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...activists based in India said that at least 30, and as many as 100 had died in the protests and subsequent crackdown by security forces. The authorities on Saturday issued an ultimatum demanding that the "lawbreakers" surrender themselves by Monday, but for many Tibetans, the current uprising is a sign that the prospects for a compromise with Beijing are dimming...
...high a fever gets through. Those who pass muster are given a blue surgical mask and entry to the fluorescent-lit waiting room. Those who don't are ushered to a clutch of plastic chairs outside, under a blue tent - a makeshift isolation and triage area - near a sign that says, in English and Chinese, "Fever Area...
...Some people have no choice," says documentary filmmaker Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. "If you're an actor for TV and you get a call saying you will lose your livelihood, you may have no choice but to accept to deny you ever signed." He didn't sign the letter, but that's because, he says, he's become disillusioned with politics. He did sign a petition earlier this year, however, to protest recent cultural policies that have severely limited support for independent filmmakers. Mirtahmasb himself spent three years preparing a major feature film production, only to see his permit withdrawn...
While the scale of the protests and the temper of the reaction by Chinese authorities remain to be seen, the outbreak of violence was an ominous sign for Tibet, where resentment against Chinese rule has been simmering for years. An already tense situation has been exacerbated by China's sensitivity about its human rights image ahead of the staging of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August. Some observers argue that what appeared to be carefully planned and executed protests - the first on such a scale in nearly two decades - were likely deliberately timed to take advantage of the media...
Beijing is particularly incapable of flexibility when it comes to policy toward ethnic areas of the country because it fears that any sign of weakness could open up the floodgates and lead to widespread demand for autonomy in other areas such as the Muslim province of Xinjiang. "There is just no safety valve for ethnic issues in China," says Bequelin. "It remains one of the most retrograde areas of policy. They just don't have the tools to handle something like this...