Bloody crackdown in Lhasa

CNN is reporting tonight that Drepung Monastery in Lhasa remains surrounded after monks celebrated President George W. Bush honoring the Dalai Lama with the US Congressional Gold Medal. The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), which opposes Chinese rule in Tibet, has been following developments:

The monastery was sealed off after "police stopped an attempt by monks to peacefully mark the honor to the Dalai Lama last week," ICT reported.

"Another significant monastery in the city, Nechung, is also apparently closed," the ICT added. The group described "a tense atmosphere in Lhasa (that) has been described as similar to 'martial law,' with increased numbers of troops on the streets."

"Tibetan sources report a buildup of armed police in the city, checkpoints on roads out of Lhasa, and an order to Lhasa citizens not to carry out any religious or celebratory activities," the ICT reported.

When asked about the report, a staff member at the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson's office told CNN he was unaware.

Other reports say the monks began the protest in the morning by tossing white paint against the walls of Drepung Monastery. After being broken up, they returned in the afternoon, this time to face a more severe crackdown. From the Globe and Mail:

Internet connections in Lhasa were severed, but reports filtering out of Tibet - a country long subject to ruthless Chinese occupation - say thousands of policemen then sealed off Drepung and Nechung monasteries, preventing interaction between the monks and the Tibetan people. Tibetan exile groups in India report that scores of monks and activists have been arrested.

China's war may be with technology, as formerly isolated Tibetans now receive radio signals (it was reported they learned of the award through the Voice of America) and the Internet. Now, it's possible to watch videos of the Dalai Lama on video sharing sites, even inside Tibet.

That likely won't stop China from doing whatever it can to ensure the Tibetan "Autonomous" Region remains anything but. I'll leave the final word to the Globe and Mail:

China's Communist rulers have a long tradition of religious suppression. More than a few monks in China have had their skulls cracked along the way. In fact, they're having their skulls cracked still. Just weeks after the bloody attacks against the monks in Myanmar (formerly Burma), it was China's People's Armed Police who were again wielding the truncheons.

Beijing's efforts to cover its tracks in Tibet and to cow the world into submission over its human-rights abuses have by and large failed abroad. On the ground in Tibet, however, China's brutal methods appear once again to be working. Bloody crackdowns are a true and tried method of the Communist rulers.