Sunday, March 23, 2008

Tibetan blackout continues

The Chennai bureau of Xinhua is doing a heckuva (a la Bush) job blacking out anti China views. Over the weekend, there have been two high profile statements condemning China and there is not a line mentioned about these in Chindu.

First the president of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering spoke out against Chinese actions against Tibetans and went as far as to suggest a boycott of the Olympics.

The president of the European Parliament said European countries should not rule out threatening China with an Olympic boycott if violence continues in Tibet.

"Beijing must decide itself; it should immediately negotiate with the Dalai Lama," Hans-Gert Poettering said in Saturday editions of Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper.


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tibet-protests_5smar23,1,6648312.story
http://sport.guardian.co.uk/breakingnews/feedstory/0,,-7393446,00.html

Even the Guardian - Chindu's British buddy- carried the news.

Next, the German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier criticised China for its handling of the crisis in Tibet.

Speaking to the German daily Bildzeitung Steinmeier said the world wanted to know exactly what was happening in Tibet. He called on the Chinese government to allow expelled foreign journalists back into the restive regions. China's crackdown on anti-government protests in Tibet and neighbouring provinces has drawn sharp international criticism and clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics in August. Exiled Tibetans say over 100 people have died in the violence


http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,2145,12215_cid_3207999,00.html

The Times of India reports the reaction of the world to the vents in China here.
But Chindu does not even report the Tibetan estimate of those killed in the violence. Instead of 118, it quotes the updated casualty count at 18!

Updating its earlier toll of 13 in the unrest in Lhasa, which started on March 10 coinciding with the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Communist rule in Tibet, Chinese authorities said the violence claimed the lives of 18 civilians and a police officer.


http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/23/stories/2008032354700800.htm

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