The recent protests by Tibetans come amid growing calls among Chinese intellectuals for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing accuses of conspiring to split the motherland by secretly orchestrating the March 15 protests and riots in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, during which armed police opened fire on Tibetans, and where house-to-house searches and arrests are still continuing.
Sun Wenguang, a retired professor of eastern China’s Shandong University said the authorities were wrong to suppress the Tibetan protests using force.
“To crack down on the protests, especially to open fire, is a crime. How can you open fire on a mass protest; how can you drive armored vehicles into urban areas? What the authorities did has repressed and restricted people’s right to freedom,” he told RFA’s Mandarin service.
Shanghai based writer Sha Yexin, who is also a Muslim, said the Chinese authorities lacked understanding when it came to the country’s ethnic minority populations.
“I am a Hui Muslim, a minority and I understand the situation of minorities. I am very upset after watching the bloodshed in Tibet. I wish all parties would do their best to reach harmony, to reduce bloodshed,” Sha said.
“This is my true intention. I also believe that the Dalai Lama has the same intention. I heard of him saying many times that he opposes violence. In the meantime, I wish the central government would begin a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.”
Bao Tong, former aide to late ousted premier Zhao Ziyang, broadcast an essay about the Tibet situation on RFA’s Mandarin service at the weekend. Here are a few extracts:
The Lhasa incident has caused massive grief for all the Tibetan people and all of China. Anyone who has ever been through a great historical tragedy will understand its significance. The Chinese government spokesman said the whole thing was orchestrated by the Dalai Lama — a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize — from behind the scenes. However, as a reader from Europe put it: “Nobody here believes what the Chinese government says.”
That one phrase is more eloquent that 10,000 words. It renders the spokesman’s words meaningless. Because it shows how ordinary readers are quite capable of making their own considered and spontaneous decision not to believe what the Chinese government says, but of using their own experience as a basis for deciding what to think.
…Harmony means that you have to beat swords into ploughshares. It cannot flourish in a closed society, and it cannot be built by force. It should be an urgent priority to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. This should be Plan A. With his commitment to pacifism, the Dalai Lama is the only Tibetan leader with the ability to bring about a conciliatory agreement between the Tibetan and the Han Chinese peoples.
…
I do not want to see a Chechnya-style tragedy re-enacted in Tibet in pursuit of a Stalinist obsession with unity. The central Party leadership in Beijing has made “harmony” their mission. I believe that the philosopher’s stone will be revealed to those who are sincere. All the central government has to do is sit down with the Dalai Lama and talk to him; to show a little wisdom, and with vision and determination, the Lhasa incident can be resolved in an appropriate manner. A little hard work now could win us a peaceful future, heralding a new era of cooperation between the Tibetan and Han Chinese peoples.
A Qinghai woman called the Mandarin call-in show “Listener Hotline”:
I heard that things have quietened down in Tibet these past two days. But in Qinghai you can still see military vehicles traveling westward. It’s not clear why. Trains from and to Lhasa sometimes do not stop at the local train station. Security seems very stringent… I think the government messed up. The Dalai Lama has adopted a low-key – even humble – approach. He did not seek independence; nor did he advocate violence. But the government ignored him all these years.
A Jiangxi man said on Mandarin call-in show “Listener Hotline”:
The Chinese government would not allow Hong Kong reporters to cover the events in Tibet as they were happening; instead, it said it would allow reporters to go there after two weeks or even a few months. What kind of news reporting is that? It would be meaningless. It just proves that the Chinese government knows it did something wrong and is trying to cover up.
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