¡@
|
Cyclists and pets yesterday participate in Taiwan
Bike Day on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office.
|
¡@
¡@
Two writers
show extent of schism
¡@
By Richard
Halloran
Monday, May 05, 2008, Page 8
¡§All Tibetan people want is religious freedom and the right to preserve their
culture.¡¨¡ÐLetter writer in Lhasa
The letter from Lhasa was at once plaintive and vivid, saying
¡§what has happened and continues to happen in Lhasa is extremely sad and scary.¡¨
The letter, whose author cannot be identified for fear of Chinese retribution,
detailed the Chinese clampdown on the Tibetan capital.
¡§In the center, military has occupied every intersection and stand on every side
street, diligently checking your identity card. Even the tiniest of alleyways
have at least four military personnel, of whom at least one has a bayonet and
all of them a shield, a bat and a helmet,¡¨ the letter writer said.
Written a few days ago, the letter noted empty streets, closed shops and vacant
teahouses.
¡§It makes you aware of how scared people are these days. Very few people stop on
the street when they meet friends, because every gathering of people is
suspicious. A lot of people still stay at home because they are scared they will
get arrested for no reason if they go out,¡¨ the letter said.
¡§The square in front of the holiest Tibetan temple, the Jokhang, normally a sea
of people, prostrating, circumambulating and socializing, is now completely
empty,¡¨ the letter smuggled out of Lhasa said. ¡§In front of the square, two
military in blue uniforms strictly ensure nobody walks on the square.¡¨
The letter, which covered events from early March, when rioting erupted, until
recent days, bemoaned changing Chinese rules.
¡§One day you can go nearly everywhere, the next, military checkpoints won¡¦t let
you pass,¡¨ the letter said.
The writer saw a man wanting to pass a checkpoint with his young daughter. The
soldiers would let him pass but not the girl because she was not old enough to
have an identity card.
In contrast, an essay by a Chinese academic in the US contended that the
situation caused by Tibetan protests and Chinese reaction was about ¡§the pride
of China and the prejudice of the West.¡¨
Da Wei, at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins
University, in Washington, asserted that the Dalai Lama, China and the West have
all lost.
¡§Obviously,¡¨ Da Wei said, ¡§the Dalai Lama and his supporters have successfully
drawn international attention to the Tibet issue.¡¨
In doing so, he argued, ¡§the riots and the agitation around the Olympic torch
relay pushed the Dalai Lama, his government-in-exile and organizations like the
Tibetan Youth Congress, away from the majority of Chinese.¡¨
¡§For human rights activists and sympathizers of the Dalai Lama in Western
countries, their actions can be called a failure,¡¨ he wrote.
¡§Their only achievement was humiliating the Chinese government. At the same
time, they disappointed the majority of Chinese because extinguishing the
Olympic torch, which embodies the hopes and goodwill of the Chinese people,
humiliated and offended ordinary Chinese,¡¨ he wrote.
¡§It is a big loss for Beijing,¡¨ he wrote. ¡§The Chinese government did not expect
the Olympic Games to be politicized to this extent. It also damaged severely the
image of China¡¦s ¡¥peaceful development¡¦ and its ¡¥harmonious society.¡¦¡¨
Da Wei¡¦s essay was published online by Pacific Forum, a Honolulu think tank, to
present a Chinese perspective (pacnet@hawaiibiz.rr.com).
The letter from Lhasa said when foreign journalists were brought to Lhasa in
March, ¡§the military suddenly disappeared from the streets.¡¨
They were ¡§hiding inside buildings and behind corners where the journalists
couldn¡¦t see them. We were suddenly allowed to go everywhere,¡¨ the letter said.
After the journalists left, the military came back immediately.
Jail conditions were said to be bad, with ¡§not enough food, not enough water,
and not enough blankets.¡¨ Prisoners get one cup of water a day and nothing else.
Their bodies weaken and they die either in prison or soon after they are
released.
¡§The prisoners get beaten up very badly,¡¨ the writer said. ¡§They especially beat
the kidney, liver and gall region so prisoners get internal injuries and slowly
die.¡¨
The letter said the Chinese were carrying away all dead bodies and not allowing
Tibetan families to have them.
¡§The government made sure that everybody who didn¡¦t die under normal
circumstances was found and taken away from the family,¡¨ the letter said, ¡§so
nobody can make pictures and show them to friends or journalists outside Tibet.¡¨
The letter¡¦s final lament: ¡§All Tibetan people want is religious freedom and the
right to preserve their culture. They are tired of writing papers against the
Dalai Lama, of patriotic re-education and all the rules and regulations that
make their life so difficult.¡¨
Richard Halloran is a writer base in Hawaii.
¡@