[lg policy] Tibetan Students Protest Over China's Language Policy

[Harold Schiffman]

Tibetan Students Protest Over China's Language Policy

10/20/2010 7:15 PM ET

Thousands of Tibetan students staged a peaceful demonstration in a
northwestern Chinese town to protest against Beijing's alleged policy
of gradually replacing Tibetan language in education and textbooks by
Mandarin, Free Tibet campaign group said Wednesday. According to the
London-based rights group, the peaceful demonstration that saw the
participation of thousands of Tibetan middle and high school students
took place in the town of Tongren in Qinghai province on Tuesday. "The
use of Tibetan is being systematically wiped out as part of China's
strategy to cement its occupation of Tibet," Free Tibet said,
expressing concerns that the "protesters may be detained or otherwise
punished" in the coming days.

The Qinghai province is considered as a hot-bed of anti-China
sentiments as the region is home to many ethnic Tibetans who
participated in the 2008 anti-Chinese riots. Witnesses said police
observed Tuesday's protest march carefully, but did not intervene. In
March 2008, a peaceful demonstration led by Buddhist monks to
commemorate the failed 1959 Tibetan uprising against Beijing rule
turned violent, sparking widespread riots in the Tibetan capital of
Lhasa. Though China insists that 19 people were killed in the 2008
Lhasa riots, the Tibetan government-in-exile claims that at least 200
more were killed in the Chinese crackdown following the March riots.
Many of those arrested in the Chinese crackdown have been awarded long
jail sentences, while some were awarded death sentences.

China's tough stand on Tibet has evoked international criticism and
many nations have urged the Chinese government to resolve the issue by
holding negotiations with Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of
Tibet. Beijing blames Dalai Lama for the unrest in Tibet and accuses
him of seeking total independence for Tibet. Nevertheless, the exiled
Tibetan leader maintains that he is seeking only greater autonomy for
Tibetan parts of western China, not complete independence as projected
by the Chinese government.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet to India with thousands of followers in 1959
after Chinese troops crushed an attempted uprising there. He is
currently based in India and heads a self-styled Tibetan government in
exile in Dharamsala. Several round of talks have already taken place
between China and Tibetan representatives over the issue since 2002,
but have yielded little or no progress. Despite international pressure
over Tibet, China maintains Tibet as an internal issue and has warned
other nations against supporting the Tibetan cause or entertaining the
Dalai Lama.

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Id=1451274&SM=1

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