Once again the Chinese government proves its cruel and unrelenting violence towards freedom of speech, right of assembly, and peaceful opposition in Tibet. Similar to the protests in Burma, the buddhist monks started their rallies earlier this week to claim more independence and autonomy in cultural and spiritual affairs.
The protests gathered attention with other groups of the population and ordinary people who are now joining the protests.
Today the conflicts came to a head in an outburst of military and police brutality. According to the BBC many people had been hurt and an unspecified number had died. A report of an eyewitness stated there were tanks on the streets and he had seen people being carried away on stretchers. Also the BBC spoke to a traveller who witnessed a protest by monks from the Sera Monastery earlier this week in this video.
The U.S funded, Radio Free Asia, reports that the rioters have "ransacked Chinese shops and the police fired live ammunition into the crowd. No-one is allowed to move around in Lhasa [Tibet's Capitol, edit: i.Integral] now."
In classic political fashion and mischievous rhetoric the chinese government accuses the Dalai Lama to be the mastermind behind the riots. The Dalai Lama who leads the tibetan government-in-exile appealed to the chinese government to "stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people." He also said: "I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."
