Author: Saibal Dasgupta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: March 15, 2008
If there's one thing China would have wanted
to avoid in an Olympics year, it's memories of Tiananmen Square. But those
very images were reignited on the streets of Lhasa as Red Army tanks rolled
out to crush Tibetan protesters on Saturday. While the official Chinese media
claimed only ten people had died in Friday's violence, Tibetan activists said
the toll could be anywhere between 30 and 100.
Elsewhere in China, as in the central province
of Gansu where the revered Labrang monastery is located, normally peaceful
monks turned the streets into a sea of maroon and similar protests, with their
epicentre near Lhasa's Potala Palace, were reported from areas with large
Tibetan settlements.
The official tourist bureau told TOI that
tourists to the Roof of the World had been forbidden from entering the city
from Friday.
The protests began on Monday to coincide with
the 49th anniversary of the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule. They were
initially led by Buddhist monks but have since escalated to include masses
of ordinary Tibetans who have been complaining of Beijing's heavy-handed rule
and the massive influx of Chinese migrants.
According to sources in the Tibetan capital,
the tension between the two ethnic groups erupted into full-fledged riots
on Friday as the Tibetan monks' were joined by the common people in their
peaceful demonstrations. Although they said many people had died in the Han-Tibetan
clashes, it could not be immediately confirmed how many had died in group
riots and how many were victims of police action.
