News and Views on Tibet

Execution has Tibetan activists questioning Beijing Olympics

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DHARAMSALA, India – Tibetan activists on Thursday questioned holding the 2008 Olympics in Beijing after China executed a Tibetan over a series of bombings.

Lobsang Dhondup, a 28-year-old farmer, was executed Sunday over an April bomb attack in Sichuan province that killed one and injured another, as well as two other explosions.

“With the lack of transparency in the judicial system and gross violation of human rights in Tibet, should China still be the host of the Olympics 2008?” asked Kalsang Phuntsok, president of the Tibetan Youth Congress, based in the Indian hill station of Dharamsala.

Lobsang Dhondup’s execution has triggered demonstrations in Dharamsala, the base of Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, with protesters calling for action by the international community against China.

The Tibetan government-in-exile said Monday it was “deeply disappointed” by the “summary execution” of Lobsang Dhondup, saying his trial was “not fair or transparent, and the Chinese authorities have not been able to produce compelling evidence.”

After the International Olympic Committee in 2001 awarded Beijing the games, the Dharamsala government said the move would give a “stamp of international approval for Beijing’s human rights abuses.”

China has ruled Tibet since 1951 and is accused of trying to wipe out its Buddhist-based culture through political and religious repression and a flood of ethnic Chinese immigration.

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