China-Tibet Conflict

Religious rights violated

1. “The unrest began with demonstrations on March 10, 2008, the 49th anniversary of the failed CIA-backed uprising in 1959 in Tibet against Beijing's rule. The protests and subsequent riots began when 300 monks demanded the release of other monks detained since the previous Autumn, but soon after, political demands surfaced and the protest turned violent. Tibetans attacked non-Tibetan ethnic groups. Rioting, burning, looting and killing began on March 14.”
This shows that the Tibetans have triggered this riot by touching on the sensitive issue of religion. The freedom of having a religion was violated. The Tibetans attacked the non-Tibetans ethnic groups first. The political demands surfaced at first play a significant role in being a catalyst for these riots.


2. “Attacks on non-Tibetan interests in the Tibet Autonomous Region and several other ethnic Tibetan areas occurred at about the same time as attacks on dozens of Chinese embassies and consulates. According to government officials of the TAR, the unrest was motivated by separatism”The human rights of non-Tibatians were violated. Due to the fact that they are not Tibetans, the Tibetans chose to target them. As long as they were not Tibetans, they would be attacked. This is apparent that the Tibetans were prejudiced against the other ethnic groups. Hence, they are abusing the other parties’ human rights.


3. There was the Gansu riots, Qinghai protests, Sichuan riots and Beijing protests. At the root of the problem is the uneven spread of wealth, which has been made worse by the introduction of market economics, compounding the feeling of national oppression of the Tibetans. Faced with riots and bloodshed in Tibet, the Chinese government responded by casting the blame on the Dalai Lama and the campaign by Tibetan exiles to raise the Tibet issue internationally.This shows that there existed an abuse of the human rights, where there was an uneven spread of wealth. As the income gap between the rich and poor widens, there is bound to be friction, resulting in the riots. Non-Tibetans did not have a stable income due to uneven wealth distribution. Thus, their rights to live self-sufficiently were abused.