NEW YORK—While protesters around the world are shunning the 2008 Beijing Olympics torch relay as a public relations campaign to veil the Chinese communist regime's acrid human rights record, 27 U.S. senators are mounting their own protest.
Senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Tuesday led a bipartisan group of 27 senators in sending a letter calling on Chinese leader Hu Jintao to bring about a speedy and peaceful resolution to the current human rights crisis in Tibet.
"First and foremost, we ask that the Chinese government remove its restrictions on the media and communications, and allow independent monitors and the foreign press unfettered access to the region," reads the letter.
The letter asks Chinese leader Hu to release those detained for "peaceful protest and demonstrate respect for the internationally-recognized right to peaceful assembly and expression of political opinion."
The letter goes on to ask the Chinese Communist regime to "move quickly, and at the highest level, to meet directly with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and engage in substantive dialogue to restore stability and bring genuine autonomy to the region."
The letter comes a day before the Olympics torch is to be carried through the streets of San Francisco and amidst corresponding protests.
The recent episode in Tibet began last month when Buddhist monks in Tibet's capital Lhasa peacefully protested against the Chinese communist regime's violent rule. Since then Chinese state-controlled media has said 19 people have died in supposed violence between protesters and police, while representatives of the Dalai Lama say at least 140 people have died.
"The violent crackdown perpetrated against the Tibetan people last month has already shattered the illusion that China's economic development, without political liberalization, is synonymous with modernization," said Sen. Snowe in a Monday press release. "It is in all of humanity's interest to now ensure that, when the world turns its gaze to this summer's games in Beijing, the Olympic flame is not obscured by a curtain of smoke rising from Tibet."
Sources in Tibet have said that protests continue there.
"Many of the recent protests are in response to the intense 'political education' campaigns taking place, in which monks and nuns in particular are required to denounce the Dalai Lama, which many are refusing to do," said Dorothy Berger of the San Diego branch of Friends of Tibet.
"In addition, huge numbers of Chinese police and military are entering the monasteries, searching for photographs of the Dalai Lama and other contraband material and confiscating cell phones and computers. The most recent protest resulted in the death of eight monks and villagers," said Berger.
The letter also demands transparency, a scarcity in communist China, where all media are state-owned or controlled, and where thousands of Internet police monitor and widely censor information.
"Increased transparency will be an important factor in resolving the conflict and is the best assurance against further escalation of the violence," according to the letter.
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