Gunning for the Buddha

Posted by Ali-G (Ottawa, Canada) on 8 December 2006 in Lifestyle & Culture.

Free Tibet

China's invasion by 40,000 troops in 1950 was an act of unprovoked aggression. There is no generally accepted legal basis for China's claim of sovereignty.

Ten years later 100,000 Tibetans fled with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual and temporal ruler.

In 1993 the UN High Commissioner for Refugees handled 3,700 Tibetan cases.

To avoid detection many refugees, who are poorly clothed, are forced to use the 19,000 ft. Nangpa-La pass below Everest. The Nepalese authorities continue to turn refugees over to the Chinese.

By the 17-Point Agreement of 1951 China undertook not to interfere with Tibet's existing system of government and society, but never kept these promises in eastern Tibet and in 1959 reneged on the treaty altogether.

Reprisals for the 1959 National Uprising alone involved the elimination of 87,000 Tibetans by the Chinese count, according to a Radio Lhasa broadcast of 1 October 1960. Tibetan exiles claim that 430,000 died during the Uprising and the subsequent 15 years of guerrilla warfare.

Some 1.2 million Tibetans are estimated to have been killed by the Chinese since 1950.

Think of Tibet next time you are tempted to buy cheap Chinese goods.

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