As Tibetan protests spread into China, the government crackdown is becoming more severe:
Hundreds of monks, nuns and local Tibetans who tried to march on a local government office in western China to demand the return of the Dalai Lama have been turned back by paramilitary police who opened fire to disperse the crowd.
Local residents of Luhuo said two people – a monk and a farmer – appeared to have been shot dead and about a dozen were wounded in the latest violence to rock Tibetan areas of China.
The demonstration began at about 4pm local time when about 200 nuns from Woge nunnery and a similar number of monks from Jueri monastery marched out of their hillside sanctuaries and walked towards the Luhuo Third District government office in the nearby town. They were swiftly joined by an estimated several hundred farmers and nomads, witnesses said.
Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “Tibet belongs to Tibetans”, they approached the district government office. However, paramilitary People’s Armed Police swiftly appeared and ordered the crowd to turn back. Town residents reported that, in the ensuing melee, shots were fired and two people appeared to have died.
And halfway around the world, pro-Tibetan protesters disrupted the Olympic torch-lighting ceremony:
OLYMPIA, Greece (CNN) — Greece condemned human rights protesters who disrupted the Olympic torch lighting ceremony Monday.
Three protesters charged onto the field of an ancient Greek stadium to unfurl a banner calling for a boycott to the Beijing Summer Games.
The brief disruption unnerved thousands of spectators, dignitaries and Olympic officials who packed into the sprawling ancient stadium to watch actresses posing as priestesses light the Olympic flame from the sun’s rays.
More protests, however, followed later as the torch relay began. A Tibetan woman covered herself with red paint and lay on the ground, forcing torchbearers to weave around her as other protesters shouted “Flame of shame.”
“The government condemns every attempt to interfere with the ceremony for the lighting of the Olympic flame through actions that have no relation at all with the Olympic spirit,” said Evangelos Antonaros, Greece’s junior government spokesman.
And a senior Greek Olympics official said: “We have Tibetans popping out of every corner protesting during the torch relay. It will be very difficult to guard this relay.”
Yes, how terribly inconvenient to have to worry about human rights compared to carrying around a stupid torch.
