(**warning - this is real footage and contains someone being shot at (from a distance) - it isnt very graphic though so dont worry if youre squeamish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzCl95A90P0

this is a fairly regular occurrence in Tibet - all the Tibetans are doing is trecking across the border on a religious pilgrimage to India to see their leader; the Delhi lama. Anyone caught with even a picture of the guy in China or Tibet faces jail. Im just hoping that the growth of the internet and the increasing middle class in major cities prompts a change towards democracy in China as the current regime is pretty disgusting.

They shoot Tibetans from a distance, the Americans and British bomb Iraqis from overhead, no real difference. Russia is equally bad too.

They really dont like the Dali Llama do they!?!

fairly major difference is the intent.

civilians getting killed as a consequence of war is one thing - presuming those civilians werent deliberately targeted then it isnt necessarily an evil act simply accidental.

Deliberately picking off civilians in an area where a war isnt even being fought is completely inexcusable. Even the Israelis have a better moral standpoint with regard to civilian deaths in Gaza & the west bank than the Chinese have regarding Tibet.

Exactly, and Chinas our next superpower...

Speaking of the olympics - have you seen theyre removing all the cheap housing ghettos in the capital and building sky scrapers in their place ready for the olympics - so they can show the world how progressive they are?  Unfortunately theyre all going to be empty as the chinese people cant afford to to live there.  A country that can depopulate its major cities just to put on a show is a very different culture to the west.

not quite the same thing though is it these are their own citizens within the borders of their own country being shot dead - its not sponsoring some dodgy regime that might or might not commit some dodgy acts during a civil war/uprising - it isnt some rogue service personel doing dodgy things in battle - this is actually allowed by the Chinese govt & covered up by them - I went to tibet a few years ago and one of our guides had previously spend a lengthly time in jail purely for visiting a religious school in India. they have secret police dressed up as monks etc.. and even passing a photo of the delhi lama can get a tourist chucked in jail and the person accepting it vanished.

We had a strict itinerary and had to give the Chinese govt notice of where we were going in advance via their London embassy and our group was accompanied at all times by a Chinese govt guide. There are military everywhere in that place and the ordinary Tibetans are not permitted freedom to move about even within china itself.

all armies are going to have a bad element just as society has criminals then youll get some people in an army containing thousands of people who arent very nice - thing is if a US soldier deliberately shoots some iraqi civilians then they tend to get investigated for it - if the sort of footage like the chinese footage int this thread existed it would be all over every TV station in the world. This isnt even a war zone - there isnt even a tibetan resistance movemenet - the CIA tried to set one up in the 50s IIRC but the fact is these guys are bhuddists - they are simply trecking for hundreds of miles to India on a pilgramage and some evil little bastard of a chinese soldier shoots them dead to stop them crossing the border.

there are plenty of accounts of incidents against Muslims in xinjiang province - the Sunday times did a piece on it a few weeks back including an account from an ex Chinese soldier about how they taught a certain town a lesson - basically dragged half the population out onto the streets and shot them - similar incidents occurred in tibet and that is why they close down the entire region to visitors every so often and at the time I went only admitted groups under strickt supervision.

unfortunately it has been occupied by the Chinese for around half a century and they view it as being part of china. plenty of Han chinese have moved in over the decades and plenty of tibetans have joined the local communist party and joined the army etc... they pay taxes to the chinese govt and there isnt any form of resistance (as in violent resistance) on the tibetan side.

so in the view of the chinese soldiers they were in their own country, around their own border areas and shot dead their own unarmed civilians for the crime of attempting to travel to another country. Pretty disgusting IMO.