Riots rage in China as protests overshadow Olympic ceremony

Joseph Borawski, Tuesday March 25th 2008, 9:25 AM, Global Social Protests Current Event (way late, meant for Friday the 21st)


Monday in Tibetan-populated areas of China pro-independence protests raged with the death of at least once policeman, and several more being wounded in a riot in Sichuan province. The exiled Tibetan political leader Samdhong Rinpoche said that 130 people had now been killed since the start of the Chinese crack down following two weeks or protests, this is up from a previous figure of 99. Protesters seeking to embarrass the Chinese government disrupted the lighting ceremony of the Olympic torch in Olympia. The torch is to be ran from Greece to China. The officer was named Wang Guochan, was killed by a group who attacked armed police with knifes at about 4:30 in the afternoon. This was following the firing of warning shots by the police so as to disperse the crowd.
There is also an unconfirmed report from a rights group called the Tibet Support Group, of the deaths of a monk and a farmer, with the injury of 10 others. Despite these injuries over 200 monks, 200 nuns and about 1000 farmers were involvedin the unrest. Local authorities announced that 381 alleged rioters had been rounded up in a Tibetan-populated area of southwest Sichuan. World governments and sports associations have decided to keep themselves as distant from the calls to boycott the Olympics. One of the protesters who interrupted the torch lighting ceremony said “We have nothing against the Olympic games or the athletes. We want to draw attention to the fact that China is the world’s biggest prison.” I think the Tibetans have an honest claim to want to protest and for a good reason, but I certainly doubt the effectiveness that boycotting the Olympic Games will have, seems it would garnish more antipathy than support. Check it out here:

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hw92BmwCMcm5RgT2Lxy0tjyUITlQ