[Vexx]

Its amazing to watch the Chinese news feeds (Xinhua) and the transmogrification of the facts into a complete rewrite of the events. Unfortunately, the Chinese authorities won't allow independent observers into Tibet to verify events so data is sporadic ... and the Chinese authorities are contradicting themselves in regard to events not helping their credibility.

The Dalai Lama *is* asking people to stop. He's offering to meet Chinese conditions, he's offering inspection of anything he owns. He wants to meet with Chinese officials - he only wants a small level of autonomy something like Hong Kong has.

That doesn't mean the disaffected Tibetans going to listen to the Lama. They are quite frustrated, especially with the favored treatment going to the Han Chinese immigrants to the area and the high unemployment of young male Tibetans. I'm not going to defend the violence but the Chinese policies toward Tibetan culture pretty much set the table for this kind of sad result. The Han immigrants getting caught in the riots are as much victims of those policies as are the frustrated Tibetans.

As far as "freed" or "occupied".... well, the Chinese authorities can be said to be doing the same thing to the Tibetans that they've done to all the Chinese regions and the Chinese people. Enforced policies and central planning, cultural revision.