麗思的部落格

對於西藏的真相，中共最為強調的是，西藏從元朝時就和中國在一塊版圖內。

但今人以當年蒙古帝國對西藏和中國的同時兼併與統治，作為中國從此就對西藏擁有主權的依據，邏輯上是不通的。退一步講，即使當年被成吉思汗兼併後的版圖被認為是今天這塊土地應該統一的理由，這個理由也應由成吉思汗的子孫蒙古人提出，而不應是當時同樣被兼併的中國人提出。

再退一步講，如果今天的中國人認為西藏曾是蒙古帝國建立的元朝的一部份，西藏就是中國領土的法理根據，那麼中國人就應該對當時蒙古帝國轄下的越南、朝鮮和俄羅斯的大片土地都相應地提出主權要求，單獨提出西藏也是邏輯不通的。

China to Tibetans: surrender or suffer(引用自Taipei Times)

MEDIA SILENCED: Lhasa police kicked out reporters from Hong Kong TV stations yesterday while foreign reporters were removed from Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu

AP, BEIJING
Tuesday, Mar 18, 2008, Page 1

Tibetan Buddhist monks and scores of supporters of Tibet hold a candlelight vigil outside the Taiwan Democracy Memorial Hall in Taipei last night. PHOTO: DAVID LONGSTREATH, AP

Champa Phuntsok, an ethnic Tibetan, said the death toll from last week's violent demonstrations in the Tibetan capital had risen to 16 and dozens were injured.

The Dalai Lama's exiled Tibetan government in India has said that 80 Tibetans were killed -- a claim Champa Phuntsok denied.

The governor steered a line between sounding reassuring and being tough at his press conference in Beijing. He told reporters security forces "did not carry or use any lethal weapons," but promised that authorities would deal harshly with rioters who defy the surrender notice.

"No country would allow those offenders or criminals to escape the arm of justice and China is no exception," he said.

"If these people turn themselves in, they will be treated with leniency within the framework of the law," he said.

Otherwise, "we will deal with them harshly," he said.

Champa Phuntsok described a scene of chaos throughout Lhasa on Friday with "people engaged in reckless beating, smashing, looting and burning."

Shops, schools, hospitals and banks were targeted and bystanders were beaten and set on fire, he said.

Among the 16 dead, he said, three people jumped out of buildings to avoid arrest while 13 were "innocent civilians."

In one case, a person died after being covered in gasoline and then set on fire, he said. In another incident, the protesters "knocked out a police officer on patrol and then they used a knife to cut a piece of flesh from his buttocks the size of a fist," he said.

He said calm had been restored.

Authorities paraded handcuffed Tibetan prisoners in Lhasa yesterday, the Times of London reported in its online edition. The report said four trucks in a convoy drove through the city with 40 people, mostly young Tibetan men and women, standing in the back, their wrists handcuffed and a soldier behind each one holding the prisoner's head bowed.

Going house-to-house, police checked identity cards and residence permits, detaining anyone without permission to stay in Lhasa, the Times said.

The Washington-based International Campaign for Tibet said residents feared a military sweep after the midnight deadline.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called again yesterday for China to exercise restraint and said Beijing should find a way to engage the Dalai Lama. But Russia said it hopes China's government "will take all necessary measures to stop illegal actions and provide for the swiftest possible normalization of the situation."

Security forces were also mobilizing across western China's mountain valleys and broad plains to deal with sympathy protests in Tibetan communities in the provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai.

Officials expelled foreign reporters from Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu provinces yesterday, while police in Lhasa kicked out reporters from three Hong Kong TV stations -- Cable TV, TVB and ATV -- and made TVB delete footage of Friday's violence, TVB reported.