Tibet this week

While it appears that things have calmed inside Tibet, don’t be fooled. The fact of the matter is simply that the Chinese government has expelled nearly all – if not all – foreign journalists from the region, making verification of any accounts extremely difficult. They have also cut off cell phone signals in areas of disturbance and ramped up suppression of internet traffic to cut off the flow of information both into and out of Tibet.

Young Tibetans question path of nonviolence
http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0401/p01s01-woap.html
Unrest in Tibet has revealed a generational fault line that is likely to sharpen as Olympics near.

Tibet Protest at Olympic Ceremony
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/world/30cnd-greece.html

Today about 500 protesters arrived at the White House in the US, calling on president Bush to boycott the opening of the Beijing Olympics. Germany’s Angela Merkel announced this weekend that she will boycott the Olympics. Polish and Czech leaders have vowed to follow suit and French president Nicolas Sarkozy has left the door open for a boycott himself.

With reports of the thousand plus police necessary just for the Olympic torch handover, one can imagine that this may well be the most heavily policed and arrest-ridden Olympics in history.