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Tibetan monks claim that China is lying
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March 27, 2008, 12:15
Tibetan monks disrupted an official news briefing at a temple in Lhasa today, shouting that Chinese authorities were lying about unrest in the Himalayan region, foreign reporters said. The incident was an embarrassment to the Chinese government, which brought a select group of foreign reporters to Lhasa for a stage-managed tour of the city, where authorities say stability has been restored since violence broke out on March 14.
The government has also been saying security forces acted with restraint, in the face of international controversy over the unrest and China's response ahead of the Olympics in August. A group of uninvited young monks at the Jokhang Temple, one of the most sacred in Tibet and a top tourist stop in central Lhasa, stormed into a briefing by a temple administrator. "About 30 young monks burst into the official briefing, shouting: 'Don't believe them. They are tricking you. They are telling lies'," USA Today Beijing-based reporter Callum MacLeod said by telephone from Lhasa.
Monks want their freedon
Hong Kong's TVB aired television footage of the bold outburst in front of the first foreign journalists allowed into Tibet since the violence - showing the monks in crimson robes, some weeping - crowded around cameras. The monks said they had been unable to leave the temple since March 10, when demonstrations erupted in Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of an abortive uprising against Chinese rule that saw Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, flee to exile in India.
"They just don't believe us. They think we will come out and cause havoc -- smash, destroy, rob, burn. We didn't do anything like that -- they're falsely accusing us," said one monk. "We want freedom. They have detained lamas and normal people." Wang Che-nan, a cameraman for Taiwan's ETTV, said the incident lasted about 15 minutes, after which unarmed police took the monks elsewhere in the temple, away from the journalists. "They said: 'Your time is up, time to go to the next place'," Wang said. Reuters was not invited on the government-organised trip.
Chinese president encouraged to talk to Dalai Lama
Chhime Chhoekyapa, secretary to the Dalai Lama, said the incident made clear "that brute force alone cannot suppress the long simmering resentment that exists in Tibet".
"We are deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of the monks and appeal to the international community to ensure their protection," he said. Yesterday US President George W Bush encouraged Chinese President Hu Jintao to talk with the Dalai Lama. Hu said China was willing to continue engaging in "contact and discussions" with the Dalai Lama, but he must renounce support for independence of Tibet and Taiwan, and "stop inciting and planning violent and criminal activities and sabotaging the Beijing Olympics", newspapers said today. - Reuters
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