U.N. rights boss chides China over Tibet protests!

[Peter Terpstra]

U.N. rights boss chides China over Tibet protests

By Stephanie Nebehay

GENEVA | Fri Nov 2, 2012 9:02am EDT

(Reuters) - The United Nations' most senior human rights official urged China on Friday to address deep-rooted
frustrations that have led to desperate forms of protest by Tibetans, including some 60 self-immolations since March
2011.

Navi Pillay called on the Chinese authorities to release detainees, allow independent human rights monitors to visit
Tibet, and to lift restrictions on media access to the restive Himalayan region.

"Social stability in Tibet will never be achieved through heavy security measures and suppression of human rights," Pillay
said, in a rare statement critical of China.

Her spokesman said the appeal was not issued to coincide with a Communist Party congress opening next week, but
that the "time had come to talk publicly" about allegations of violence against Tibetans seeking to exercise their
fundamental freedoms.

China's foreign ministry was not immediately available for comment. Beijing has branded the self-immolators
"terrorists" and criminals and accused the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Dalai Lama, of
inciting them.

In the statement, Pillay "urged Chinese authorities to promptly address the longstanding grievances that have led to an
alarming escalation in desperate forms of protest, including self-immolations in Tibetan areas".

As United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, she said she recognized Tibetans' intense sense of frustration
but urged community and religious leaders to use their influence to help prevent people from setting themselves on
fire.

The victims include seven Tibetans who set fire to themselves in the past two weeks in protest against what they said
was repressive Chinese rule in the Himalayan region.

"UNDERLYING PROBLEMS"

"Those are an illustration of how serious the situation is," Pillay's spokesman, Rupert Colville, told a news briefing in
Geneva.

"We don't see any progress in dealing with the underlying problems facing Tibetans both in Tibet and in other areas,
because quite a few of the self-immolations have been in Tibetan areas outside Tibet itself," he said, referring to
Sichuan and Gansu provinces, next to what China calls the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Pillay urged Beijing to respect Tibetans' rights to peaceful assembly and expression and to release anyone detained for
exercising those rights.

Arrests, disappearances and curbs on the cultural rights of Tibetans persist, she said.

Cases have included a 17-year-old girl said to have been severely beaten and sentenced to three years in prison for
distributing flyers calling for Tibet's freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama, she said.

Others had been sentenced to four to seven years for writing essays, making films, or distributing photos of events in
Tibet outside China, Pillay added.

Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous separatist. He denies supporting violence, saying he merely seeks greater
autonomy for his homeland, which he says is a victim of Chinese "cultural genocide".

Activists say China tramples on religious freedom and culture in Tibet, which has been ruled with an iron fist since the
1950 takeover. China rejects such criticism, saying its rule ended serfdom and brought development to a backward
area.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Editing by Jon Boyle and
Andrew Osborn)

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--
A beautiful song from Tibet
I miss Dalai Lama
http://youtu.be/_zo3kYvJr38