China is still struggling to contain the crisis:
China sought on Wednesday to contain ongoing protests in its ethnic Tibetan regions, as it stepped up detentions in Tibet’s capital Lhasa and vowed tighter control over monasteries.
The western province of Qinghai was the latest area to report anti-government activities, with hundreds of civilians staging a sit-down protest after paramilitary police stopped them from marching, a Beijing-based source who spoke to residents said.
“They were beating up monks, which will only infuriate ordinary people,” the source said of the protest on Tuesday in Qinghai’s Xinghai county.
A resident in the area confirmed the demonstration, saying that paramilitaries dispersed the 200 to 300 protesters after half and hour, that the area was crawling with armed security forces and that workers were kept inside their offices.
China is said to be allowing (escorted) journalists into the country, but not diplomats.
Video of NYPD cops beating up pro-Tibet protesters near the U.N. in New York. It’s pretty clear the U.S. has little tolerance for peaceful demonstrations itself.
Radio Free Asia has great coverage of happenings in Tibet.
Archbishop Tutu speaks up for the Dalai Lama.
And finally, China is reported to be under pressure at the UN. This is great news, but don’t expect much from this. The UN’s toothlessness in these matters was revealed by Burma. The alternative, Bush riding bareback into Beijing on an ICBM, isn’t a possibility either (thankfully) — so what will get results? What will outrage the world enough, and who in the world will stand up to China?
If you want to do something for peace and you’re in the New York area, you can join the Be the Change Walk, courtesy of the Satya Graha Forum, this April 6th. Don’t worry about the NYPD: they’ve got the guns but we’ve got the numbers.
