Beijing's tightly scripted, carefully choreographed tour for a select group of 26 foreign journalists from 19 media organisations including the Associated Press, the U.K.’s Financial Times, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao and Taiwan’s Central News Agency, was upstaged by 30 young Tibetan monks, some clearly emotional and weeping, who pushed their way into a news briefing at the J*kh*ng Temple.
This is what they managed to tell journalists in the 15 minute outburst before media minders tugged at the journalists telling them it was "time to go":
"They have destroyed the way we are seen by the people," one monk said. "We are like prisoners here," said another.
As the monks blurted out a stream of complaints, one cried: "The government is always telling lies, it's all lies."
"They killed many people. They killed many people," a monk said.
Later, a monk speaking in Chinese said the death toll was far higher than the government was saying. "The cadres and the army killed more than 100 Tibetans. They arrested more than a thousand."
"Tibetans have no freedom," a monk said after some of them switched to Chinese. "We want the Dalai Lama to come back," said another, adding that they were certain they would be detained when the reporters left.
"They want us to curse the Dalai Lama and that is not right," a monk added.
Xinhua was by no means silent on the incident. It also assured:
These monks are not to be punished, said Baema Chilain, vice chairman of the regional government at a press conference to domestic and overseas media on Thursday evening.
"But what they said is not true. They were attempting to mislead the world's opinion," said the official. "The facts shouldn't be distorted."
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Posted
Mar 28 2008, 12:00 AM
by
Shanghaiist