In Sunday's Miami Herald and online at our website, we'll publish my story about Tibet. I've been there twice now, once last summer and the first time, in 1991. We had planned to run our coverage about my July 2007 visit in a few weeks, but the sad events of the past week forced us to rethink -- and rewrite.
Most Westerners familiar with Tibet's story side with Tibetans. The Chinese forceably annexed the country in 1950; in the years since, the death toll due to execution, prison camps and suicide has numbered above 1 million, according the Tibetan goverment in exile. The death count in the current uprising varies but reports put it as high as 80.
The situation clearly is a mess. The Dalai Lama -- Tibet's spiritual leader and head of the government in exile -- has decried the violence and requested a meeting with Chinese leaders. Chinese leaders have refused. Meanwhile, young Tibetans and exiles have complained that the Dalai Lama's methods are too tame.
No win seems likely here, but that's what miracles are for. So the world -- Tibetan, Chinese and the rest of us -- will wait and see.
Meanwhile, these websites will help keep you up to date:
- Dalai Lama
- Tibetan Government in Exile
- Official Government Tibet website in English(down when we checked it)
- The Miami Herald
- Associated Press
- South China Morning Post
- The Straits Times
- Human Rights Watch
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Photo by Jane Wooldridge / The Miami Herald
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