This is all very strange. For a supposedly non-violent movement whichever Tibetan groups are involved in this have been using some remarkably violent methods. Has the government in exile now disavowed non-violence?

Not officially. But what we have here is an overtly violent rebellion, if the reports are true: “About 200 protesters threw petrol bombs and burned down a police station in Sichuan province,” “The demonstrators…on Friday set fire to Chinese-owed shops and hurled rocks at local police,” “The Chinese official news agency Xinhua says 10 people died on Friday, including business people it said were “burnt to death”.

The Dalai Lama is coming under fire to be less non-violent and to confront the Chinese authorities somehow or other, but his holiness remains realistic, rather than rash. It seems to be the Tibetan Youth Congress that is pushing a violent strategy, according to AFP.

I make no judgements about the rights or wrongs of this, and it does look like a conscious strategy. But I would point out that the TYC has been receiving training from the National Endowment for Democracy for years. It could be that this rebellion has been hastened somewhat by the democracy promotion industry, for external ends.

I hope that doesn’t backfire on the Tibetans as a whole.

Still, there is much we don’t know, and a lot of rumor. Best wait and see I guess.

The Tibetan Youth Congress has been receiving training from the NED for years?

Quelle surprise!

OPEN QUOTE (from Shazam’s link)

ENDOWMENT-FUNDED HUMAN RIGHTS PROGRAMS IN FY02 AND FY03

Training Programs

China (Tibet): Tibetan Youth Congress organizes intensive leadership-training courses for Tibetan college students in India, facilitating their involvement in the political struggle for democracy and human rights in Tibet.

END OF QUOTE interesting . . .

See also India wakes to a Tibetan headache

OPEN QUOTE

Tibet has suddenly sailed into view. Violence has erupted in Lhasa after a gap of two full decades. Such large-scale violence was last witnessed in 1987. How much of the violence on Friday was pre-planned or orchestrated from outside Tibet, it is difficult to assess from Dharamsala. The Chinese authorities have alleged that the “Dalai Lama clique” instigated the violence. But one thing stands out.

The complete coordination with which the apparatus of the Tibetan “government-in-exile” has sprung into high-quality action on the political and propaganda front leaves little doubt that it was at the very minimum anticipating Friday’s eruption. Tibetan activists here are more forthcoming. They darkly hinted they were indeed expecting the disturbances. But they refuse to elaborate how they knew or who their collaborators were or what they did with what they knew.

The Indians and the Tibetan Buddhists live in water-tight compartments in Dharamsala. Even after 49 years, they hardly intermix. The Indians complain that the relatively more affluent Tibetan “refugees” are disdainful. This is especially so among second-generation Tibetans who otherwise feel comfortable with the Western nationals who throng to this exotic town in the Himalayas for a variety of reasons.

The local Indians complain wealthy Tibetans are buying up property at fancy prices.

In this context, also of interest, for us Conspiracy Theorists on the ground for the Burma Debacle . . .

The Imperial Branding of Simon Bolivar and the Cuban Revolution

Amusing little blowback embedded in the Asia Times piece OPEN QUOTE

news just trickled in that the 60-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) passed a resolution by consensus at its summit meeting in Dakar, Senegal, on Friday expressing “concern about the long-lingering, oldest unresolved dispute of Kashmir” and underscoring the organization’s support of the Kashmiri people’s right of self-determination.

Hey Szamko.. attacking police buildings is pretty much par for the course in a Chinese riot/protest. (or really any good riot really)

This isnt like some crazy uprising. Hell, I was in Inner mongolia when a bunch of farmers attacked the govt building and held the mayor hostage.

The only difference here was it was in Tibet.

I was just outside a few minutes ago drinking with some Xinjiang and Tibetan people. The level of resentment and hatred for the Han Chinese is pretty high, and everyone here knows it.

In my expert opinion, the only reason Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner mongolia dont have a proper uprising is that there are 1.3 billion Han chinese people who are nationalist robots. Its pretty much a losing situation. I give those people in Tibet a whole fucking lot of respect for having the balls to chuck petrol bombs at police cars in Lhasa.

I think the Tibetans should really qualify what they are pissed off at. The Han Chinese are fucking retarded loud assholes as a general group. Who the fuck wants millions of them destroying the fuck out of your home?

Its not so much about preserving culture, its about not having a hundred million han chinese people set up KTV bars and drive around like retards honking their horns and generally being dicks in your back yard. Like me and the Tibetans were saying earlier… they are like ants. Loud and obnoxious ants, spitting all around them, shitting on the earth and sticking a big old flag in it and masturbating to cliched nationalist propaganda about how fucking great they are.

Damn, just walking down the street here sometimes makes me want to chuck petrol bombs into random cars.

That all said.. I love Chinese girls!

I’ve been trying to figure out why the Chinese are so expansionist. The only thing I can think of is they feel threatened by the vulnerability of smaller nations. Not of Tibet itself, or Taiwan, but of forces that might waltz in and use the location from which to launch some sort of nefarious offensive.

Which is certainly not a far fetched concern.

Internet blackouts.
It is being reported as a terrorist attack in some places.