South Asia News
German parliamentarians report shortages in Tibetan monasteries
Apr 8, 2008, 15:11 GMT
Berlin - A group of German parliamentarians returning from a visit to Nepal said Tuesday they had heard reports that monasteries in neighbouring Tibet were suffering serious food and medicine shortages after being sealed off by the Chinese authorities.
The five-strong group from the parliamentary development aid committee said they had met Tibetan refugees in Kathmandu, along with the Dalai Lama's representative in the Nepalese capital.
Many monasteries had been sealed off, the group, headed by Greens politicians Thilo Hoppe, said.
The refugees reported that 'ominous bottlenecks' in the supplies of food and medicines had occurred and that there had been isolated cases where people had died as a result.
Tibetan exiles and members of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile had insisted the protests against Chinese rule had been overwhelmingly peaceful, the group said in a statement released by the German parliament.
The exiles said some of the protests had been instigated by the Chinese security forces and falsely attributed to the monks.
The German parliamentary group was shown photographs of Chinese soldiers carrying monks' robes in their luggage.
The five Bundestag members spent nine days visiting projects in Nepal before returning to Germany over the weekend.
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'photographs of Chinese soldiers carrying monks' robes in their luggage'
Those were for a movie set in 2005. Check your freaking facts before you post your stories from exiles! You look so naive and stupid.
If you remember WMD in Iraq, you should know better to take any exiles at face value.
Spurious photos (see below) should not distract from the real news you are reporting that the residents of Buddhist monasteries in Tibet are being denied food and water supplies by Chinese authorities.
I can confirm from first person reports that monks from the large monasteries near Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, have been denied access to food, water and medical supplies since the peaceful protests first happened there on March 10.
This increasingly urgent situation is extremely relevant to the protests surrounding Beijing‘s plans to take the Olympic Torch to Tibet.
What is irrelevant are the photos mentioned in the story — likely the same as photographs being circulated on the internet which purport to show Chinese soldiers carrying monks robes, about which the International Campaign for Tibet recently warned its members and supporters.
“ICT does not regard this photo as credible evidence of Chinese soldiers disguising themselves as Buddhist monks during unrest in Lhasa last month. This image is most likely from a movie set in which soldiers dressed as monks to serve as extras. ICT is in possession of similar images dating from 2001.
“In recent weeks images showing soldiers in Tibet carrying monks' robes have been distributed widely across the internet, with some commentators claiming they provide evidence that Chinese soldiers disguised themselves as Buddhist monks during unrest in Lhasa last month. ICT does not regard the images as credible evidence of this claim. Similar images, of soldiers carrying monks' robes in the Jokhang, are in ICT's possession, taken during a film shoot in Lhasa which involved soldiers appearing as monks. These current images are likely to be the same - in recent years soldiers have been hired to play monks in both Chinese propaganda movies and in mainstream foreign films - for instance, Michelle Yeoh's 'The Touch', shot in Lhasa in 2001.
“The images were initially published in an article by Gordon Thomas in Canada Free Press on March 21 but the article was quickly taken off Canada Free Press's website.”
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LK98Apr 8th, 2008 - 16:19:16
Dai lie is liar!
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