TIBET MONKS DISRUPT CHINA MEDIA EVENT
By Geoff Dyer in Lhasa
Financial Times
March 27 2008

Original Link

The simmering political tensions in Tibet burst into the open on Thursday in one of Lhasa’s most important temples when a group of 30 young Buddhist monks interrupted a government­organised visit by international journalists to shout about the lack of freedom in the country and in support of the Dalai Lama.

The monks were clearly agitated and several wept openly as they accused the Chinese authorities of lying to the visiting journalists and promised further demonstrations.

“We want a free Tibet, we want a free Tibet,” shouted one of the young monks, who was crying at the time.

The remarkable intrusion of the monks, who acknowledged that they were taking considerable personal risks, undermined a carefully choreographed visit that was designed to show that life was returning to normal in the Lhasa following a wave of protests in Tibetan areas of the city against the Chinese government over the last two weeks.

The Financial Times was part of a small group of journalists allowed into the Tibetan capital for the first time since rioting on March 14. With the Olympic Games taking place in Beijing in August, the Chinese government has been under heavy pressure to allow journalists more freedom to operate.

The Chinese authorities maintain that the riot and other anti-Chinese protests in recent weeks have been fomented by the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The dramatic intervention by the monks took place in the Jokhang Temple as reporters were being briefed by Quzhe, a monk at the temple and deputy director of its administrative office, who said that the city’s monasteries were now calm.

While he was talking, the younger monks -- mostly in their early 20s -- pushed in front of the journalists and started to air their grievances. As well as calling for freedom from Chinese rule of Tibet, the monks complained that they had been locked in the temple since the March 14 riot.

“We know we will probably be arrested but we have to keep fighting,” said one of the monks.

The group of monks was soon surrounded by security guards and other officials who started shouting for the exchange to stop and tried to pull away some of the reporters. Several journalists were eventually dragged away from the site to prevent them from talking further with the monks.

The monks also claimed that the heavy security presence around the temple had been withdrawn only for the media visit and said many of the people inside the inner sanctum of the temple were not genuine worshippers but had been brought in to the temple by officials to make it seem as if normal religious life had returned to the capital.

On several other occasions on Thursday and on Wednesday, access to the area around the temple was completely blocked off by police. The city’s other main monasteries, Drepung, Sera and Ramoche, were also surrounded by police with the monks locked inside.

Baima Chilin, vice-chairman of the Tibetan government, denied that the authorities had artificially created the impression that the temple was busy and said the monks would not be arrested for their actions. However, he revealed that of the 414 people arrested in Lhasa since the riot, some were monks.

............

NHNE Dalai Lama Resource Page