Tibetans March For Talks With Dalai Lama

Even former top Communist Party aide Bao Tong in Chechnya says the Dalai Lama is the only Tibetan leader with the ability to bring about a conciliatory agreement.

(KATHMANDU, Tibet) - Tibetans in western China staged protests this week calling on Chinese leaders to open a dialogue with their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

An 18-year old monk died after nuns, monks and local Tibetan farmers clashed with armed police in Karze (in Chinese, Ganzi) prefecture in China's southwestern province of Sichuan, with dozens of detentions in the wake of protests in the area, Tibetan sources in India said.

The dead monk was identified as Kunga. Another Tibetan resident, 30-year old Tsewang Dondrub, was seriously injured and in critical condition, they added.

"During the demonstrations, the Tibetans damaged doors and window panes of local police headquarters and county government buildings," one source said.

Meanwhile, two deaths were reported by a resident during clashes between armed police and Tibetan protesters in Serthar (in Chinese, Seda) county, also in Karze.

"On March 20th, Chinese security forces arrived in the town of Kiku in Serthar county," a Tibetan resident of Serthar said.

"There were about 1,000 of them. They tried to pull down the Tibetan flag that had been raised by protesters at the township's government offices on the 17th, and when the protesters peacefully resisted, the security forces opened fire, killing two protesters," he told RFA's Tibetan service.

The protesters were identified as Kyari and Tsedo from Tseshul village. Another eight persons, including Yeshe Dorje and Tabke, were seriously injured and were taken to Serthar county hospital, the source said.

"In the same county, over 1,000 Tibetans led by monks from Serthar Sera monastery began a protest march, walking about 30 miles to the point where the two Tibetans were killed. They carried Tibetan flags and pictures of the Dalai Lama and shouted slogans like 'Long Live the Dalai Lama!,' 'Human Rights for Tibet!,' and 'Tibet is Independent!'

"They also distributed leaflets calling for Tibetan independence. The security forces threatened them with 'serious consequences,' but the protesters are determined to continue with their peaceful demonstrations. So far, there have been no [additional] shootings," the source said.

A local Tibetan official said armed police had been dispatched to all 18 counties in Karze, but declined to comment further.

In neighboring Qinghai province, monks from Tsolho (in Chinese, Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture marched on Sunday to call for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, who has said he advocates greater autonomy for Tibetans under Chinese rule as opposed to independence for the Himalayan region.

"We are demanding that the Chinese leadership open a dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and peacefully resolve the Tibetan issue," one marching monk told RFA from his cellphone against the background of chanting protesters.

"We are also demanding that His Holiness be allowed to visit Tibet. Our protest is peaceful and involves about 10-15 monks from Serlho monastery...Just now we are marching toward the subdistrict headquarters, and from there we plan to go to the county government offices. Hundreds of local Tibetans, mainly nomads, have joined us," the monk said.

Also in Qinghai, monks from Palyul Darthang monastery in Amdo Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo), marched to the local county government offices, joined by local Tibetans.

"At that time, there were no armed police there, but only about 40 local police. We marched to the local government office compound, pulled down the Chinese flag, and put up the Tibetan flag. The local police didn't dare to interfere. They simply watched from a distance and took photographs," a monk from the monastery said March 22.

"We then marched to the local school and hospital and pulled down the Chinese flag and replaced it with the Tibetan flag. We also stormed the local detention center and demanded that the authorities release all the prisoners, which they did," he added.

"We conducted all these protests peacefully, harmed no one, and did no damage. Then, later in the afternoon, four trucks full of armed security forces arrived ... They arrested about five to six Tibetans, and possibly more. Right now, only those monks who took no part in the protest are still in the monastery. The rest are hiding up in the mountains."

"The monastery is now surrounded by security forces. Please let others know what we did and what our condition is," the monk said.

The protests by Tibetans come amid growing calls among Chinese intellectuals for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing accuses of "conspiring to split the motherland by secretly" orchestrating the March 15 protests and riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, during which armed police opened fire on Tibetans, and where house-to-house searches and arrests are still continuing.

Sun Wenguang, a retired professor of eastern China's Shandong University said the authorities were wrong to suppress the Tibetan protests using force.

"To crack down on the protests, especially to open fire, is a crime. How can you open fire on a mass protest; how can you drive armored vehicles into urban areas? What the authorities did has repressed and restricted people's right to freedom," he told RFA's Mandarin service.

Shanghai based writer Sha Yexin, who is also a Muslim, said the Chinese authorities lack understanding when it comes to the country's ethnic minority populations.

"I am a Hui Muslim, a minority, and I understand the situation of minorities. I am very upset after watching the bloodshed in Tibet. I wish all parties would do their best to reach harmony, to reduce bloodshed," Sha said.

"This is my true intention. I also believe that the Dalai Lama has the same intention. I heard of him saying many times that he opposes violence. In the meantime, I wish the central government would begin a dialogue with the Dalai Lama."

Former top Communist Party aide Bao Tong said the Lhasa crackdown was an occasion for great grief for the Tibetans and for China.

"Harmony means that you have to beat swords into ploughshares," Bao said in an essay broadcast on RFA's Mandarin service Sunday.

"It cannot flourish in a closed society, and it cannot be built by force...With his commitment to pacifism, the Dalai Lama is the only Tibetan leader with the ability to bring about a conciliatory agreement between the Tibetan and the Han Chinese peoples."

Bao warned against a policy of ethnic cleansing. "I do not want to see a Chechnya-style tragedy re-enacted in Tibet in pursuit of a Stalinist obsession with unity," he wrote from house arrest at his Beijing home, where he has been held since the fall of former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang in the wake of the 1989 armed crackdown on protesters in and around Tiananmen Square.

"The central Party leadership in Beijing has made harmony their mission...All the central government has to do is sit down with the Dalai Lama and talk to him, to show a little wisdom, and with vision and determination the Lhasa incident can be resolved in an appropriate manner," he said.

Other commentators slammed strict controls on media reporting of events in Tibetan areas of China.

"I don't think the Chinese government should block news about Tibet, because in the end it doesn't matter whether rumors spread out or people simply don't believe what the government said. The government should bear the consequences," according to online commentator Liu Di, who is known online as "Stainless Steel Mouse".

"Right now, no discussion about Tibet is allowed on China's Internet. They block news about Tibet and expel journalists from Tibet," she said.

Beijing-based legal scholar Teng Biao agreed, calling on Beijing to let people know the truth about what was happening.

"What the authorities did is not proper and is not enough. It is one-sided propaganda," Teng said. "Most importantly, the authorities should respect Tibetan culture and traditions and give Tibetans more autonomy. Their rights are guaranteed in China's constitution to some extent, but the authorities did not implement the law accordingly."