Countdown to the Olympics

From AP:

DEHRA, India - More than 100 Tibetan exiles began a hunger strike Thursday after police in northern India dragged them away from a six-month march to their homeland to protest China's hosting of the Olympic Games.

The demonstrators had vowed to march from India to Tibet to coincide with the start of the Aug. 8-24 Games. Indian officials — fearing the march would embarrass China — banned the exiles from leaving the Kangra district that surrounds the city of Dharmsala — the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India.

And from Times Online:

Beijing laid siege to at least three monasteries in Tibet today, leaving monks trapped with dwindling food supplies, as the biggest anti-Chinese demonstrations in nearly two decades intensified.

Monks at Ganden monastery, located on a hilltop near the regional capital Lhasa, were reported to have started a hunger strike to protest against the deployment of armed paramilitary police, who continued to surround them today after being sent in to restore order yesterday.

Soldiers were today also reported to have been stationed around the Sera and Drepung monasteries. Drepung, in particular, was surrounded by "three layers" of army personnel, a witness told the AP news agency, while the Sera monastery was surrounded by more than 2,000 police.

China continues to brutally occupy Tibet, support the military rulers of Burma and has worked to undermine the UN mission to Darfur. The Olympics will be a boost to the totalitarian government in Beijing and it's time for the calls to boycott the games and its sponsors to kick into high gear — not to mention an overdue reevaluation of U.S. trade policy (though that may be difficult, as our 'leaders' in Washington have this nation in debt to China to an appalling degree).

Photo: Indian police detain Tibetan protestors at Dehra, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Kangra district boundary that surrounds Dharmsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, Thursday, March 13, 2008. Police detained more than 100 Tibetan exiles marching in northern India to Tibet in protest of China's Olympic Games early Thursday morning, organizers and officials said. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)