8A NEWS
》 2008 OLYMPICS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY, MARCH 24, 2008
Dalai Lama accused of stoking unrest between China, Tibet
BY CARA ANNA ASSOCIATED PRESS
CHENGDU, China — China accused the Dalai Lama on Sunday of stoking Tibetan unrest to sabotage the Beijing Olympics and also bered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, saying she is ignoring the truth about Tibet.
Th i s month's violence in Tibet and neighboring provinces has turned into a public relations disaster for China ahead of the August Olympics, which it had been hoping
"baseless," asserting that he supported China's hosting of the summer games.
"What was an empty parking lot by the library was full of military trucks and people practicing with shields."
Pelosi's visit to the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India, on Friday was the first by a major foreign official since the protests broke out. The Democratic leader said if people don't speak out against China's oppression in Tibet, "we have lost all moral author-
to use to bolster its international image.
RALPHA Backpacker in Yunnan province
The Chinese government said through official media that formerly restive areas were under control and accused the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of trying to harm China's image ahead of the summer games.
"The Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence," said the People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Communist Party.
The Tibetan spiritual leader called the accusations against him
ity to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world."
China's official Xinhua News Agency published commentary Sunday accusing Pelosi of ignoring the
violence caused by the Tibetan rioters.
"Human rights police' like Pelosi are habitually bad tempered and unengered when it comes to China, refusing to check their facts and find out the truth of the case," it said. "Her views are like so many other politicians and western media. Beneath the double standards lies their intention to serve the interest groups behind them, who want to contain or searce China."
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said Sunday that Pelios condemns the Chinese government's crackdown in Tibet and
calls on it "to begin a substantive dialogue and to allow journalists and independent monitors into Tibet to find out the truth."
China's reported death toll from the protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa earlier this month is 22. Tibet's exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed.
Xinhua said Sunday that 94 people had been inured in four
counties and one city in Gansu province in riots on March 15-16. The report also said 19 rioters had surrendered in Gannan, a prefecture in Gansu, but it did not give any details.
Monastery outside of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan prayed Sunday for peace and an end to the recent unrest. The monks, who characterized themselves as both Tibetan and Chinese, said they felt that the upheaval and riots had helped no one.
The government has insisted that stability has returned to the troubled areas. State broadcaster China Central Television said Sunday that electricity and telecommunications had been restored in Lhasa.
China reports 22 deaths in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Xinhua News Agency reports 94 people injured in four counties and one city in Gansu province.
Despite the media restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, some information was leaking out. An American backpacker who traveled to Chengdu, the capital of western Sichuan province, said he had seen soldiers or paramilitary troops in Deqen in northwest Yunnan province, which borders Tibet.
Monks at the Gedan Song Zan
"What was an empty parking lot by the library was full of military trucks and people practicing with shields. I saw hundreds of soldiers," said the backpacker, who would give only his first name, Ralpha.
The official lighting of the
Olympic torch is set for Monday in Greece, and some 1,000 police will surround Ancient Olympia to keep away pro-Tibetan protesters from the ceremony. The torch is scheduled to travel through 20 countries before the Beijing Olympics open on Aug. 8.
One of Thailand's six torchbearers withdrew Sunday in protest. Environmentalist Narisa Chakrabongse said in an open letter that she decided against taking part in the relay to "send a strong message to China that the world community could not accept its actions."
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi greet each other at a public reception at the Nangayal complex in Dharamsala, India. Friday, Pelosi, called on the world community to denounce China in the wake of its crackdown in Tibet, calling the crisis "a challenge to the conscience of the world."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
》 INTERNATIONAL
Pakistan's Musharraf's days as president may be numbered
BY STEPHEN GRAHAM ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's prime minister-in-waiting has the experience and track record to hold together an unwieldy coalition as it moves to neutralize President Pervez Musharraf, lawmakers and analysts said Sunday.
But Yousaf Raza Gilani also has a personal reason to ignore Musharraf's appeals for cooperation: he spent years in jail under the U.S.-backed leader.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
YousaRza Raza Gilani, a nominee for Prime Minister from Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People Party, speaks during a press conference at Parliament House, Sunday in Islamabad, Pakistan. The party of Bhutto named former parliament speaker Gilani as its candidate for the country's next prime minister, after routing Musharraf's allies to win the most seats in last month's polls.
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Lawmakers are expected to confirm him in a parliamentary vote Monday. He is a sho-cin-in after opposition parties swept elections last month and Musharraf is then expected to swear him in Tuesday.
"Mr. Gilani is a man who suffered from Musharraraf's martial law," said Ahsan Iqbal, a lawmaker for one of four parties which have agreed to form a new coalition government and are expected to elect him with a thumping majority. "He understands that getting rid of dictatorship is important."
Gilani, a loyalist of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, will lead an administration facing mounting economic problems, including double-digit inflation, power shortages and sagging foreign investment.
Western governments fearful of a resurgence of al-Qaida in Pakistan's ungoverned region bordering Afghanistan urgently want to know what changes the government will make to Musharraf's unpopular, military-led policies against Islamic extremism.
In a speech marking Pakistan's national day on Sunday, Musharraf hailed the start of a "new era of real democracy" in Pakistan and vowed to support the new cabinet.
"I hope the new government can maintain peace and the fast pace of socio-economic development in Pakistan," Musharraf said at a parade of jets and missiles from Pakistan's nuclear-capable arsenal. "And I hope it will also continue our struggle against the curse of terrorism and extremism with the same force."
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party named Gilani as its candidate on Saturday after winning the largest bloc in parliament in Feb. 18 elections.
However, the declared priority for the parties which won the parliamentary vote is bolstering
democracy by further capping Musharraf's already diminished powers.
"All political forces have to work together to take the country out of this crisis," Gilani said Sunday, vowing to restore the independence of Pakistan's judges and media.
- Asked whether he would work with Musharraf or push him from office, he said only: "I will follow the constitution."
Gilani, was a minister in Bhutto's 1988-1990 government and parliamentary speaker during her 1993-1996 term.
Bhutto's second government foundered amid bitter fighting with Nawaz Sharif, another former prime minister whose party is the second-biggest in the new anti-Musharraf alliance.
After Musharraf seized power in a 1999 coup, an anti-corruption court convicted Gilani on charges including abusing his authority to make appointments. He spent five years in jail before his convictions were overturned and he was freed
in 2006.
Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party insists the charges were politically motivated. Bhutto herself only returned from exile last year after Musharraf ordered long-pending corruption cases tossed out.
"He has also made sacrifices, which is a very major criteria within the People's Party," Talat Masood, a retired general and prominent policy analyst, said of Gilani.
That record helped Gilani fend off the challenge of another party stalwart, Makhdoom Amin Fahim, for the nomination. Fahim was initially the front-runner but was overlooked after a Sharif aide suggested he was too close to Musharraf.
Bhutto's assassination in a gun and suicide bomb attack in December left her party in a leadership crisis. Her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, has assumed command of the party while their 19-year-old son Bilawal, officially the chairman, continues his studies at Oxford University.