Analysis: Tibet crackdown spreads to Web

WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- The Chinese authorities' crackdown on Tibetan protests spread to the Internet at the weekend, with censors blocking YouTube and other sites as the Dalai Lama accused the regime of "cultural genocide" against his people.

Chinese authorities blocked access to the U.S.-based video-sharing Web site YouTube at the weekend after users uploaded dozens of videos of the protests in which Buddhist monks and other Tibetan protesters clashed with Chinese authorities, leaving dozens of police injured and an unknown number of protesters dead.

There were no such videos available from China-based video-sharing sites, such as youku.com. Last month 50 such sites were required by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television to sign a "self-discipline agreement," according to Marbridge Consulting, a market research firm specializing in China's telecommunications and IT sectors.

Tudou.com, which refused to sign, had its cooperation with state-run TV put on hold and is now awaiting possible punishment, said Marbridge. The site was offline for 24 hours Friday, the result of what its administrators said was a server move, but other observers said was probably an emergency review by SARFT to check for possible Tibet-related content.

In a statement e-mailed to United Press International, YouTube said it had seen "reports of users being unable to access" the site in China. "We are looking into the matter, and working to ensure that the service is restored as soon as possible," the statement said.

Blocking YouTube and censoring other sites is part of what activists say is a Chinese government campaign to control information about the Tibetan protests, which erupted last week in the capital, Lhasa, on the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising that forced the Dalai Lama into exile.

Such moves are "a key component of the Chinese authorities' efforts to stop these protests," Matt Whitticase of the Free Tibet Campaign told UPI from London. "They are seeking to isolate the protesters both on the ground and on the Internet."

He said that Tibet advocates had long been subject to cyberattacks he was sure originated in China.

Whitticase said that he and other activists "regularly receive e-mails with attachments designed to look like something we would want to open" such as a flyer about a meeting. The attachments contained malicious software, he said. "Most of them are easy to spot," he added, because they contained obvious spelling or other errors, but "some of them are very sophisticated."

Xiao Qiang, associate professor at the University of Berkeley School of Journalism and the founder of China Digital Times, told UPI in an e-mail message that although the Chinese official media had finally broken its silence about the protests at the weekend, the comment sections had been closed on pages carrying stories about them.

Sunday, at his base in Dharamsala, in India near the border with Tibet, the Dalai Lama accused Chinese authorities of threatening the destruction of his people's ancient cultural heritage.

"Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some kind of cultural genocide is taking place," he said at a news conference.

Advocates for Tibetan autonomy have long charged that the Chinese government, under the guise of economic development, is attempting to change the demographic makeup of what it calls the Tibetan Autonomous Region by settling thousands of ethnic Han Chinese there.

Responding to charges in China's official media that Tibetan demonstrators had beaten ethnic Chinese residents of Lhasa and burned their businesses, the Dalai Lama called for international human-rights groups to be allowed to see for themselves what was happening in Tibet, which Beijing has placed off limits to reporters.

"Please, investigate by yourself," he said in footage of the conference broadcast on the Internet. "If possible, some respected international organization can find out what the situation is in Tibet and what (are) the causes" of the violence, he said.

Live pictures from Lhasa broadcast Sunday by a Hong Kong cable news TV station showed armed Chinese paramilitary police searching one neighborhood of the town door-to-door, in what reports said was an effort to round up those involved in the protests.

James Miles, a reporter for the Economist magazine, told CNN from Lhasa that the streets were deserted and quiet. "People are now too afraid to come out of their homes," he said. "People are afraid to go about their normal business."

Tibet, the Dalai Lama said, was seeking only the autonomy necessary to safeguard its heritage, not independence. He added that China, as the world's most populous nation, had a right to stage the forthcoming Beijing Olympics in August, but needed to improve its human-rights record if it was going to be a good host.

At the news conference, other officials of his Tibetan government in exile said at least 80 protesters had been killed in last week's violence in Lhasa. Official Chinese media, which broke its silence about the protests at the weekend, reported only 10 deaths -- most of them business people killed by rioters -- and dozens of injuries among police.

The exiles also said the deadly violence had spread again Sunday with Tibetan protesters clashing with police in the town of Aba in Sichuan province. Aba, known as Ngawa in Tibetan, is the second town in China proper to be hit by the wave of protests. On Saturday, protests were reported in the neighboring Chinese province of Gansu, in the small town of Xiahe, outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region but regarded by its Tibetan inhabitants -- who make up roughly half the population -- as part of their region.

Though there was little independent confirmation of the continuing protests, Xinhua, China's state news agency, quoted authorities in Tibet as giving protesters a Monday midnight deadline to turn themselves -- and their fellows -- in, in exchange for "leniency."

"Those who surrender and provide information on other lawbreakers will be exempt from punishment," Xinhua reported.

Local state-controlled TV in Tibet Saturday reported that the regional Communist Party leadership was that day convening an urgent meeting to hear reports on the unrest and to "make comprehensive arrangements for calming the situation and striking at the arrogance of hostile forces," according to BBC Monitoring.