Re: Richard Gere on Situation in Tibet

Oh my God, someone has a gun ...' * The Guardian, * Saturday March 15 2008 * Article history

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This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday March 15 2008 on p1 of the Top stories section. It was last updated at 01:15 on March 15 2008.

This is an eyewitness account of a foreign resident in Lhasa who took refuge in a hotel close to the centre of the Tibetan capital yesterday. The city was gripped by violence after protesters and police clashed

"Oh my God. Oh no. That's crazy. One hundred people are trying to stone one man. A man was trying to cross the street with his motorcycle - they were trying to stone him but it's so crowded I can't see whether they got him or not.

"We came out for a walk about at about five today. I knew something was happening because there were a lot of people on the street. We were on Sera Street, which goes to the [Klukang] monastery. It sounds like the noise came from there; it sounds like at first they had been fighting in the temple.

"We saw people running and people in this hotel told us to get in quickly as the crowd was coming. They seem OK here, maybe the owner is Tibetan. All the other hotels have smashed windows.

"The residents are very angry. They are throwing stones at anyone who is Han [Chinese] or from other minorities like the Hui, who are Muslims. It seems like it's ethnic - like they want to kill anyone not Tibetan.

"I would say it's a riot here but I think in the centre it's worse. There's a lot of smoke - we can see it where there have been burnings. I heard people saying the authorities were firing, using guns. We don't know.

Here we have seen people trying to stone anyone they can - Han and other minorities, not foreigners. The Tibetans had stones and knives. I saw Chinese people running away - there was nothing they could do.

"We don't see any police around here. Maybe they're all in the centre and are too busy. It's very violent.

"Oh my God. Someone has a gun in front of me. There's a group of about 20 people - two of them have handguns. They are walking the street.They're shooting. They didn't have uniforms, but the way they were in a group I thought maybe they were police. They went down the street and the first one fired, that's for sure - I think the others did; there was so much noise I can't be sure. Then some of the citizens threw stones, but not at them - in the other direction. So I don't know if they were police or maybe Tibetans.

"I have just been out to get my things. We are staying at the hotel tonight. There are still people on the streets but only Tibetans - if they see anyone

Chinese they throw stones.

"Three times people raised their arms and then when they saw I was white they stopped it. The thing that surprised me most was that I saw no police or soldiers.

"I saw three people assaulting a man - I was 50 metres away, but I think he was Chinese. They kicked him and then one man had a knife and used it. He was lying on the floor and the man put the knife in his back, like he wanted to see he was dead.

"I had to get away, there were people throwing stones.

"When I came back he was gone - I don't know if he's dead. Then I saw people who had obviously been beaten or stoned. There wasn't blood on them but they were so shocked.

"This area used to be a place where Tibetans and the Chinese were friendly.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Tibet
• Angry
• Mob

[rocketshaun]

oh so Richard gere is not allowed to express his opinion.

just like the minland chinese and tibetians. Lucky for the Taiwanese they have DEMOCRACY, they are actually sane

[nusub]

We respect your right to speak the Truth.

No human being support lie as free speak human right.Don't make me laugh ,I followed all the election news in the island. you have right speak ,but are NOT qualify to judge.I even don't want argue with you. leave me alone.and save me sometime.thanks.

[dorje168]

In its history, Tibet never had

people starved to death or peasant uprisings.

All Tibetan uprisings broke out under the CCP's rule.

Besides CCP, nobody believes Tibet had serfdom.

Tibet had a kind of feudal system, as the land was

government-owned. This was the origin of its system.

[THEDALAILAMA168]

Citing the slogan ‘Independence for Tibet’ as being the main demand of protestors inside Tibet, Tsewang added that “any individual, or organisation who has Rangzen as a goal should be more vocal about their opinions as Tibetans in Tibet especially political prisoners have no wish to live under Chinese administration”.

[magnietuit]

for amnesty, the shugdens who told their tragedy stories are not considered as evidence.

wow, what a selecting resource...

[ChinaKillsNuns]

Tibet is nothing but a slaughter. The chinese communist party (CCP) has been looting, torturing, killing and doing all sorts of other nasty stuff in Tibet since the invasion of independent Tibet 60 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have been killed.

google: amnesty international about dorje shugden

and get the truth

Next bunch of lies please.

[ChinaKillsNuns]

I notice you did not give the source.

I would suspect you are not telling the truth.

[massivetuber]

I am not gay, so I don't like it. You must be a gay.

[ChinaKillsNuns]

Do you not like gay people?

[magnietuit]

you are free, you are democratic, you are with your holiness DLLM, you are with the huge international donations, but look at dhalamshala, you have made it so corrupted and lost, that most tibetans in exile fell in desperation.

that's your ruling capability.

what can you do when you back to tibet?

Specially when you began to kill han-chinese, shugdens and moslims NOW??!!

China is nothing but a slaughter, but your relatives in tibet have much more secured and comfortable life than you!