Judge for yourself http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7962971.stm China says video footage that purportedly shows Chinese security personnel violently beating Tibetans last year is "a lie". The video apparently shows protesters being beaten with sticks, and kicked and choked by China's security forces. The Tibetan government-in-exile says the footage shows China's "brutality". But a Chinese government official said many of the images and voices in the video had been pieced together from different sources. The video-sharing site YouTube has recently been blocked in China, which could be because the site had been carrying the contentious video. Edited together The footage was released by the Central Tibetan Administration, Tibet's government-in-exile, last week, and cannot be independently verified. But Tseten Samdup Chhoekyapa, the Dalai Lama's representative, said the footage showed "police beating protesters". "The footage clearly shows the beating of Tibetan captives even after they are handcuffed and tied, a violation of international norms," said the representative. The government-in-exile also said the footage featured a Tibetan called Tendar, who died after being beaten by the Chinese security forces. It said Tendar was on his way to his office when he was beaten while trying to stop Chinese police officers hitting a monk. Some of the footage was shot in or near Lhasa after riots and protests erupted throughout Tibetan areas in March last year, according to exiled Tibetans. During the unrest last year Chinese state-run television released its own footage of Tibetans, including monks, rioting in Lhasa. But Tibetan exiles say this is the first time there has been footage that shows Tibetans being beaten by the Chinese security forces. Slashed policeman In its first response to the video's release, an unnamed government official from China's Tibetan Autonomous Region said it was a lie. He was speaking to the official Xinhua News Agency in a report that was released late on Tuesday. "Technology experts found that video and audio was edited to piece together different places, times and people," Xinhua said, quoting the official. China also rejected the claims about Tendar. "Tendar died from a disease at home awaiting court trial," the official said, adding that he had used a knife to "slash" a policeman. The official added that the injured person in the video was not Tendar and the wounds were fake. "The Dalai Lama group is used to fabricating lies to deceive the international community, and the aim of this video is to hide the truth of the 14 March riot," Xinhua quoted the official as saying. The Tibetan government-in-exile says that about 220 Tibetans were killed and nearly 1,300 seriously injured following the unrest last year. The Chinese government says at least 18 civilians and one policeman were killed, mostly in riots in Lhasa on 14 March.
argh the video did not link right, so here is a better one from youtube be forewarned it is shocking and inhumane to say the least <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/cdTlIP5qsCw&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/cdTlIP5qsCw&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
WOW. That one guy's injuries were gruesome. BTW...that's one strange tradition, offering your body to vultures.
I have no expertise to determine whether the video is fake or not but I do believe that the PRC has been heavy handed on Tibetans. We know for a fact that the PRC has been heavy handed on Han protestors so I doubt they would treat Tibetans any better.
Hmm, that video looks pretty damned authentic. Idiotic knee-jerk response by commie propagandists. On the other hand, the brutal beating looks no different from any number of LAPD/NYPD beatings on youtube. That surgery was downright nasty, however.
It's terrible, but crap like this goes on everywhere. Look at all the police brutality videos on this message board it self. Anytime you put under educated people in a hostile situation with a position of authority, bad things are going to happen. As far as the China Tibetan situation, I still hope for peaceful resolution. I don't think it's significantly worse than the Irish-English situation and probably better than the Palestinian - Israel situation. Both sides need to learn to compromise more.
The government officials say it's all a lie, but they admit 18 civilians got killed. Ok, so the 18 people that got killed aren't in the video? Did they catch by the same disease as Tendar, while sitting at home?
Those 18 civilians were killed by the rioters, including 5 girls burnt to death in their shop. That news article is being intentionally misleading by not explaining this. Typical. As for this video, I don't have the expertise to know if it's fake or not and I don't care. After what they did in Lhasa last year, don't ask me to shed tears for them. You don't want to get f**ked up by the police? How about don't join a riot? If you insist on banging your head against a wall, don't complain about getting a headache.
I can read Chinese (or at least 80% of them) and I did follows this story. The 18 civilians they were talking about were the Chinese civilians died from the hands of Tibetan rioters. Of course, there was a riot because of the heavy handedness of the Chinese response to an earlier peaceful demonstration. And that earlier peaceful demonstration was the result of general unhappiness of Tibetan. But the article you quoted also is symbolic of almost all western press reporting on 3rd world countries. Every sentences are strictly correct, but was put together in a way to sell a point of view.
Correction, several of them were actually Tibetans. Others were Muslim and Han Chinese. When rioters go on a rampage, they aren't particularly picky.
Personally I don't see why China need that area. Just pull all the Han Chinese back and cut all ties with that area let them have their serf lords back.
Strategic value (protects China's back) and national sentiment (sovereign territory cann't be given up). Economically the region has no value and lives on handouts from China. Part of the reason why Dalai has (ostensibly) given up the idea of independence. He knows Tibet cann't survive without China.
they need to learn modern riot control tactics, instead of their 1960's population control communist BS. They will get it eventually.
PRC has been heavy handed on people who were against them before. The situation is getting better for now, at least, I think so. It is no good idea to use violent force to confront people who have different perspectives with you. Those things have been happening though all over the world such as Irish-English situation, Palestinian - Israel situation, North Korea - South korea situation and china- tai wan situation. It is not easy to conclude who is right or who stands on the wrong side. Such situations are normally quite complicated, and not right or wrong at all
we are on the same page. China has not been democratic country by now. It is even hard to apply a protest by ordinary people. There are few chances giving to police to learn how to deal with such confrontation scenarios by means of reasonable method. Just as what rockets needs to learn is that how to use yao effectively
So that's why my youtube access recently has been denied, and I have to hide my ip and make it slow? Seriously, the whole fascination with Tibet pisses me off. Both the Chinese government and the western media. It's basically a lot of BS back and forth that results in nothing. China will not leave Tibet. And western countries won't ever punish China for something as politically insignificant. And in the end it just makes everyone hate each other more.
Youtube b****ing about being censored in China? That's hilarious considering Youtube itself doesn't shy away from censoring the video contents it deems "inappropriate." I doubt there is any thing China does would please the West. The fascination angle is interesting. Tibet is part of China more so than Hawaii is part of the US, or Northern Ireland is part of the UK. Maybe China needs to be fascinated with Hawaii or Northern Ireland to level the playing field.
You lost me there. How is the practice of "sky burial" environmental friendly? If anything, you want to eliminate a potential open source of pathogen (rotten corpses) as thoroughly as possible. China is bending backwards to accommodate the medieval-ish tradition of Tibetans. But then again, this probably slaps the collective face of those whiners who cry "cultural genocide."
