Dalai Lama says Tibet crackdown goes on despite Olympics: (French) lawmakers

AFP on Yahoo ^ | 8/13/08 | Samir Tounsi

[NormsRevenge]

PARIS (AFP) – The Dalai Lama accused China on Wednesday of pursuing a crackdown in Tibet in spite of the Olympic Games, French lawmakers said following talks with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Asked during a private meeting at the Paris Senate whether China was respecting the "Olympic truce", the Dalai Lama's "answer was very clear: no," said former French justice minister Robert Badinter.

"While the Games are taking place, the oppression of the Tibetan people and repression continue," said the opposition lawmaker, who oversaw the abolition of the death penalty in France.

The 73-year-old Buddhist leader, who arrived on Monday for a 12-day visit to France, spoke of "terrible repression that has not stopped despite the Olympic truce," said Socialist deputy Jean-Louis Bianco.

The Dalai Lama described "arbitrary arrests, summary executions and torture to the death" and a "very strong reinforcement of the military and police presence across historic Tibet," said a statement issued later by the Senate.

He also claimed China was planning, after the end of the Beijing Olympics, to send a million mainland Chinese nationals to settle in Tibet, it said.

[Jack Hammer]

Just a jigger of Reality for those who thought the Olympics were anything but a bit of PR spin on the march to Asian domination and a shot in the coming decades at world political hegemony.