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Taiwan's
president-elect asked not to visit pro-China Singapore
the
Earth Times
31 Mar
08
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/195510,taiwans-president-elect...
Taiwan-based
Tibetans on Sunday urged Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou
not to visit Singapore because the city state has supported
China's recent crackdown in Tibet. The Tibetans made the appeal
at Taipei's Liberty Square where they are holding a sit-in
protest against Beijing's crackdown in Tibet.
Ma, who won
the presidential election on March 22, hopes to visit the United
States, Japan, Singapore and South Korea before his May 20
inauguration.
None of these countries have approved Ma's
visit as they recognize China and are barred by Beijing from
having formal ties with Taipei.
After China cracked down
on the riots in the Tibetan capital in mid-March, Singapore and
Russia were the first countries to issue a statement supporting
China's suppression, saying they were legitimate moves to
maintain social order.
Also on Sunday, Ngaba Tsegyam,
head of the Dalai Lama's representative office in Taipei, accused
Chinese police of attacking the ethnic Han Chinese in Lhasa and
then blaming Tibetans for burning and looting their property and
attacking them.
"We have received reports that
Chinese police wearing Tibetan clothes and holding knives, which
are not Tibetan knives, attacked the Han Chinese. When they were
done, the Chinese police ran back to their police stations and
changed back into police uniforms," he said.
China
accused the Dalai Lama, exiled in India since 1959, of directing
the riots in Tibet, but the 72-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader
denied involvement and said he was opposed to using violence to
solve the Tibet problem.
The Dalai Lama has asked China
to hold talks with his government to find a solution to the Tibet
problems, but Beijing has rejected his request.
China
says only 18 Tibetans have died in the riots in Tibet, but the
Tibetan government-in-exile said 135 Tibetans had been killed,
500 injured and 1,300 detained.
Over the weekend, a
second wave of protest erupted in the two main temples in Lhasa,
prompting China to seal them off to prevent news of the protests
from leaking out, Tsegyam said.
Read also: Singapore
says backs China's policy on Tibet unrest
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