Police keep tight lid on Tibet after protests

[WhiteTara]

Source: Christian Science Monitor

LHASA, CHINA - On most nights, Barkhor Square is full of ancient-looking pilgrims on a Buddhist kora around Jokhand temple, a 1,400-year old World Heritage Site.

But last Tuesday around 9 p.m., it was unusually quiet when about 30 police officers wearing riot helmets sped into the cobblestone streets in vehicles resembling golf buggies. In front of a few foreign tourists, the police grabbed two young men in street clothes, put them in headlocks, and hauled them away to a nearby police station.
snip
A young European backpacker, gasping for breath in Lhasa's 3,650-meter altitude, came running into a hotel looking for an Internet connection.

"There's a big protest going on in the road to Sera monastery," he said. "There are hundreds of people in the street, howling like wolves. They look like local people and they're angry because the police have arrested some monks. I didn't see them fighting with police. It didn't look violent. The police chased some of them into small alleys to arrest them."

The tourist said police picked up him and other foreigners, questioned them, and escorted them to the hotel district in unmarked cars, warning them to stay inside. The backpackers sent out personal reports on the Internet, even as uniformed police and men believed to be spies stood outside cafes watching them.

Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0314/p01s03-wogn.html?page=2

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[FarLeftRage]

1. Free Tibet Now!

Get the fucking chicoms out!!

[rosesaylavee]

2. I agree...

And not to be a grammar nazi ... but shouldn't that be assholes WHO rather than THAT who ruined the USA?

It's not often I have the chance to correct grammar using the word assholes in a sentence. Just had to. :)

:hi:

[FarLeftRage]

5. Hey! I changed it...

Thanks, it was no problem.

:hi:

[subsuelo]

3. Chaos in Tibet capital as protests spread

Reuters

BEIJING (Reuters) - Protesters in Tibet's capital Lhasa burnt shops and vehicles and yelled for independence on Friday as the region was hit by its biggest protests for nearly two decades, testing China's grip months before the Olympics.

Peaceful street marches by Tibetan Buddhist monks over previous days gave way to bigger scenes of violence and resentment in the remote, mountainous region.

"Now it's very chaotic outside," an ethnic Tibetan resident said by telephone. "People have been burning cars and motorbikes and buses. There is smoke everywhere and they have been throwing rocks and breaking windows. We're scared."

[otherlander]

7. Think the shop-burners were police plants?

Burn a few stores and cars and you've got a perfect excuse to arrest all the protestors...

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Shops on fire amid Tibet protests

Fires have broken out in the Tibetan city of Lhasa amid reports of rioting, as rare street protests led by Buddhist monks appeared to gather pace.

One eyewitness told the BBC how large groups of people were setting fire to cars and shops and destroying anything of Chinese influence.

The US embassy in Beijing said US citizens had reported hearing gunfire.
...
The eyewitness who spoke to the BBC said there was a thick pall of smoke hanging over the city.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7296041.stm

[donkeyotay]

6. Another snip from the CSmonitor -

Many Tibetans, perhaps the most devout Buddhists in Asia, said they feared monks would be beaten and jailed for years. They said police are stepping up intimidation and making it harder for Tibetans to get permission to become monks, study their own language, or gain passports to travel.

"Lhasa is not a free place like Beijing," said one local. "It is a police state. Spies are following you everywhere, on the street, on the phone, on the Internet. They can take you away and nobody knows when you'll come back. Sometimes people come back after 10 years. They can't even talk or think anymore."