March 25, 2008

Violent Crackdown and Information Blackout in Tibet

Posted by Suemedha Sood at 1:00PM

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The news from Tibet keeps getting worse. Well, what little news China will let us hear.

China has been able to block information out of Tibet. Thousands of Tibetans living in exile in India had relied on email and cell phone correspondence to obtain information about the protests in Tibet, and the violent Chinese crackdown that has followed. But now those emails and calls have stopped.

This comes after China banned foreign media last week.

At today's U.N. human rights forum, China was urged by the EU, the US, Australia, Canada and Switzerland to ease its military crackdown.

Meanwhile, China has actually had the gall to say what's needed in Tibetan monasteries is "patriotic education." We can only assume the Chinese government is talking about patriotism for China; because, as far as I can tell, fighting for rights and autonomy for Tibet is pretty patriotic if you're Tibetan.

In the midst of all of this there's a little event that's supposed to happen this summer. What is that? Oh yeah, THE OLYMPICS. Yes, the Olympics are still actually taking place in Beijing, despite its perpetration of egregious human rights violations. Awesome.

About 50 Tibetan exiles in India began a global torch relay of their own, which will end in Lhasa, Tibet on August 8, the first day of the 2008 Olympic Games. Tibetan exiles are planning their own mock Olympics from May 15-25 in Dharmsala, India to show the absurdity of it all.