Dalai Lama: Tibet in 'constant fear' under China

[oberliner]

Source: AP

DHARMSALA, India -- China has overseen a "brutal crackdown" in Tibet since protests shook the Himalayan region last year, part of decades of Chinese oppression that have driven Tibetan culture to the verge of extinction, the Dalai Lama said Tuesday.

The Tibetan spiritual leader made the comments in a speech to mark the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent him into exile.

"Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear, and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them," the Dalai Lama said in this Indian hill town, where he and the self-proclaimed government-in-exile have been based since shortly after fleeing their homeland.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/10/AR2009031000206.html?hpid=moreheadlines

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[Coventina]

2. Tibet's fight resonates in the Netherlands

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/region/asiapacific/090310-Tibet-Netherlands-mc

Fifty years ago today, the Dalai Lama fled Tibet to escape the wrath of the Chinese occupiers. After last year's high-profile protests by Tibetan monks, China has tightened its grip on Tibet and no one is being allowed in or out for the next few days. Many Dutch people sympathise strongly with Tibet's struggle for freedom.

Some 60,000 Dutch people donate money to the International Campaign for Tibet in the Netherlands. It's an impressive figure, especially when you compare it to the 75,000 donors in the United States, where the Campaign has its headquarters.

Where does this widespread Dutch support for Tibet come from? Michael Walt van Praag, the former director of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO), and legal advisor to the Dalai Lama, said:
"I think that in the Netherlands, people have a strong general sense of justice and injustice. Stronger than in many other countries. Just look at the Dutch support for the battle against apartheid in South Africa. It's a similar feeling of 'something needs to be done; we cannot allow this to continue'."

[xchrom]

3. kick

[Vehl]

4. rec and kick

[B Whale]

5. These are much stronger words than

he's used in the past, although i can't help feeling sticking to The middle way, somehow undermines the movement. I know a lot of younger Tibetans are frustrated by this moderate approach.

In politics its always better to aim further than you think you can go and compromise backwards. Sticking to independence as a goal may mean sometime in the (distant) future a compromise of the middle way and autonomy within china would be acheived. Starting with that position may mean the Chinese comperomising Tibet out of existence.

[Vehl]

6. exactly.

Nonviolence works only against democratic nations...not against one part states.

:(

[EFerrari]

7. Thank you, oberliner.

:kick: