• 
• 

The fresh outbreak of unrest, in southwest China's Sichuan province, reportedly left three people dead in a dangerous escalation of a nearly week-long uprising by Tibetans against China's rule of the Himalayan region.

The protests, previously confined mainly to the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, have presented China with a huge domestic crisis just as it is trying to present an image of harmony and peace ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Speaking from his exiled base in Dharamshala, India, the Dalai Lama launched a scathing criticism of China's decades-long rule of his homeland and called for an international probe into the unrest.

In the protest in Ngawa town, Sichuan province, which borders Tibet, at least three people were killed when police shot at hundreds of rioting Tibetans, a resident and two activist groups with contacts there told AFP.

Foreigners who flew out of Lhasa reported hearing repeated gunfire on Saturday, with armed soldiers patrolling every street.

The worst reported violence occurred on Friday, when Tibetans rampaged through Lhasa, destroying Chinese businesses and torching police cars.

Eighty people have been confirmed dead, the Tibetan government-in-exile said, contradicting the official account in China's state-run media that there were just 10 fatalities.

Despite being under intense international pressure to show restraint, China's communist government indicated it was in no mood to compromise.

"We must wage a people's war to beat splittism and expose and condemn the malicious acts of these hostile forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai Lama group to the light of day," the Tibetan Daily said.

Eyewitness reports have said protesters on Friday chanted support for independence and the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland in 1959 following a failed uprising and is still revered by the Tibetan Buddhist faithful.

Authorities plan to attack this support with a propaganda push, the Tibetan Daily said.

"We must firmly guide public opinion in the correct direction... to let all ethnic minorities understand the truth as soon as possible," it said.

Tibetan rights groups said the protests -- which marked the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising -- were an outpouring of frustration at decades of brutal Chinese rule.

China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 to "liberate" the region and officially annexed it a year later.

The Dalai Lama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his peaceful resistance to Chinese rule and insists he does not want independence for Tibet, but rather greater cultural autonomy and an end to repression.

Photo : AFP 

Vocabulary

witness, n: person who was present at a certain event and can say what is true or not

domestic, adj: at home; national; inside one country

to torch, v: to set alight; to make burn

fatality, n: person who dies from an event

malicious, adj: wanting to cause suffering

uprising, n: fight against the government

outpouring, n: show of a feeling that can't be held back any longer

frustration, n: feeling of being unable to achieve what one wants to

autonomy, n: having the right to govern oneself

repression, n: act of keeping someone under control against their will

Questions

1. Where does the Dalai Lama originally come from?

a. India

b. Tibet

c. China

d. Nepal

2. Where does the Dalai Lama live now?

a. Lhasa

b. Beijing

c. Ngawa

d. Dharamshala

3. What are people protesting against?

a. the Chinese rule of Tibet

b. high prices in Chinese shops

c. too much freedom of the press

d. the government of the Dalai Lama

4. Who do the Chinese authorities blame for the unrest?

a. Buddhism

b. the Dalai Lama

c. George W. Bush

d. the Olympic Games

5. What does the Dalai Lama want?

a. independence for Tibet

b. Lhasa hosting the Olympic Games

c. continuous international newspaper coverage

d. greater cultural autonomy for Tibet and an end to repression

Synonyms

Which of the following words or phrases replace the ones from the passage best?

1. escalation

a. origin

b. upsurge

c. wipe out

d. suppression

2. previously

a. later

b. before

c. exclusively

d. concurrently

3. confined

a. limited

b. expand

c. emerge

d. spill over

4. rampage

a. protest

b. go crazy

c. organise

d. demonstrate

5. annex

a. adjoin

b. destroy

c. oppose

d. set free

KEY

Questions           1. b, 2. d, 3. a, 4. b, 5. d

Synonyms           1. b, 2. b, 3. a, 4. b, 5. a

By  Ajarn Horst Baelz