in Beijing. The CNOSF won't allow its athletes to do that, but Douillet hopes the IOC will approve the badge. "We have found a solution that suits the CNOSF and which I hope will suit the IOC," Douillet said. Several athletes from around the world have already spoken out about China's human rights record. India soccer captain Bhaichung Bhutia has said he won't carry the torch in the global relay, while Norwegian cyclist Thor Hushovd is considering a boycott of the opening ceremony. Stephane Diagana, the 400-meter world champion in 1997 who is now president of France's national athletics league, will be the first to carry the torch on Monday. "They are not fooled, they are not party to what is happening in China," Diagana said of athletes around the world. "I am happy to see that a lot of athletes are asking themselves questions." Diagana called on the IOC to take a more prominent position with China. "The athletes expect a lot, expect that the IOC plays its role," Diagana said. "The IOC is not pressuring China enough, at least not in a visible way. "There are four months left ... it's worrying to see that the IOC is the only one that remains very, very discreet."

Olympics ban "not best way" on Tibet: White House

AFP[Thursday, April 03, 2008 06:05]

WASHINGTON, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - US Congressional moves to prevent President George W. Bush from going to the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony are "not the best way" to deal with the Tibet crisis, the White House said. A bill was introduced in the House of Representatives on Tuesday compelling the US leader to skip the ceremony while 15 lawmakers, both Republicans and Democrats, asked Bush to "renounce" his decision to attend games. The legislation wanted "to prohibit federal government officials and employees" from attending the Olympics opening session based upon China's "brutalizing protesters in Tibet." "We share concerns on Tibet and other issues, but efforts to prohibit US attendance at this international sporting event are not the best way to address them," said National Security Council spokeswoman Katherine Starr. She said the Olympics were "a time for the United States to support our great, young men and women athletes as they represent the best of this country." The US leader has said he plans to attend the Olympic Games in August despite calls for world leaders to boycott the ceremony in protest at the Chinese government's crackdown on demonstrations against its rule in Tibet. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will not attend the ceremony, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy has not ruled out following suit. Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at 135-140 people, with another 1,000 injured and many detained following protests that began in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on March 10 and escalated into rioting there four days later. China says Tibetan rioters killed 18 civilians and two police officers. Bush has already raised concerns over the bloody turmoil in Tibet with China's President Hu Jintao, seeking restraint and calling for the resumption of talks between Beijing and representatives of the Dalai Lama. "China should respect the rights of all its citizens," Starr said. The bill introduced Tuesday was the first legislation proposed in Congress since the Chinese crackdown in Tibet. West China, Tibet Unrest Tests Beijing AP[Thursday, April 03, 2008 05:37] By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN Wednesday, April 2, 2008 BEIJING - Unrest was reported Wednesday among Muslims in far western China, a headache for Beijing as it tries to squelch Tibetan protests and another sign that neither investment nor repression has ended anti-government feeling in the hinterlands. The protests in Xinjiang create new problems for Beijing as it tries to contain demonstrations while fending off criticism of its treatment of minorities ahead of this summer's Beijing Olympics. Meanwhile, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Beijing since a deadly March 14 anti-government riot in the Tibetan capital, said he appealed to Chinese leaders to engage their critics. "I expressed our concerns about the violence and urged a peaceful resolution through dialogue," Paulson said. He declined to specify to which officials he made the appeal. The reports about the latest unrest in Xinjiang described disturbances last month at a bazaar in the city of Hotan, deep in the Muslim Uighur minority's cultural heartland. A local government statement said a "tiny number of people" tried to create an incident March 23 "under the flag of separatism." A local government spokesman blamed the protest on Uighur separatists whom he accused of seizing on the Tibet unrest to call attention to their independence cause. "These people are splittists responding to the Tibetan riots," the spokesman, Fu Chao, said. He said dozens were arrested, but only the "core splittists" remained in custody. U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia and an overseas Uighur activist reported earlier that the demonstrators were demanding the right for Uighur women to wear head scarves and the release of political prisoners. The rare official confirmation of the Xinjiang protest appeared to signal the government's sensitivity to unrest, said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch. "It was out already, so they were forced to react rapidly," he said. Linking the protesters to events in Tibet was a way of portraying them as opportunistic and thereby undermining any real grievances, he said. Faced with local opposition, China has employed the twin policies of economic development and repression in both Xinjiang and Tibet, believing that would win over the masses while crushing dissent. Opposition has continued, however, mainly peacefully in Tibet, but sometimes accompanied by violence in Xinjiang; authorities this year claimed to have foiled a Uighur terror plot targeting the Olympics and an attempt to crash a commercial airliner. The incident in Hotan came nine days after the deadly rioting in Lhasa set off the largest and most sustained wave of protests in Tibetan areas of western China in almost two decades. China accuses supporters of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of orchestrating the violence and planning future attacks by "suicide squads." The Dalai Lama has denied any links to the violence and urged an independent inquiry into the unrest _ something China has repeatedly ruled out. Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before communist troops invaded in 1950, while radical Islamic groups in Xinjiang have battled Chinese rule through a low-intensity campaign of bombings and assassination. Uighurs, pronounced "Wee-gers," are a Central Asian people related to Turks whose language, customs and religion are distinct from those of most Chinese. Beijing has pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into the regions in hope that economic development would squelch anti-communist sentiment. Yet intense police and army repression may have undermined such gains, with Tibetans and Uighurs complaining of restrictions on religion, economic disenfranchisement and the watering down of their culture and language.