Nepal deports US climber over Tibet flag row

KATHMANDU: Nepal on Monday deported an American climber who fell foul of strict regulations banning pro-Tibet protests on Mount Everest, a tourism official said.

"We sent William Brant Holland back to his country. He was escorted to the airport by tourism police on Monday afternoon and deported," Prem Rai, spokesman for Nepal's ministry of tourism, said. He was also banned from climbing in the country for two years.

Nepal has imposed strict new regulations on its side of the world's highest peak in a bid to forestall pro-Tibet protests when a Chinese expedition carries the Beijing Olympics torch to the world's highest peak by mid-May.

Security forces have been authorised to use guns against any protesters and have severely restricted communications on the 8,848-metre (29,028-feet) high mountain until the official expedition is over.

Everest, which straddles the border between Nepal and Tibet has two approaches, one through Nepal and the other through Chinese-controlled Tibet. All climbing apart from the Olympic torch expedition has been banned on the northern approach.

Nepal has said climbers cannot go higher than Everest's Camp II, situated at 6,500 metres, until May 10, when the Olympic expedition is expected to have finished. Holland was sent back from the world's highest peak last week after security forces found a pro-Tibet banner in his belongings.

He "breached the terms and conditions of the permit we issued him, which states that climbers are not allowed to engage in any kind of pro-Tibet activities," another tourism official said.

"The government decided to withhold permission for him to climb any mountain in Nepal for the next two years," said Rai, the tourism ministry spokesman.

Dalai Lama says no use talking if China not 'serious'

NEW DELHI (AFP) — The Dalai Lama on Sunday warned talks with China would be pointless unless Beijing was "serious" about finding a solution to the Tibetan issue.

"We have had six rounds of talks but nothing happened and this time if China is serious then it is good, but if it wants to show the world that 'we are talking' then there is no use in meeting," the Dalai Lama's spokesman Tenzin Takla told AFP.

"We have to consider everything," he added.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency announced Friday that Beijing would meet an envoy of the Tibetan leader for talks in the coming days.

The latest comments came amid reports that Lodhi Gyari, a special envoy of the Tibetan spiritual leader who has headed previous rounds of inconclusive talks with China since 2002, would arrive in India on Wednesday.

Takla confirmed envoy Gyari's planned trip but did not elaborate except to say he would travel to the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala for "consultations" with the self-exiled Tibetan leadership.

The spokesman of the 72-year-old Nobel laureate also said there was an urgent need to reopen contacts as the Chinese crackdown in the Tibetan region had been stepped up.

"Ongoing repression inside Tibet has been stepped up," Takla said by telephone from Dharamsala, where the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile are based.

"Army troops are surrounding monasteries and arrests are going on," Takla said of the Chinese crackdown which followed deadly anti-Beijing riots that erupted in the regional capital Lhasa on March 10.

"And His Holiness feels to solve the problems we have to meet for talks," the official said.

Analysts say the offer by China, which hosts the August Olympics in Beijing, was a response to the intense global pressure over its crackdown in the remote Himalayan region.

The Dalai Lama returned to Dharamshala on Saturday from a foreign tour.

US: China must talk to Dalai Lama

China must enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama and stop vilifying the exiled spiritual leader if it is serious about improving the situation in Tibet, the second most senior US diplomat has said.
Speaking at a briefing to US senators on Wednesday, John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of state, said Beijing should "seize the opportunity" to engage Tibetans who oppose violence and who are not seeking independence for the autonomous region.

"If Beijing does not engage with the Dalai Lama now, it will only serve to strengthen those who advocate extreme views," he said of China's angry tirade since protests erupted across Tibet in March.

"Public vilification of the Dalai Lama will not help defuse the situation."

Negroponte said China would not achieve stability in the Himalayan region under its rule unless it resolves long-standing grievances and is able to work with the Buddhist leader.
"Through outreach and genuine dialogue, China and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the vast majority of Tibetans, can begin to bridge differences, explore the meaning of genuine autonomy and address long-standing grievances," he said.
Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of inciting the March 14 riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, and the ensuing unrest in other ethnic Tibetan areas, saying it was part of a bid for Tibetan independence and to ruin the upcoming Olympic Games.
The Dalai Lama has denied that he orchestrated the unrest, and said he wants autonomy for Tibet and not an independent state.
The US has been trying to persuade China to talk to the Dalai Lama and for diplomats and other observers to be allowed into Tibet.
The lack of access has been a cause for concern because China has reportedly detained some 4,000 people and "reports of mistreatment of detainees are numerous", Negroponte told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Noting China's "minimal" response to the suggestions, he said it was a US priority to establish a permanent diplomatic presence in Lhasa.
Negroponte said while the US was against any boycott of the Beijing Olympics it was deeply troubled by reports of bloodshed and arrests Tibet.
He acknowledged that the widespread calls for a boycott reflected real concerns with China's human rights record.
George Bush, the US president, has said he will use his presence at the games in August to raise human rights issues directly with Chinese leaders.
Senior US legislators have urged Bush to skip the ceremonies.
Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, have both said they will not attend the Olympic opening ceremonies.

China seals gateway into Tibet, stops refugee flow out

By DENIS D. GRAY Source: AP

FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE, Nepal-Tibet Border (AP) — Three lithe Chinese security men shift silently into position so they are anchored abreast exactly midway across Friendship Bridge, high above a Himalayan river gorge.

It's the only international gateway into Tibet. As a small group of foreigners approaches, the guards' unspoken message is clear: the rebellious territory behind them is off-limits.

After anti-government riots erupted March 14, Beijing closed off Tibet to foreign and domestic tourists and cracked down on Tibetans trying to escape. And China's security apparatus doesn't stop at the border.

Chinese security police in athletic wear can be seen lounging in tea shops and strolling the sole street in the border town of Liping. They shadow three Associated Press journalists from the moment they arrive, ordering them not to take photographs — on Nepalese territory.

And in the capital Katmandu, Tibetan exiles say China is pressuring the Nepalese government to crush anti-Chinese activities by the world's second-largest Tibetan exile community.

"The Chinese asked us unofficially to cooperate on securing the border. They are far stricter now," said one Nepali immigration official, requesting anonymity since he was not authorized to speak to the press. "Even an Austrian lady who was studying Chinese in Lhasa (Tibet's capital) was not allowed to enter."

Before the current unrest, some 1,500 foreigners a month would make the rough, four-hour car journey on a Chinese-built road from Katmandu to the border and then on to Lhasa.

Now, Chinese authorities have reversed an earlier decision to reopen Tibet to tourism on May 1, tour operators in Beijing said last week. There has been no official indication of when the border would reopen. The International Campaign for Tibet, a U.S.-based activist group, says it has information the region may remain sealed until after the Beijing Olympics in August.

"This is the high season, so we should be getting a full house, but we have very few guests," said Pabitra Mager, a manager at Liping's Lhasa Guest House. "We can only hope that the border will reopen soon."

Officials in Beijing also have declined to comment on troop deployments. But Nepalese frontier officials say there has been a significant increase in border patrols. A woman who answered the telephone at the Public Security Bureau in Zhang Mu, the Tibetan town opposite Liping, also said that more police and troops have been dispatched to the region. She declined to give her name.

The buildup also means no exit from Tibet. No refugees have registered at the U.N.-run Tibetan Reception Center in Katmandu since March 18. A spokesman of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Nini Gurung, said normally 200-250 flee into Nepal each month, discounting winter snows still on the mountains as a major factor for the dramatic drop.

Refugees avoid the well guarded Friendship Bridge zone, braving instead some of the world's most treacherous terrain — mountain passes as high as 16,400 feet often swept by sudden snow storms — along the 878-mile border.

In the past, some have been gunned down by Chinese guards or sentenced to long jail terms after capture. A few have been abused and forcibly repatriated by the Nepalese, despite a 1989 "gentlemen's agreement" with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

The pact allows refugees to remain in Nepal while they are processed by the agency. Then they are sent to India, home of the world's largest Tibetan exile community and its spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

China has provided substantial development aid to Nepal over the past decade, increasing its leverage. Activists say China could pressure Nepal to crack down on some 6,000 among the 20,000 Tibetan exiles without legal status in Nepal and go after exile groups which stage almost daily anti-Chinese protests in Katmandu.

Under pressure from Beijing, Nepal closed the representative office of the Dalai Lama in 2005 and last year deregistered the Bhota Welfare Office, a local organization assisting Tibetans.

"China already had a very heavy footprint in Nepal and after the protests it will get even bigger, making the Tibetan refugees very vulnerable," says Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet.

Saunders said Chinese security officials have been right behind Nepali riot police and have directed suppression of protests. "China has been given a free rein in Katmandu," she said.

Local journalists covering the demonstrations have also seen Chinese personnel, although no indication they were issuing instructions to police.

Home Ministry spokesman Modraj Dotel denied Chinese security gives the orders, saying the protests violate Nepal's rules. "We have a one-China policy and won't allow any protests or activities against China in Nepal," he said.

Nepalis, meanwhile, have been partially exempt from the frontier clampdown. Visas for businessmen going to Lhasa are still granted and cross-border business continues. Traders cross the bridge on foot or in trucks, hauling in apples, Lhasa beer, perfumed laundry powder, wool blankets, rice cookers and mobile telephones. ("Very cheap, but they only last two months," jokes a Nepali woman in Liping).

Tibetan protestors detained in Nepal

Police have detained at least 24 Tibetans trying to protest in front of the Chinese embassy in Nepal's capital Kathmandu.

Tibetan exiles suspended their protests until the completion of Nepal's recent national election.

Police broke up the fresh demonstrations and took protesters into vans in front of the consulate.

Other protesters, including monks and nuns, shouted anti China slogans as they were chased away by police.

Dalai Lama: Talks underway with China

The 14th Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama says a group of his representatives are negotiating with Chinese officials to find a solution to the Tibet issue.

Giving no details about the content of talks, The Dalai Lama told reporters on Sunday that he had not been directly involved in the newly-launched talks.

Western leaders have encouraged China to resume negotiations with the Dalai Lama amid unrest in Tibet, which began on March 10.

On Saturday, China's President Hu Jintao accused the Dalai Lama of encouraging violence.

Hu left open the door for dialogue but only if the other side stops violence and "sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games."

However, the Dalai Lama, who is in Seattle for a conference, said he was unaware of the comments by the Chinese president and again denied any role in the violence.

He noted that he had also been criticized by some Tibetans who have said his strategy of nonviolence has produced little change.

He reiterated that he does not seek independence for Tibet but what he calls for is more genuine autonomy.

Bush aide's Nepal, Tibet flub

by Frank James

When Stephen Hadley, President Bush's National Security Adviser, repeatedly and erroneously referred to Nepal instead of Tibet on ABC News's "This Week" on Sunday during a discussion of whether President Bush would attend the Olympic opening ceremonies in Beijing, many of us just assumed it was a senior moment.

Many, but not all. Some people apparently thought he could've meant it intentionally, especially since on an earlier Sunday talk show he had gotten it right.

For instance, this is from Daily Kos:


Very curious -- is Hadley just a moron? Or is there some diplomacy reason that someone would tell him to actively switch from "Tibet" to "Nepal" between shows?


Or how about the other option, that Hadley just had a moment of brain fade, especially since George Stephanopoulos, host of this week, had just had a discussion with President Jimmy Carter about Nepal?

It's just another example of how the Bush Administration by its actions has helped to create such an air of distrust among many Americans, that when a top Bush aide makes an obvious gaffe, it takes on an ominous meaning.

What many of us saw was a flub by a man who probably spends a lot more time looking for his car keys than he used to, an experience many of us can relate to.

Almost as jarring as hearing the president's National Security Adviser repeatedly cite the wrong Asian country was that Stephanopoulos didn't step in to correct Hadley which is what he normally does in a situation like that. Was he having a premature senior moment too?

Dalai Lama Urges Hope for the Future

SEATTLE (AP) — Still avoiding direct discussion of the situation in Tibet, the Dalai Lama on Saturday urged people to have hope for the future and to look past a century of bloodshed and toward a period of dialogue.

The spiritual leader of Tibet delivered his keynote speech to more than 50,000 people during the second day of a five-day conference on compassion.

Before the Dalai Lama's speech, Lama Tenzin Dhonden, a Tibetan monk who spearheaded the Seeds of Compassion event, told the crowd that Tibet seeks only autonomy.

"Granting autonomy would be good for Tibet and also good for China, but autonomy requires China's commitment to serious dialogue," he said.

The Dalai Lama says he will address the crisis in Tibet at a news conference early Sunday.

Organizers of the Seeds of Compassion say the event is essentially nonpolitical, but references to Tibet have been sprinkled throughout the first two days.

This century has become one of bloodshed, the Dalai Lama said.

"I think it is our own responsibility to make this century be century of dialogue," he said. He also called for world disarmament, saying "constant war" is outdated.

"The concept of nonviolence (is) not just mere absence of violence; nonviolence means facing problems with determination, vision," he said.

The Dalai Lama fled to India after a failed uprising in 1959 in Tibet, but he remains the religious and cultural leader of many Tibetans. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Recent protests in Tibet against five decades of Chinese rule have been the largest and most sustained in almost two decades and have fueled protests that have disrupted the global torch relay for this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.

China has accused the Dalai Lama of being involved in the uprising. He has said that he wants greater autonomy for the remote mountain region but is not seeking independence.

In Sanya, China, meanwhile, Chinese President Hu Jintao said Tibetan issues are for China to deal with alone.

In his first comments on the unrest, the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Hu as saying Saturday that the matter is "entirely an internal issue of China."

Hu said China's conflict with followers of the Dalai Lama is not an issue of ethics, religion or human rights. He said it is a problem "either to safeguard national unification or to split the motherland."

A handful of pro-China demonstrators distributed flyers in the sunshine outside some entrances to Seattle's Qwest Field as people filed into the football stadium.

The flyers listed the benefits of China's presence in Tibet and criticized violence brought by pro-Tibet protesters in China. The demonstrators said they were students from the University of Washington and not affiliated with specific groups.

Ying Xiong, 30, said the group of volunteers were there to voice the other side of the issue because most people get the news from biased media.

Students for a Free Tibet — which hung banners off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco — also was present, selling buttons to raise money for their efforts to protest the Olympics.

Dalai Lama kicks off Seattle visit with 3 events

By Janet I. Tu
Seattle Times religion reporter
MIKE SIEGEL / THE SEATTLE TIMES

The moment came early, during the Dalai Lama's opening remarks to thousands gathered at the University of Washington's Edmundson Pavilion.
The Tibetan Buddhist leader had been speaking of serious things: violence, negative emotions and other problems in the world. Younger people would have to face serious consequences, he said.
But his generation? Not so much, because it was "ready to say goodbye," he said with a playful smile and a childlike opening and closing of his hand to gesture bye-bye.
The crowd burst into laughter.
It was a lovefest here Friday for the Dalai Lama. Nearly 22,000 people attended his three public appearances on the first of five days the Nobel Peace Prize winner is spending in Seattle for a series of events designed to nurture compassion.

The crowds gave him standing ovations as he walked onto, and left, the stages. They laughed as he punctuated his sometimes long and discursive answers with playful, pithy comments. And they applauded his views on the need for a calm mind and right perspective.

And for his part, the Dalai Lama was charming and warm, dressed in saffron and maroon robes, sitting sometimes cross-legged in an armchair, consulting with a translator occasionally but for the most part speaking English on his own.

The 73-year-old Buddhist monk took part in panels on the science behind compassion and early childhood development; on putting that knowledge into action, and on music and media with musician Dave Matthews and "Today" news anchor Ann Curry.

In his first appearance of the day, at Edmundson Pavilion, the Dalai Lama said "it seems that more and more people, particularly from the scientific fields, particularly medical science [are] now showing interest" in how emotions are important to a person's well-being.

He leaned forward, listening attentively as scientists talked about how children learn by imitating adults, and how that lays the groundwork for fostering empathy. He showed interest in how meditation can lead to changes in the brain.

The Dalai Lama said he thinks some part of compassion is biological. All animals — humans included — have something to gain from being compassionate toward others, he said.
He drew a difference between limited compassion and unlimited compassion, saying the first is biased and the second is not.
You can't be compassionate only toward people you like or toward people who are the same as you, he said. You must also be compassionate toward people whose ideas you don't agree with.
Even Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin had "the basic human nature," he said.
If you limit your kindness and compassion to people with whom you already have something in common, than you're weakening yourself, he said.
But when he finished, there was silence. The Dalai Lama laughed. "I don't know, is that right or wrong? Please make correction," he said, to the laughter and applause of the audience.

In the afternoon, he moved to KeyArena to talk with experts who are working on ways to raise healthier children.

John and Becky Augsburger, both 44 and lifelong Catholics who live in Olympia, came to the event because they want to teach their three children how to be better people.

And "it's just a rare opportunity to see someone in person who's had such an impact on the world, spiritually and politically," John Augsburger said. "We're very excited."

Huan Do, 36, a Buddhist who lives in Seattle, wanted to see the man he believes to be one of the living Buddhas.

"While he's here on Earth, he can enlighten us," he said. "That's not an opportunity you can turn down."

Michael Jaquish, 59, of Gig Harbor, is a Buddhist, former police chief and professional life coach. He said he just wanted to be in the presence of the Dalai Lama. "He's like the pope for Buddhism," he said.

On stage, the call to action started early with William Bell, president and CEO of Casey Family Programs, which works in foster care. He challenged the audience: "How will this world be different because of you?"

The Dalai Lama urged the audience to cultivate compassion.

"From the selfish viewpoint, practice more compassion — you get more benefit," he said. It brings inner strength, less fear and "sound sleep," a comment that drew laughter from the audience.

"I love my sleep," he told the crowd. "Eight hours, sometimes nine hours without disturbances."

One speaker noted that schools offer physical education and asked the Dalai Lama whether schools should also set time aside for social and emotional learning.

"We should have educational, emotional, social experts come, discuss and make concrete plan — how to educate from kindergarten to university," he said to loud applause.

Raising emotionally healthy children — "ultimately, that is preparation for world peace."

Though the crowds were smaller than expected at the experts' panels, KeyArena was sold out for the dialogue Friday afternoon between the Dalai Lama, Matthews and Curry.

In response to Matthews' question about how music ties in to compassion, the Dalai Lama said, "every human action carries some meaning."

And if music or art contains a certain message like love, he said, art could have a "certain deeper effect."

When Curry asked about how people could open themselves up to see the suffering in the world, the Dalai Lama said the media was a neutral tool, and could be used to either distort information and mislead people, or could provide information that was correct.

"Through knowledge, some people may develop conviction after they learn the correct information."

Women, the Dalai Lama said, seem generally to have greater capacity for compassion. He credited his mother, not his religious teacher, as the source of his ability to show compassion.

Matthews drew applause after saying, "It would help the world if there was a little less machismo."

The recent unrest in Tibet did not go completely unmentioned. It came up early in the day when Dan Kranzler, co-founder of Seeds of Compassion, which organized the gathering, said he was honored the Dalai Lama came "especially in such times of trouble for the Tibetan people in China."

"And may I say personally," Kranzler added, "the world knows the truth. The world knows."

The Dalai Lama then embraced Kranzler.

Connie Eden, 53, an artist in Everett, for one, did not want politics to intrude on the event. She said shortly before the morning session that she has heard the Dalai Lama speak about politics. "I'm hoping like heck this will be low-key and about positive energy."

Monks still defiant; Tutu advocates leader boycott

MONKS interrupted another Chinese Government trip that was meant to show the world the Tibetan unrest that had forced Beijing to send waves of armed police to lock down much of western China was now under control.

The act of defiance at the monastery in Xiahe, in Gansu province, came as thousands of people, led by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the actor Richard Gere, turned out to protest before the Olympic torch relay in San Francisco.

At least 15 monks rushed out onto the main courtyard of the Labrang monastery carrying a picture of the banned Dalai Lama and a Tibetan flag to intercept a group of 20 Chinese and foreign journalists on a government-controlled trip.

"The Dalai Lama has to come back to Tibet," one monk told the reporters. "We are not asking for Tibetan independence. We are just asking for human rights. We have no human rights now."

A monk who saw the protest told the Herald about 30 monks "suddenly turned up" outside the monastery's main temple.

He said no one had yet been arrested, but the fate of at least eight monks arrested in connection with two earlier, larger demonstrations in Xiahe last month was unknown.

The protest came soon after the latest Chinese Government briefing on Tibet in Beijing in which senior officials said normality had returned to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, since monk-led marches had turned violent on March 14.

Tibet's Governor, Qiangba Puncog, said he "had no doubt" protesters would try to disrupt the torch during its ascent of Mount Everest next month and when it entered Tibet in June, but that most of the country, including all ethnic groups, were proud to have the Olympic Games.

Mr Qiangba said life had never been better for most Tibetans, and rejected comments by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, that there were human rights abuses in Tibet. "People in Tibet are enjoying democracy and wonderful human rights protection and those [Rudd's] remarks are totally unfounded."

He said Chinese police had detained 953 people suspected of taking part in the unrest in Lhasa last month, and formally arrested 403 of those.

In San Francisco, Archbishop Tutu called on world leaders to skip the Beijing Olympics. "Tell your counterparts in Beijing you wanted to come but looked at your schedule and realised you have something else to do," he said. Further protests were expected as the torch makes its way through the city today. In Beijing, International Olympic Committee members said they would go ahead with the torch relay.

Buddhist Monks: End Dalai Lama's Exile

LUQU, China (AP) — More than a dozen Buddhist monks staged an emotional protest Wednesday in front of visiting journalists at a monastery in western China, calling for human rights and the return of exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, said a monk and a reporter at the event.

The latest protest came as Tibet's governor promised "severe" punishment against any independence activists who disrupt the Olympic torch relay when it passes through the Himalayan region on its way to Mount Everest next month.

The monks, whose numbers grew to about two dozen during the 10-minute incident, began shouting slogans in Tibetan in an outer courtyard as journalists entered a prayer hall at the Labrang monastery in Xiahe in western Gansu province, which borders Tibet.

"We want human rights, we want the Dalai Lama back, we want to preserve our religion and culture," said one monk, who switched to Chinese when asked by a reporter from the American Broadcasting Corporation.

Another monk at the monastery, who spoke to The Associated Press by phone, said the group waved the Tibetan flag and shouted: "We're not against the Olympics. We need human rights."

The monk, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, said he and the others were worried about getting arrested after the journalists leave.

"Once they leave, of course there will be arrests," he said. "We don't have human rights. If we had real human rights, we could speak our minds without consequence."

The incident followed a similar interruption two weeks ago during a closely scripted government media tour of Tibet's capital of Lhasa to view damage from anti-government riots that erupted there last month.

Authorities have tightly restricted access to Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China where protests also broke out. The sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations last month were the largest and most sustained among Tibetans in almost two decades.

The monk said up to 20 monks from Labrang monastery were taken away and only three or four have been released so far. He added that he hoped the reporters would come back: "There's a lot we haven't yet said."

ABC reporter Chito Romana, who witnessed the outburst, said Chinese Foreign Ministry handlers observed the protest but did not attempt to block the monks. The group walked away after senior monks appeared and calmed them down, he said.

Shortly afterward, a senior monk told reporters the protesters represented only a few of those at Labrang. He said they would not be punished by monastery authorities, but could face sanctions if authorities find that they broke the law, Romana said.

China's official Xinhua News Agency reported only that a group of monks had interrupted the event, and said the visit resumed soon afterward. The Associated Press was not invited on the government-arranged trip.

Just south of Labrang, armed police manned a roadblock leading from the town of Luqu toward the monastery of Xicang, some of whose monks are believed to have taken part in protests in mid-March. The monastery remains closed to outsiders.

The glass front of the town's police headquarters was riddled with holes from stones and other objects hurled by rioters. Notices on the walls urged participants in the protest to surrender to authorities while unarmed paramilitary police marched down the street and stood guard outside government buildings.

Tibet's governor said Wednesday he was prepared for Tibet independence activists to make trouble for the Olympic torch relay when it passes through the Himalayan region.

Champa Phuntsok, the Chinese-appointed head of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, said he believes supporters of the Dalai Lama, blamed by Beijing for instigating last month's unrest, will try to use the historic event to publicize their cause.

"For these separatist forces, the Olympics in Beijing will be a rare opportunity," he told a news conference in Beijing. "I don't doubt they will create trouble during the torch relay in Tibet."

Thousands of raucous protesters angry about China's policies in Tibet and its human rights record have already disrupted the torch relay's round-the-world tour at stops in London and Paris.

Heavy security has been deployed in San Francisco, where the torch relay continues Wednesday, after protesters there climbed the Golden Gate Bridge to hang the Tibetan flag earlier this week.

Champa Phuntsok said special security preparations had been made for the Tibet relay leg to ensure it would be "completely successful and safe."

"During the torch relay in Tibet and in climbing Mount Everest, if anyone should attempt to disrupt or undermine the torch relay, then they will be dealt with severely according to the law," he said.

The torch relay, the longest in Olympic history, was aimed at showcasing China's rising economic and political power. Instead, Chinese leaders have come under increasing international criticism following its crackdown in March on massive anti-government demonstrations in Lhasa.

China has said that 22 people died in the violence while Tibetan exile groups have said at least 140 were killed.

Champa Phuntsok said Tibetan police have detained 953 people suspected of participating in the March 14 riots.

Foreign journalists, including an Associated Press reporter, were present at Lhasa's Jokhang temple, one of the holiest shrines in Tibet, when a group of monks interrupted a government media tour on March 27 with an emotional outburst.

Those monks had complained about the lack of religious freedom and called for the return of the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace prize winner.

Champa Phuntsok repeated earlier assurances by Tibetan authorities that those monks had not been punished for speaking out.

Aamir Khan turns down appeals to boycott Olympic torch relay but support Tibet

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan said on Tuesday he remained committed to participating in the Olympic torch relay in India despite receiving several requests asking him to boycott the event.

Khan, 43, said he empathised with the people of Tibet but wanted to keep the Beijing Olympics separate from the issue of human rights violations.

"When I do run with the torch on the 17th of April it is not in support of China. In fact it will be with a prayer in my heart for the people of Tibet, and indeed for all people across the world who are victims of human rights violations," Khan said in a blog post on his web site (www.aamirkhan.com) on Tuesday.

"However, I feel that the Olympic Games do not belong to China," the actor said adding it would be hard to find a place to hold the Games where the local government has not been accused of human rights violations.

India, which hosts Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile, has seen a wave of protests since China's crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in Tibet in March.

India has tried to reassure Bejing that security will be tight for the Olympics torch during the Indian leg of the relay.

The country's football captain, Bhaichung Bhutia, a Buddhist, has refused to carry the Olympic torch in protest against China's actions to quell unrest in Tibet, an official said on Tuesday.

How China sees the Dalai Lama and his cause

Source: Daily Mirror
By Pallavi Aiyar
What those urging China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama fail to recognise is the fact that Beijing’s main constituency is not the international community but its own domestic public. For Beijing to appear ‘soft’ on the Dalai Lama would be as politically unpalatable domestically asit would be in the United States were Washington to decide to engage in dialogue with Osama bin Laden.

With tensions in Tibet continuing to bubble, pundits and politicians in both India and the West are increasingly calling for talks between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama.

One argument supporting the utility of talks between the Chinese leadership and the pre-eminent Tibetan Buddhist leader reasons that contrary to the dominant belief in Beijing, the Dalai Lama is in fact China’s best bet for a long-term and stabl e solution to the Tibet issue. Only the Dalai Lama has the stature and authority to convince the Tibetan population at large that its interests lie within rather than separate from China, this line of reasoning proceeds. Thus it is argued that if Beijing loses out on the opportunity to reach an accommodation with the exiled leader now, it may end up with an even more unpredictable and hard to control situation regarding Tibetan aspirations for self-determination after the Dalai’s death.

Others are urging the Chinese leadership to negotiate with the Dalai Lama to prove to the world that it “deserves” to host the Olympic Games. Beijing will be able to boost its international image and prove its critics wrong if only it would agree to talks, it is claimed.

What neither of these arguments takes into account, however, is how strongly divergent perceptions of the Dalai Lama within China and abroad, combined with the deep vein of government-stoked nationalism that runs through contemporary Chinese society, mak it virtually impossible for Beijing to sell any potential deal reached with the Dalai Lama to its public. While in the West the Dalai is widely seen as a Nobel prize-winning, peace-loving figure of moral authority, within China the monk is regularly projected as not only a separatist but also a duplicitous trouble-maker not above unleashing violence.

In the aftermath of the recent riots and protests in Tibet, Internet chat rooms in China are abuzz with anger and indignation at what many see as the biased portrayal of the situation by the western media and the ‘hypocritical’ actions and statements of the Dalai Lama. Revealingly, many Chinese have even lashed out at the authorities for their ostensible leniency in dealing with the protests, in sharp contradistinction to the ‘repressive crackdown’ most commentators abroad have criticised Beijing for.

The majority of Chinese have little awareness that there is a Tibet problem at all. Although a relatively high-profile issue abroad, thanks in part to the efforts of Hollywood, within China Tibet is usually far less prominent in the consciousness of the average Chinese than Taiwan. In school, Chinese youngsters are taught how the region has only benefited from Communist rule. The feudal theocracy of the Dalai Lama was replaced by the enlightened policies of the People’s Republic, they are told, with the result that Tibet has enjoyed rising living standards and economic development.

While the Dalai Lama is portrayed as a sinister figure working to split Tibet from the Chinese nation, he is also described as having little support among the Tibetan population at large. When I gave a lecture to a class of about 50 students at one of Beijing’s top journalism universities a few years ago, I discovered that not one of the bright, young things I was talking to was aware that the Dalai Lama had won the Nobel prize.

Moreover, many Chinese regard Tibetans as being unfairly privileged since they are granted certain special subsidies and benefits from the government because of their ethnic status. For example, they are exempted from the one-child policy that restricts urban Han Chinese families to a single child.

Given this background, the TV footage and photographs of rampaging monks in Lhasa and elsewhere attacking Han civilians and security forces have bewildered many Chinese. They are particularly outraged at western media stories that consistently blame the Chinese government for its handling of the situation while bolstering the Dalai Lama’s version of events.

With the Olympics being held in Beijing this August, 2008 was intended as a year for the Chinese to showcase their new globalised and friendly face to the world. Instead the reaction of the West to the Tibet issue, widely publicised daily in all official media, is leading to feelings of victimisation among the Chinese and a correspondingly sharp response from the authorities. “If the terrorists insist on carrying out their attacks on lives and properties of the Chinese nation,” opined one netizen on the English language China Daily website chat room, “[the] next step would be to exterminate them, like so many cockroaches.” He added: “The Olympics is only a party to celebrate China’s successes. It is not a goal in itself. Allowing the terrorists to run amok would jeopardise the 30 years of successes from all that hard work and smart work of the Chinese citizenry.” What those urging China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama fail to recognise is the fact that Beijing’s main constituency is not the international community but its own domestic public. The Olympics, important though they may be to the country’s prestige, are seen as far less important than China’s territorial integrity.

There is a range of scholarship on contemporary China that demonstrates the fundamental utility of nationalism as a source of legitimacy to the country’s ruling party. Given this fact, for Beijing to appear ‘soft’ on the Dalai Lama would be as politically unpalatable domestically as it would be in the United States were Washington to decide to engage in dialogue with Osama bin Laden.

The door for dialogue and genuine compromise between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama was open briefly in the 1980s. The two sides held secret talks in Beijing in 1982 and 1984. At the time however, the Dalai Lama was less clear than he states he is today on the issue of how far he was willing to accept Chinese rule over Tibet. The exiles repeatedly insisted that any solution must entail the governance of Tibet under a totally different political system than what the rest of China had. This would mean transforming the region into a self-governing democratic entity, something that was patently unacceptable to Beijing.

When in 1989 the Chinese authorities invited the Dalai Lama to participate in a religious ceremony in an effort to re-start stalled talks, the exiled leader refused. He chose instead to appeal to the West to put pressure on China to accede to his demands. For Beijing this move branded the Dalai Lama as a chronically unreliable negotiator. Since then the Chinese leadership’s preferred approach is to wait for the monk’s passing. The idea is that any successor of the current Dalai is unlikely to inspire similar veneration in Tibetans and would thus lack the clout enjoyed by the current leader.

Thus while Chinese leaders have repeatedly, in recent weeks, stated that they are open to talks with the Dalai Lama, they reiterate the caveat that he must give up his demand for independence. The Dalai Lama in turn has repeatedly insisted that he has no such claim. The Chinese respond by pointing to the riots in Lhasa and hence the Dalai’s ‘obvious insincerity.’ And so on it goes, in circles. Even were the government persuaded to attempt a compromise with the exiled leader, its room for manoeuvre is slim given the way the public views the situation. Any change in Beijing’s position, including talks with the Dalai Lama, would appear as bowing to foreign pressure and failing to respond firmly to violence.

In 1989 the Dalai Lama won the Nobel peace prize. However, beyond symbolic gains for his cause, his strategy of appealing to the West for support failed to make China compromise on Tibet. In fact, it precipitated a more hard-line policy on the issue, which persists till today. With the recent protests and the upcoming Olympic Games, the Dalai and Tibet are once again in the international limelight. However, given the Chinese reaction there is little cause to believe any fundamental shift in Tibet’s situation will be precipitated.

China should drop Tibet torch relay-Dalai Lama envoy

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - China's plan to run the Beijing Olympics torch relay through Tibet is "insulting" to Tibetans reeling under a recent crackdown and should be canceled, the Dalai Lama's special envoy said on Thursday.
Lodi Gyari, who represented the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader in six rounds of talks with China, said the Himalayan region that was rocked by riots last month was "in every sense, an occupied province, brutally occupied."
The International Olympic Committee should urge China to drop plans to have the Olympic torch taken up Mount Everest next month and pass through the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in June as part of its 130-day worldwide relay, he said.
"This idea of taking the torch through Tibet, I really think, should be canceled precisely because that would be very deliberately provocative and very insulting after what has happened," Gyari told a U.S. congressional panel.
The IOC "should tell China, 'Look. That stretch of relay through Tibet needs to be canceled,'" he said.
Buddhist monk-led marches in Tibet turned into an anti-Chinese riot in Lhasa last month and touched off a rash of demonstrations throughout the region that cast a shadow over China's preparations for the Aug. 8-24 games.
China has responded by cranking up security, sending thousands of anti-riot troops into Tibetan-populated areas and launching a propaganda blitz. The International Campaign for Tibet said on Thursday it had received reports of mass detentions and monasteries under siege.
China blames the Dalai Lama, whom it labels a separatist, and his followers for stirring up the Lhasa violence to try to discredit the Olympics. But the 72-year-old Buddhist leader has repeatedly expressed support for the Beijing Games.
China says 19 people died in violence in Tibet, while the Tibetan government-in-exile says around 140 people died.
Gyari told the Congressional Human Rights Caucus "the Chinese government must bear full responsibility" for Tibet policies he had warned Beijing would create troubles.
"At every meeting in the last six years I told the Chinese, 'Please, you are pushing our people to the limits. If you continue pushing this policy, an unfortunate situation can happen,'" Gyari said. "But they did not listen." (Reporting by Paul Eckert; Editing by Eric Beech)

India footballer in Tibet protest

Source: BBC
India's football captain Baichung Bhutia has refused to carry the Olympic torch during its journey through the Indian capital Delhi later this month.

He told the authorities the move was in protest against China's crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators, officials said.

India has not allowed large-scale Tibetan protests against China, which is hosting the Olympics this year.

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959.

India is also home to more than 150,000 Tibetan exiles.

Tibet's government-in-exile, based in India, says up to 140 people were killed in a crackdown by Chinese security forces since anti-China riots began two weeks ago.

Beijing disputes this, saying rioters killed 18 civilians and two police officers during the protests.

Sympathy

"I sympathise with the Tibetan cause. This is my way of standing by the people of Tibet and their struggle. I abhor violence in any form," Bhutia told the Times of India newspaper.

Bhutia is a Buddhist who comes from the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim which has long been claimed by China as its own territory.

The footballer told the newspaper he had not been requested by any group to pull out of the torch run.

"This is an absolutely personal decision. I feel what is happening in Tibet is not right and in my small way I should show my solidarity," he said.

The Indian Olympic Association, which is organising the flame's journey through Delhi on 17 April, has invited several top athletes to participate.

India-China relations

On Sunday, China's State Councillor Dai Bingguo called upon Indian National Security Adviser MK Narayanan to "understand and support" China's policy towards Tibet.

Beijing said Mr Narayanan had reiterated that the government in Delhi viewed Tibet as part of China.

India has in the past been sympathetic to the Tibetan cause but in recent years Delhi's relations with Beijing have improved.

India has not allowed large-scale public protests over the recent unrest in Tibet.

Earlier this month, more than 100 Tibetan refugees were detained in India while attempting to march to the Chinese border.