By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, March 26 – With the Chinese government brushing aside the video images of Chinese police beating unarmed and handcuffed Tibetans as “fake”, the Tibetan government based here said on its website that the videos were authentic and that it can prove the authenticity of the video footages.
“We stand by the credibility and can guarantee the genuineness of the footages,” said Thubten Samphel, the spokesperson of the exile Tibetan government that turned fifty this year.
The footages testify to what is truly happening in Tibet as recently as 2008, he said.
The exile Tibetan government made available for media last week what it called rare video footages showing Chinese paramilitary police resorting to extreme brutality on Tibetan protesters after last year’s March unrest against Chinese rule.
Youtube which carried the video was blocked in China since Monday. Confirming the censorship, Google which owns the site said it noticed that traffic to China started slowing down on Monday and that by Tuesday morning, it was totally blocked.
A Chinese government spokesman said, according to a report by BBC, “We encourage the active use of the internet but also manage the internet according to law.”
The exile Tibetan government says about 220 Tibetans had died and over 1,294 were seriously injured as of 31 January 2009 partly as a result of such beatings.
