rayloke2009blogspot: How many more Tibetans will sacrifice themselves?

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

How many more Tibetans will sacrifice themselves? - CNN.com

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RAYLOKEDecember 18, 2012 at 2:28 AM
The incidents are a clear indication of the genuine grievances of the Tibetans and their sense of deep resentment and despair over the prevailing conditions in Tibet.

Lobsang Sangay"The incidents are a clear indication of the genuine grievances of the Tibetans and their sense of deep resentment and despair over the prevailing conditions in Tibet," Tibetan leader in exile, Lobsang Sangay, said earlier this year. His government-in-exile has repeatedly called on the international community to intervene to prevent further bloodshed.

Chinese authorities insist that self-immolations are isolated incidents and most Tibetans do not sympathize with or support such actions. A senior official from Sichuan, a province with a large Tibetan population that has seen the most self-immolation cases so far, says he knows exactly who's to blame -- the Dalai Lama: the man Beijing calls a "terrorist."

"They plot, incite and instigate -- the root cause for such acts is the Dalai Lama clique," Li Changping told CNN. "His loyalists have called those who committed self-immolation national heroes or freedom fighters, vowing to build them monuments and rewarding their families with lots of money."

The Dalai Lama has long denied China's assertion that he's seeking Tibetan independence, saying he wants only an autonomy that would offer protection for their traditional Buddhist culture.

During an address to Japanese lawmakers in Tokyo earlier this month, he blamed "narrow-minded Communist officials" for seeing Buddhist culture as a threat. He then called on Chinese authorities to investigate and address the causes of the recent surge in self-immolations. "I always ask the Chinese government: Please, now, thoroughly investigate. What is the cause of these sort of sad things?"

Beijing's claim over the region is rooted in history.

It says Tibet has been a part of China since the 13th century, when the Mongol empire, which conquered China and formed the Yuan dynasty, also conquered Tibet. Western and central parts of Tibet are administered by China as the Tibet Autonomous Region, while eastern parts of the region fall under China's Sichuan, Qinghai, Yunnan and Gansu provinces.

After several decades of de facto independence beginning in 1912, Tibet was over-run by China's People's Liberation Army in 1950 to enforce the newly-formed People's Republic of China's claim of sovereignty over Tibet.

In 1959, thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama's palace in Lhasa — the Tibetan capital -- to protect him against what was rumored to be a plot by the Chinese military to abduct him. The gathering turned into an all-out revolt against Chinese rule, which was suppressed by the PLA. The Dalai Lama fled to India, where he has remained in exile ever since.
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