Similar to the way the 9/11 mega ritual that America may have (I'm a philosopher, I still suspend belief) perpetuated on it's own people has largely backfired because it has woken up thousands if not millions of people to the fact that Governments, particularly the American Government, lie to their citezens... I believe that China hosting the Olympics is going to backfire on China due to the vast amount of international focus this is going to give to the Tibetan struggle. That's merely an opinion, but it's also a positive affirmation (negative and positive are perceptions mind you.)
I am not on a high horse as far as governments are concerened, the English wrote the book on imperialism, and straight jacking natural resources, land and slaves, governments in general seem to have empathy issues... But individuals tend not to, not unloess they've been beaten out of them (metaphorically and literally) by the paranoia and stress inducing travesty that we like to call 'modern day life'.

Right - back to Tibet...
China Clamps Down on Tibetan Protests As Many Deaths, Injuries Reported
2008.03.14 (from Radio Free Asia www.rfa.org )

KATHMANDU—Chinese military vehicles patrolled the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, early Saturday after spreading anti-Chinese protests turned violent and an unknown number of people were killed and injured when Chinese forces fired on rioting crowds.

"The Chinese authorities deployed all military in the Lhasa area and sent tanks. There could be several hundred tanks and they were shooting into the crowds," one witness told RFA’s Tibetan service. "They also fired several rounds of tear-gas."

Other Tibetans reported seeing military vehicles but whether they were tanks or armored personnel carriers was unclear. Residents said Lhasa was under martial law, with protests erupting in other provinces, but officials couldn’t be reached for confirmation.

More @
www.rfa.org/english/tibe...ibet_protest/


TIBETANS RESUME PEACEFUL MARCH TO TIBET
(From tibetanuprising.org/ )
For Immediate Release
March 15, 2008

In wake of China’s brutal crackdown inside Tibet, 44 marchers defy Indian government protest ban on Tibetans

Dehra, India – A day after the Chinese government’s violent siege in Lhasa, a second wave of Tibetan exiles defied Indian government orders by resuming their March to Tibet this morning. While 101 Tibetan marchers remain under judicial detention, a second group of 44 Tibetans set out just before 10:00am from Dehra, the same location where the first group was arrested on Thursday. Sources from Tibet are reporting up to 100 and possibly more Tibetans killed in Lhasa yesterday, while in other parts of Tibet protest marches continued.
More @ tibetanuprising.org/


Protests in Tibet turn violent, posing a challenge to China ahead of Olympics
From www.iht.com

Protests in Tibet turn violent, posing a challenge to China ahead of Olympics
Bonfires, shops and the Chinese flag burning in the capital of Tibet. Riot police backed by armored vehicles guarding Lhasa’s stone-strewn streets. Crimson-robed monks carrying the banned Tibetan flag. And at least 10 people reported dead.

China’s attempt to portray a peaceful and prosperous nation ahead of the Summer Olympics took another hit Friday when demonstrations captured .. phone cameras and led by Buddhist monks against Chinese rule in Tibet turned violent.

From exile in India, the Dalai Lama appealed to China not to use force to end the largest, most sustained demonstrations in nearly two decades against Beijing’s 57-year rule in Tibet. China’s government in Tibet accused the Dalai Lama’s supporters of inciting the unrest and imposed a curfew, ordering people to stay indoors.

Eyewitness accounts and photos posted on the Internet portrayed a chaotic scene in Lhasa, the provincial capital of Tibet, with crowds hurling rocks at security forces, hotels and restaurants. The U.S. Embassy said Americans had reported gunfire.

Reports of deaths varied and could not be independently verified. China’s official Xinhua News Agency said the confirmed death toll was 10.

But at a demonstration outside the United Nations in New York, Psurbu Tsering of the Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey said its members had received phone calls from Tibet claiming 70 people had been killed and 1,000 arrested.

More @
www.iht.com/articles/ap/...-Optional.php


Six arrested in Tibet protest outside UN
15th March 2008, 4:40 WST
(from www.thewest.com.au )

Police arrested six pro-Tibet protesters outside UN headquarters on Friday after an impromptu demonstration in support of the independence protests in Tibet grew unruly.

About 40 or 50 protesters engaged in a standoff with New York police who threatened to arrest them all if they did not move from a traffic island in front of the UN building in Manhattan.

More @
www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx