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April 05, 2008

Chinese Police Fire into Crowd of Tibetan Monks - Again

Rick Moran
Perhaps gunning down unarmed monks can be added as an Olympic sport. The Chinese, so concerned about the games later in the summer, could solve their "image problem" by simply including the practice in the Olympic program. This would result in a sure gold medal for the home team.

A small village high in the mountains was the scene of what can only be called a massacre by Chinese police. The authorities entered a monastery and began confiscating pictures of the Dalia Lama - photos of whom have been banned since the 1990's. Then the police deliberately incited a reaction by throwing the pictures of the Lama on the ground which was considered a sacrilege by the monks.

One old monk protested the affront to his god-king and was arrested. This was a bad move by the police because apparently, the ancient monk was very well regarded by the villagers as a man of wisdom and piety.

That brought both villagers and monks to the camp of the police with predictable and tragic results:

About 6.30pm, the entire monastic body marched down to a nearby river, where paramilitary police were encamped and demanded the release of the two men. They were joined by several hundred local villagers, many of them enraged at the detention of the elderly monk, who locals say is well respected in the area for his learning and piety.

Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama”, “Let the Dalai Lama come back” and “We want freedom”, the crowd demonstrated until about 9pm. Witnesses said that up to 1,000 paramilitary police used force to try to end the protest and opened fire on the crowd.

In the gunfire, eight people died, according to a local resident in direct contact with the monastery. These included a 27-year-old monk identified as Cangdan and two women named as Zhulongcuo and Danluo.
Eight people were reportedly gunned down with many more injured. Predictably, the Chinese government spun the massacre as a "riot" with an invisible "government official" getting beat up:


State-run Chinese media confirmed that the police resorted to force but insisted that it was only after a government official was attacked and seriously wounded by protesters.

“Local officials exercised restraint during the riot and repeatedly told the rioters to abide by the law,” they reported. The use of live rounds was a last resort, the Xinhua news agency said, without specifying how the Tibetan demonstrators had injured the official. It said: “Police were forced to fire warning shots and put down the violence, since local officials and people were in great danger.”
Perhaps the Chinese could tell us how 8 people were killed by "warning shots?"

If the Chinese keep this up, the games themselves will be in trouble as western nations contemplate a full boycott in response to the crackdown. At the moment, such a move would not be popular. But if the Chinese government continues to use the people of Tibet as targets for the police, most decent nations will probably find it impossible to send their athletes to participate in games hosted by this murderous regime.

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