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Saturday, 15 November 2008 |
Tibetans Protest Visiting Chinese Vice Minister
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A Tibetan protester tries to block the motorcade,
Photo:SFT |
Phayul.com, 15. November 2008
Dharamshala Nov. 15 - Zhu Weiqun, Vice-Minister of the United Front
Work Department, received a noisy reception during his visit to London,
Students for a Free Tibet said. Tibetans and supporters chanted slogans
against Zhu and Chinese government at Chatham house at St. James square
where Zhu took part in a 'round-table' discussion on the recent failure
of the eighth round of talks.
A Chinese FedEx employee briefly disrupted the protest as he stormed
towards the Tibetan protesters in an attempt to provoke the Tibetans
into confrontation. He snatched a Tibetan national flag from a Tibetan
protester and snapped the flagpole. The Chinese man was warned by the
police for his provocative behavior.
Padma Dolma, a Tibetan
student, threw herself in front of the Chinese diplomat’s entourage
carrying a Tibetan national flag. Four other Tibetans splashed tomato
sauce onto the windows of the car in which Zhu was traveling.
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A protester splashes tomato sauce on a van
carrying Chinese officials in a symbolic
representation of bloody killings in Tibet |
The protesters banged the glasses and yelled, “Zhu Weiqun, liar, liar.”
Pema Yoko, who took part in the skirmish, said the Tibetans will not
stand down to the Chinese government. “We showed the London public that
the Chinese government is responsible for the bloodshed and death of
hundreds of Tibetans in a brutal crackdown after the protest in Tibet
in March this year.”
Zhu Weiqun in the firs ever press conference by
China after talks with Tibetan envoys accused the Dalai Lama as being
responsible to for the failure to make any progress.
"The sovereignty is the most fundamental issue. The Dalai has — by
denying Chinese sovereignty over Tibet — been trying to seek a legal
basis for his claims of independence or semi-independence over Tibet,"
Zhu said at the press conference on Nov 10.
Tibet supporters
also condemned the Chinese government's latest wave of hard-line
rhetoric. "To spuriously blame the Tibetan side for the collapse of
talks was patently false, but to accuse the Dalai Lama of plotting
'apartheid' and 'ethnic cleansing' in Tibet is both ludicrous and
deeply offensive to all Tibetans," said Terry Bettger, Campaigns
Coordinator of Students for a Free Tibet UK. "Rhetoric like this only
serves to embarrass Chinese diplomacy on the world stage, and exposes
the absolute lack of sincerity the Chinese government have shown to
talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys."
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