Sunday, March 16, 2008

Free Tibet...through peaceful means.



Before 1951, Tibet is an independent country. The country had its own administration and the 14th Dalai Lama was served as a spiritual leader. However, independence didn't last for long. When the Communist Party in China gained control and formed the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949. The PRC propagate "People’s Liberation Army must liberate all Chinese territories" and one of the territories is Tibet. Thus, the Tibetan Government wrote to China’s leader, Mao Zedong, suggesting talks to resolve all boundary feuds. This document was also delivered to the governments of India, Great Britain and the United States, and even though these countries were and are fully against the expansion of Communism, they still supported Tibet’s negotiations with the PRC in order to prevent military action.

During the talks, the PRC’s ambassador insisted that Tibet agree to a two-point proposal, which said that henceforth, China would control Tibet’s national defense and that Tibet would be acknowledged as an official part of China. The Tibetan Government refused to comply with this and the discussions were terminated.

On October 7, 1950, the enemy attacked the Tibetan frontier in six places simultaneously." These forty thousand soldiers from China’s Red Army easily overwhelmed Tibet’s small territorial army of eight thousand in merely two days, killing more than half of Tibet’s troops and detaining the Regional Governor. In 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama was forced into exile in India after the Chinese military occupation of Tibet.

If the matter of Tibet's sovereignty is murky, the question about the PRC's treatment of Tibetans is all too clear. After invading Tibet in 1950, the Chinese communists killed over one million Tibetans, destroyed over 6,000 monasteries. A quarter of a million Chinese troops remain stationed in Tibet. What's more, currently in Tibet, any "Tibetan culture, religion, and national identity are considered a threat" to China.

Regardless, where is the justice or who started the riot? One thing we can be sure is that peace can never be achieved through violence...

http://www.freetibet.org/

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