Tibetans face worst injustice since Mao era

David Blair
Ottawa Citizen, Oct. 9, 2008

LONDON - Tibetans are enduring the worst repression at the hands of China since the Cultural Revolution more than three decades ago, according to the Dalai Lama's envoy in Europe.

Kelsang Gyaltsen said China's security forces had renewed a crackdown since the riots that swept Lhasa, the capital, in March.

Tibetans have been compelled to undergo "patriotic re-education," which includes forced denunciations of the Dalai Lama.

"Tibetans feel the whole region is like a giant prison. Nobody can enter and little information comes out," Mr. Kelsang said. "There is the re-emergence of an atmosphere of angst and fear, just as it was in the Cultural Revolution days."