The Sun-Herald

Hoping humanity will prevail

In the week since I last wrote about the crisis in Tibet, events in the region have delivered both hope and despair to those who long for a peaceful solution.

The most urgent concern for those with families and friends inside Tibet is the reports of continuing house arrests, detentions and disappearances. "They are taking people at night," one of my contacts told me today. "The police came this week to a nunnery near my home town and took between 15 and 20 nuns away in their nightclothes."
Tibetans here say they are also deeply concerned by news that those inside Tibet with family known by the Chinese authorities to be involved in protests in other countries - including Australia - are being arrested. "They hope to intimidate us into not taking part in public demonstrations," says a local Tibetan. "This is nothing new - we are aware that our activities are monitored - but it's even more worrying now as we know so many of our relatives and friends are already in very bad situations, with no food supply or trapped in their homes."
Meanwhile, human rights groups fear for the welfare of the 15 monks who were arrested on March 10 for their peaceful protest in Lhasa. These young men were not involved in any violence, but still remain in detention.
Similarly, there is no information about the fate of the monks from Lhasa's Jokhang monastery who last week interrupted a government-organised press visit there to tell journalists tearfully that: "what the government is saying is not true." As a local Tibetan ex-political prisoner says: "I have seen first hand what happens to people there who demonstrate like that. Those monks were brave because they knew that by speaking out they were probably signing their own death warrant."
But despite the distressing news, there are still notes of hope. Influential individuals around the world are starting to voice their objections to the Chinese government's treatment of Tibetans.
There is also a growing feeling that the Olympic Games must be protected from any further irreparable damage caused by the Chinese government's resonse to the Tibetan crisis.
In the Washington Post, sports writer Sally Jenkins says: "Officials [in China] have violated the basic spirit of the event and reneged on every promise they made to the International Olympic Committee about their willingness to accommodate the world.
"The party Beijing is preparing to throw bears no resemblance to any recent Olympics: shootings, beatings, jailings, buggings, environmental crimes and paramilitary police flooding the streets..."
To protect the ideals and integrity of the Games, Jenkins suggests moving them out of China altogether and into a country better suited to host them. While this would be a crushing disappointment for the ordinary Chinese citizens eagerly anticipating the event, it is also crucial to remember that the Games belong to the world, and not exclusively to the nation who happens to be hosting them. Even those with little interest in the polemics of the Tibetan situation agree that the famous Olympic ideals should not be tarnished further by associations with a brutal regime.
Athletes are speaking up, too. In France, a group of top sports stars have signed a written appeal to Hu Jintau not to spoil the Games. They say: "the Chinese government promised to respect human rights. Yet, the violent repression in Tibet seriously questions this commitment given to the Olympic movement".
Other religious communites are expressing support for the Tibetan struggle for religious freedom. In the Jerusalem Post, Ari Rifkin compares the oppression of Tibetans to the historical persecution of his own race. "How long will it be," he asks, "before Tibetans are viewed as a relic, and perhaps bothersome, minority in their homeland similar to the condition of Native Americans in the United States, Formosans in Taiwan, or Serbs in Kosovo?"
Other commentators are dismayed by the inflammatory tone of the Chinese official pronouncements, and the aggressive nationalistic fervour they appear to be stirring up within a population conditioned to accept without question their government's every utterance.
Says Tibetan scholar and activist Josh Schrei: "I am legitimately frightened by the venomous rhetoric that the Chinese government hurls at the Dalai Lama. I am even more alarmed to see a dramatic rise in nationalist vitriol emanating from the Chinese people -- and especially young Chinese students -- towards Tibetans, who, with rare exception over the last 50 years, have been, though discontent, peaceful. Until last week, Tibetans had not been involved in a serious outbreak of violence since 1959. And yet the Chinese government and the Chinese people are behaving as if they are - in the words of one Beijing official 'engaged in a fierce battle of blood and fire with the Dalai clique, a life-and-death struggle between the foe and us...'
The above comment contrasts starkly with the language used in the Dalai Lama's public statements. In his latest, he says: "Chinese brothers and sisters - wherever you may be - with deep concern I appeal to you to help dispel the misunderstandings between our two communities. Moreover, I appeal to you to help us find a peaceful, lasting solution to the problem of Tibet through dialogue in the spirit of understanding and accommodation."
Despite his consistently conciliatory overtures, the Tibetan leader has been variously branded a "liar" and "devil" in response. But he remains confident there is a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
Robert Thurman, one of the world's foremost Tibet scholars, manages to find inspiration in the actions of both sides. In the Washington Post he writes: "The promise of the present moment has been precipitated first by the innovative leaders of China, gingerly stepping out into the glare of world publicity and opinion by hosting the Olympic Games and second, just now, by the brave people of Tibet stepping out on their own past the plans of their leader and, against great odds, standing up for the truth of their existence as Tibetans. Risking their very lives, they protest the total destruction of their culture, environment, and way of life."
Thurman's article stresses the immediate opportunity for China to set an example to the world with an act of compassion, dignity and wisdom. He believes, as does the Dalai Lama, in a future where all Chinese and Tibetan people can have a respectful, mutually beneficial friendship.
Right now, such a scenario is hard to envisage. But history has repeatedly proved that human beings, wherever they hail from, are just as capable of magnanimity and tolerance as they are of cruelty and injustice.
We can only hope, as the optimists among us do, that China will begin to view the outside world's urgings to change their policies on Tibet not as an affront or an intrusion but a precious chance to finally set things right there and lead the way into a new era of peace and cooperation.
Now that would be a gesture worthy of the greatest ever Olympics party in Beijing.