July 29, 2008 CHINA - THE SYSTEM TAKES AWAY TOURISTS 'are ruining the Olympics'
But repression continues, "Monks arrested and beaten"
Monasteries under siege everywhere plainclothes
"Mario how do we forget what has happened? but mostly it is just forget? No, We do not forget. "
Ritportiamo Article Envoy of the Corriere della Sera.
LHASA - ' Shhhh. I can not speak. Please do not talk here. Too much police , "whispering in the hesitant English monaco met along the maze of dark corridors and wooden beads painted in the ancient monastery of Sera. In fact the place is full of plainclothes policemen and alarmed by the arrival of delegation of journalists invited into Tibet through cooperation between Beijing and Italy-China Foundation. We carefully follow and glances of fire at anyone who approaches without permission. The only way to try to communicate with Tibetans and let them play hide and seek with agents. "See, this is my email address," says one who does not yet seem sudden passing a note crumpled twenties. " Please, never let my name, because so many of us are taken, and nobody knows anything about them. Stop us, beat us, if we take the night we can be shot on the spot. I'm afraid , "says Quick.
the evening before the computer, the messages from Tibet to the world under the heel of preventive repression in China ahead of the Beijing Olympics told a completely different universe from that explained by official spokesmen. "In recent weeks, thousands of newly arrived police reinforcements. Sometimes in one way we counted more than twenty military trucks. Our movements are prevented to the maximum, especially from sunset to sunrise, who leaves the monastery without permission is certainly stopped. But the worst are the agents in plain clothes. Stationed everywhere and are the most evil, 'says in email of 14 July. In the three days before it is specified that the dead during the incidents of March 14 were "at least 180" and Tibetans in prison, many of them monks, "are hundreds." By a curious detail: "In general, for those standing in the way the police are regular.
But men are sitting in plain clothes agents who give the orders. " And some notes of everyday life, " Recently the police have settled permanently in the monasteries. So the situation is slightly better for the monks of Sera, Jokhang Temple and Ramosh, where at least you can move, even if the lessons for students have been postponed until after the Olympics. But that is totally isolated from Drepung . Seeing is believing. Just fifteen minutes by taxi to reach the center of Lhasa the village at the foot of the steep mountainous amphitheater that crowns at Drepung. Here in March was one of the most active centers of the insurgency leaders. And for several weeks had been totally isolated from the army.
But now the Chinese feel much more confident. You do not see checkpoints on the roads. However, the situation changes completely once in the village: every access road to the white buildings of more than 6 centuries old monastery that underpin the flanks of the mountain was cordoned off systematically, the military has drawn up a network of barbed wire all around, as well as watch towers , brightly colored umbrellas to the sentinels of the sun shifts, tents with lights for the night. "Besides not can go. You curfew from 4 months , "he says resignedly a group of old farmers, who every day went to pray near a giant granite boulder about 500 yards as the crow flies from the silent monastery. Bow down to those ancient walls, waving in the wind votive shawls and let their prayers ascend to heaven, a bit 'as one of the faithful is still in the center of Lhasa to worship the relics of the Potala Palace became a museum, abandoned by the Dalai Lama and his followers since 1959. "According to our information, about 1,000 monks who were at Drepung, 500 were immediately arrested, freed after 300, others still missing the call," says a monaco che farfuglia veloce qualche parola in inglese, ripete la sua «fedeltà assoluta» al Dalai Lama, e pure, dopo una manciata di secondi, se ne fugge in una delle case protette da alte mura di pietra nella parte bassa del villaggio. «Peccato!», vien da pensare guardando da lontano, evitando di attirare l'attenzione dei militari, questo paesaggio da favola che proprio in questi giorni avrebbe potuto essere letteralmente invaso dai turisti è invece rimasto vuoto.
«I cinesi sono talmente ossessionati dal problema Tibet e dall'incubo sicurezza, che stanno rovinandosi la grande occasione offerta dalle Olimpiadi», osservano tra i circoli diplomatici europei a Pechino. Gli alberghi si erano preparati al tutto esaurito, ma ancora this week were still 30 per cent of admissions. Half-empty luxury restaurants, taxi drivers with hands. A country objectively and rapidly growing economy. Infrastructure to cry. Without disturbing the successes impressed with the recent reconstruction of Beijing, it is natural to observe that smaller airports such as those of Zhongdian, Xining, Kunming, Chengdu and the mythical Shangri-La, near the Tibet Autonomous Region, are much more efficient and responsive than of many European cities. The railway linking the country from 2006 to Lhasa - and in recent travels 2300 km in 26 hours on a plateau between 4,000 and 5,200 meters high - is proceeding with a timely impressive. Our convoy 14 wagons (the passengers were almost all Han Chinese) arrived in the Tibetan capital with 4 minutes to spare. Yet it is as if the civil society in China has gone faster than that of the state apparatus. " What is waving to the world the China of the Olympics, if then embassies and consulates abroad grant visas with the dropper? 'protest foreign tour operators. The Museum of Contemporary Art exhibits works of criticism of the Beijing regime and the new "state capitalist consumerism," as if the repression that followed the riots in Tiananmen Square in 1989 had never existed. But Tibet shows a reality far more sad. "That damn railroad only serves the Chinese to come and colonize. They are facilitated by incentives offered by the central government and rob us work, "says Tayang, a 23 year-old employee in a shop selling Tibetan carpets and crafts in downtown Lhasa. He adds, bellicose, showing just off the three gates still damaged the 'Artwork Top Peak Center, "a Chinese-owned store vandalized March 14:" If things go well, there will soon be another rebellion. Inevitably, we want our independent state led by the Dalai Lama .
