CHINA’S SHAME

Five months before the Beijing Olympic Games take place, a deadly unrest has occurred in the capital city of Tibet, Lasha. As usual, none can know for sure how the uprising breaks out and how many people are actually killed because foreign journalists from internationally-reputable media, such as CNN and BBC, have so limited access to Tibet. But, what we can know after watching the footage that the CNN relayed from the Chinese CCTV or what we can read from the ABC website, the situation is triggered by the crackdown of the Chinese security personnel against the pro-independence demonstrators in Lasha. The political turmoil has, according to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, killed 10 people. This official death toll is lower than the claimed figure of Dalai Lama’s supporters in India. Even, the CNN has come up with a more spectacular version. According to Dalai Lama’s sources in India, the death toll is 30 but the CNN says 100 people have been killed in the Friday’s unrest. During the uprising, shops and cars have been set on fire, destroyed and vandalized. Dalai Lama is the Tibetan spiritual leader, who has been living in exile (India) since the foiled protest against the Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959. As usual, Beijing again accuses Dalai Lama of masterminding the Friday’s uprising but this allegation is strongly opposed by the spiritual leader’s supporters. The instable situation has made foreign governments concerned. The Australian government, for instance, is not only concerned with the safety of its eight people currently in Lasha but also concerned with China’s way of handling the pro-independence protests. In avoiding worsening situation, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has urged the Chinese authorities to exercise restraint acts when dealing with the pro-independence protesters. He also calls on Beijing to allow the Tibetans to express their aspiration peacefully – the call that I do not believe China will meet. In the eyes of the Chinese authorities, the Tibetans, who oppose the Chinese rule are separatists so that they should be cracked down. The state-terrorist methods of crushing the people opposing the hegemony of China have repeatedly been exercised by the Chinese authorities. Before people around the world can see the blood drops in Lasha, China has actually made a surprise announcement: a group of Moslems in Uighur has plotted an attack on Beijing Olympic Game. Is it true? Or it is not more than a propaganda which has only legitimized China to terrorize the Uighur people? By looking at China’s bad human rights record, it is hard to believe in Chinese government’s propaganda machine. The Chinese authorities have badly, unfairly, and discriminatively treated the Muslim minority in Uighur and other parts of the country for such a long time. This is the shame of China, the country that will host the 2008 Olympic Games!!!