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China uses Yahoo in Tibet riots

Tibetan shot by police in Amdo NgabaUnknown/Tibet

Pictures of another 20 Tibetans have shown up online. Only this time they weren’t of men killed by Chinese forces when demonstrators protested an order to raise the Chinese flag over monasteries in the Ngaba TAP (Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture).

Instead, “Major Internet portals in China, including Yahoo.com and Sina.com, on Friday carried images of some of the Lhasa riot suspects wanted by police,” says the China state news agency Xinhua.

“Phone numbers for the Public Security Bureau of Lhasa City were posted, along with the images of the suspects taken from videos.

“The bureau called on the public to provide tips that may lead to their capture, according to the websites.”

The pic on the right is from a series published by the Tibet Centre for Human Rights and Democracy with a warning that the images are ‘extremely disturbing‘.

‘Forced out’

China, “forced the last remaining foreign journalists out of Tibet today, and stepped up restrictions on Internet and radio reports from people within the country, a media watchdog said,” according to the Associated Press, which goes on:

“Georg Blume, a correspondent for German newspapers Die Zeit and taz, and Kristin Kupfer of the German EPD news agency, left today after being confronted by an official who threatened to cancel their Chinese visas,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Earlier this week, Economist correspondent James Miles and a group of 15 Hong Kong reporters also were forced out.”

Right now in Tibet, “Chinese tanks patrol the streets and loudspeakers blare Orwellian slogans urging Tibetans to ‘know friends from enemies’ and — in true Spanish-inquisition-style justice — to turn themselves in for ‘mercy’,” writes Josh Schrei in Guerilla News Network.

“It takes a lot to make a Tibetan pick up a stone and throw it at another person,” he says. “A Tibetan, raised steeped in Buddhist morality and with a sense of absolute obedience to the wishes and words of the Dalai Lama, has to go through a pretty deep moral struggle in order to pick up that rock, as it represents not only rising up against their occupier, but rising up against their own cultural fabric of Buddhist nonviolence as well. They do not do this lightly.

“Until China allows for free expression of views, they will continue to see Tibetans throwing rocks.”

China stepped up its manhunt for protesters, “as thousands of troops converged on foot, in trucks and helicopters in Tibetan areas of western China,” says another AP story, going on >>>

The violence in Lhasa — a stunning show of defiance against 57 years of Chinese rule — has sparked sympathy demonstrations in neighboring provinces, prompting Beijing to blanket a huge area with troops and warn tourists and foreign journalists to stay away.

China’s communist leadership, embarrassed by the chaos and international criticism of its response, has blamed the unrest on the Dalai Lama and his supporters and vigorously defended its reputation as a suitable host for the Beijing Olympics.

On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with the Dalai Lama in India and called on the world to denounce China’s crackdown in Tibet.

Reporters Without Borders said Chinese authorities are blocking radio broadcasts out of Tibet and have asked Internet cafe owners to increase the surveillance of their clients.

RWB, “also obtained a message it said was being sent to Tibetans living outside of Tibet from the ‘Internet Surveillance Bureau,’ which said: ‘It is forbidden to post news about Tibetan events … anyone infringing on this ban will have their IP address sent to the police who will take the necessary steps’,” says AP.

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Published in P2P Net News