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Protests in Tibet

I was listening to BBC World Service during the night when I could not sleep – one of headlines was about violent protest in Tibet with at least ten people killed.  Ten was the number according to the Chinese government news agency but it could be much higher. Radio 4 had a similar account but World Service is very good for detailed reports on such events.  A BBC correspondent in Beijing said that someone had been arrested while trying to deliver a video about the events to the BBC office there.  Protests have spread to other provinces according to this report on Yahoo News.

Tibetan Buddhists and their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama seek to find peaceful solutions to conflicts such as the ongoing one between the Tibetan people and the Chinese government.  (It was in 1950 that the People's Liberation Army moved in and in 1959 that the Dalai Lama had to flee from his homeland.)  The Chinese government tend to blame him for all such protests. Tibet is said to be an "Autonomous Region" of China but if the Tibetans were truly autonomous they would probably not be protesting.  After this biggest uprising against Chinese rule for nearly 20 years China has declared a people's war on Tibet – that sounds very ominous. 

The European Union has stated that it is seriously concerned about the unrest in Tibet and has urged the Chinese authorities to show restraint.  China says that it is doing so but  how are we to know if journailsts are not given free access to Tibet or neutral observers such as from the United Nations or the International Red Cross are not invited in?

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Our blogs are written by Amnesty International staff, volunteers and other interested individuals, to encourage debate around human rights issues. They do not necessarily represent the views of Amnesty International.
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