Dalai Lama: Chinese rule in Tibet has created 'hell on Earth'

[cali]

The Dalai Lama today said Chinese rule in Tibet had created "hell on Earth" and resulted in the deaths of thousands of Tibetans.

In a speech marking the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent him into exile, he called for genuine autonomy for Tibet and told thousands of supporters that Chinese martial law and hardline policies such as the cultural revolution had devastated the Himalayan region.

"These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on Earth," he told around 2,000 supporters in Dharamsala, the north Indian hill town that is home to the exiled Tibetan government.

"Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them."

The Dalai Lama condemned the "brutal crackdown" in the region after protests last year turned violent.

He warned that Tibetan culture and identity were "nearing extinction".

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/10/dalai-lama-tibet-china

[cali]

1. kick

Tibet the DR Congo, Darfur... Any posts on these topics sink. It's a mystery to me why these subjects are of so little interest.

[SoCalDem]

2. It's probably the futility of alll those issues.

For any substantive change to occur, it will take more force than any are willing to/able to exert.

Money and kind thoughts won't do it.

The authoritarian governments in charge have no interest in changing anything..

It's a stalemate, and a tragedy for people who live under those conditions.

What IS the solution, really?

Remove all the injuured parties, and resettle them in a different place?..which country will open its arms and do that?

And then there's the fact that the people who are there, don't WANT to leave..but they also want the government to change in their favor..

They have no power to achieve that goal, and no country wants to go to war on their behalf..especially since the "war" would be on their turf, and might only create more problems than before.. "free", but occupied like Iraq?.."free", but with a blown-up infrastructure?.."free", but with every citizen suffering injury/loss to family members?

The artificial drawing of lines on maps...by third parties, has caused so much trouble, and created so many insoluble problems:(

[cali]

3. I'm not saying there's an answer but there's something particularly

disturbing about such horrors being ignored.

[SoCalDem]

4. I think people DO care, but the fact that nothing they can DO , seems to help,

so they avert their eyes :cry: