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Tibet and the
March 10 commemoration of the CIA's 1959 'uprising'
By Gary Wilson
24/03/08 "Workers
World" -- - Has
Tibet become the front line of a new national liberation
struggle? Or is something else happening there?
The U.S. news media are filled with stories about events
unfolding in Tibet. Each news report, however, seems to include
a note that much of what they are reporting cannot be confirmed.
The sources of the reports are shadowy and unknown. If past
practice is any indicator, it is likely that the U.S. State
Department and the CIA are their primary sources.
One frequently quoted source is John Ackerly. Who is Ackerly? As
president of the International Campaign for Tibet, he and his
group appear to work closely with the U.S. government, both the
State Department and Congress, as part of its operations
concerning Tibet. During the Cold War, Ackerly’s
Washington-based job was to work with “dissidents” in Eastern
Europe, particularly Romania in 1978-80.
A private international security agency in Washington, Harbor
Lane Associates, lists Ackerly and the International Campaign
for Tibet as its clients, along with former CIA Director and
U.S. President George H.W. Bush and former Pentagon chief
William Cohen.
AP, Reuters and the other Western news agencies all quote
Ackerly as a major source for exaggerated reports about the
clashes that have just occurred in Tibet. For example, MSNBC on
March 15 reported:
“John Ackerly, of the International Campaign for Tibet, a group
that supports demands for Tibetan autonomy, said in an e-mailed
statement he feared ‘hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested and
are being interrogated and tortured.’”
Qiangba Puncog, a Tibetan who is chair of the Tibet Autonomous
Regional Government, described the situation quite differently
at a March 17 press briefing in Beijing.
According to china.org.cn, China’s state Web site, the Tibetan
leader said that allies of the exiled Dalai Lama on March 14
“engaged in reckless beating, looting, smashing and burning and
their activities soon spread to other parts of the city. These
people focused on street-side shops, primary and middle schools,
hospitals, banks, power and communications facilities and media
organizations. They set fire to passing vehicles, they chased
after and beat passengers on the street, and they launched
assaults on shops, telecommunication service outlets and
government buildings. Their behavior has caused severe damage to
the life and property of local people, and seriously undermined
law and order in Lhasa.
“‘Thirteen innocent civilians were burned or stabbed to death in
the riot in Lhasa on March 14, and 61 police were injured, six
of them seriously wounded,’ said Qiangba Puncog.
“Statistics also show that rioters set fire to more than 300
locations, including residential houses and 214 shops, and
smashed and burned 56 vehicles. ...
“Qiangba Puncog also claimed that security personnel did not
carry or use any lethal weapons in dealing with the riot last
Friday. ...
“The violence was the result of a conspiracy between domestic
and overseas groups that advocate ‘Tibet independence,’
according to Qiangba Puncog. ‘The Dalai clique masterminded,
planned and carefully organized the riot.’
“According to Qiangba Puncog, on March 10, 49 years ago, the
slave owners of old Tibet launched an armed rebellion aimed at
splitting the country. That rebellion was quickly quelled. Every
year since 1959, some separatists inside and outside China have
held activities around the day of the rebellion. ...
“Any secessionist attempt to sabotage Tibet’s stability will not
gain people’s support and is doomed to fail, he said.”
Meeting in New Delhi
Whatever is taking place in Tibet has long been in preparation.
A conference was held in New Delhi, India, last June by “Friends
of Tibet.” It was described as a conference for the breakaway of
Tibet.
The news site phayul.com reported at the time that the
conference was told “how the Olympics could provide the one
chance for Tibetans to come out and protest.” A call was issued
for worldwide protests, a march of exiles from India to Tibet,
and protests within Tibet—all tied to the upcoming Beijing
Olympics.
This was followed by a call this past January for an “uprising”
in Tibet, issued by organizations based in India. The news
report from Jan. 25 said that the “Tibetan People’s Uprising
Movement” was established Jan. 4 to focus on the 2008 Beijing
Olympics. The beginning date for the “uprising” was to be March
10.
At the time the call was issued, U.S. Ambassador to India David
Mulford was meeting with the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky made a similar
visit to Dharamsala last November. Dobriansky is also a member
of the neocon Project for a New American Century. She has been
involved in the so-called color revolutions in Eastern Europe.
Phayul.com reports that the Tibet “Uprising” group’s statement
says they are acting “in the spirit of the 1959 Uprising.”
The 1959 uprising
Knowing more about the 1959 “uprising” might help in
understanding today’s events in Tibet.
In 2002 a book titled “The CIA’s Secret War in Tibet” was
published by the University Press of Kansas. The two
authors—Kenneth Conboy of the Heritage Foundation and James
Morrison, an Army veteran trainer for the CIA—proudly detail how
the CIA set up and ran Tibet’s so-called resistance movement.
The Dalai Lama himself was on the CIA payroll and approved the
CIA’s plans for the armed uprising.
The CIA put the Dalai Lama’s brother, Gyalo Thodup, in charge of
the bloody 1959 armed attack. A contra army was trained by the
CIA in Colorado and then dropped by U.S. Air Force planes into
Tibet.
The 1959 attack was a CIA planned and organized coup attempt,
much like the later Bay of Pigs invasion of socialist Cuba. The
purpose was to overthrow the existing Tibetan government and
weaken the Chinese Revolution while tying the people of Tibet to
U.S. imperialist interests. What does that say about today’s
March uprising, that’s done in the same spirit?
Articles copyright 1995-2008 Workers World
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