Tragedy in Tibet

By ROBERT BARNETT
March 17, 2008

The charred bodies and pulped faces of Chinese migrants murdered during Friday's riots in Lhasa are likely to become a new and terrible image of Tibet. Just as those Tibetans who have died in ethnic violence or at the hands of the security forces, those killed over the weekend in the struggle over Tibet's future died what should have been unnecessary deaths. The situation would be hugely exacerbated if reports of random shooting by troops are confirmed.

The desperation of Tibetans living on the Tibetan plateau has been documented for several decades by scholars and journalists, as well as in repeated appeals by exiles and their leader, the Dalai Lama. Major grievances include elaborate restrictions on religion, an undisguised encouragement of Chinese migration to Tibetan towns, the ban on criticism of most Communist Party policies, the imposition of ethnic Chinese leaders to run the region, the forced settlement of 100,000 nomads without prospect of future livelihood, and the obligatory moving of 250,000 farmers in 2006 from their villages to new houses along major roads, often largely at their own expense. Underpinning all of this is the deeper issue of Tibetans' continuing recollection of themselves as a separate nation that has been forcibly annexed. Full Article Link