Olympic torch visits tibet to limited media coverage

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In Tibet the Chinese Government on the weekend, proceeded with its controversial plan to conduct the Olympic torch relay through the capital, Lhasa under tight security.

Instead of the Olympic flame being a focus for human rights demonstrations, the torch was a rallying point for local pro-China political leaders who vowed to destroy the Dalai Lama. Though foreigners are still banned from entering Tibet - after the violent rebellion in March - a handful of journalists was allowed into Lhasa to cover the torch relay.

Presenter: Stephen McDonell
Speaker: Tibetan Senior Monk

STEPHEN MCDONELL: When Tibetans restore historic buildings the workers sing and bang and tap in time. This image of happy, working Tibetans in touch with their culture is a side to life that government authorities are happy for foreign reporters to see.

We were allowed into Tibet to report on the Olympic torch relay which had been cut from three days in Tibet to three hours through the capital Lhasa.

During this Olympic event only a small specially-selected crowd was allowed to attend and most ordinary Tibetans were told to stay off the streets until after it was over.

After the relay we kept busy with a programme full of whirlwind visits to cultural attractions.

We visited the Sera Monastery where the recent conflict started in March after its monks clashed with police on the anniversary of a failed uprising.

There are not many monks here but there are certainly a lot of police with walkie talkies and local officials with loud hailers instructing us where we should go and to hurry up.

We were eventually presented with a senior monk who could talk to us. He said the monks from his monastery had been permitted in recent days to go shopping in town. He was asked what the monks are being taught in the recently introduced re-education classes.

SENIOR MONK (translated): The content of the legal knowledge education is to help the monks to have a better understanding of the state law and constitutions so that after we learn those legal knowledge so in future we are not violate laws.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: To “not violate laws” is a very general concept. He seemed to want to go on to explain himself, but?

(Senior monk talking)

STEPHEN MCDONELL: Could we just have one more question.

OFFICIAL: No, no, no, no.

STEPHEN MCDONELL: We were then taken to the Potala Palace - the huge former residence of the Dalai Lama.

It was here that the torch relay became a political rally when the head of the Tibetan Communist Party, Zhang Qingli, held up the Olympic torch and then announced: “Tibet’s sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it”.

I am standing in the Dali Lama’s bedroom. It is a small and modest room with lots of religious artefacts inside it. Upstairs we can hear some banging where people are doing restoration work on the Potala Palace.

I am not sure what he would have made of the weekend’s events if he had looked out his bedroom window and seen the Olympic torch arrive to great fanfare and local government officials proclaiming that they were prepared to crush the Dali Lama clique.

What you can see from that room is a city with a heavy police and military presence. Over the weekend trucks full of riot police were driving up and down and by late Sunday only a smattering of pilgrims had returned to the streets which are normally crowded with visitors to the holy city.