Richard Gere: Boycott The Olympics

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The Tibet protest has led to the killing of up to an estimated 100 people thus far and international outcry has been voiced from various quarters.

Barack Obama, the Democratic Presidential candidate issued a strong condemnation, saying "This is the year of the Beijing Olympics. It represents an opportunity for China to show the world what it has accomplished in the last several decades. Those accomplishments have been extraordinary and China's people have a right to be proud of them, but the events in Tibet these last few days unfortunately show a different face of China."

Richard Gere, the Hollywood actor, urged for a boycott of the Games saying this would draw attention to the Tibetan cause.

The India residing Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who is known for his wish to see a 'cultural autonomy' rather than outright independence for Tibet, confirmed that between 30 to over 100 people had been killed. He said he felt "deep concern" and urged China to deal with the "resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue". He called on the Tibetans not to use violence; "I also urge my fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."

The protests which started in the Tibetal capital Lhasa, spread to various other cities, including in India, Nepal, Australia and China itself. Apart from in Lhasa, where shops were set on fire and dozens of people were killed, Indian police also took harsh action and the protests turned violent.

The UK leader Gordon Brown also expressed his concern saying "We are very concerned about what is happening in Tibet. We have asked for more information about what is going on and we will keep this matter under review."

Last Friday the Nepalese authorities, faced with up to 500 people staging a peaceful sit in outside the UN building in the capital, gave in to Chinese diplomatic pressure to close the south side of Everest for a week in May, while the Chinese Olympic torch team is on the mountain. Reason? Protesters might cause a PR embarrassment.

Tibetan monks in China from the Labrang monastery went on a march together with hundreds of Tibetans. The march turned into a riot and government buildings were attacked and windows of the police headquarters were broken. The protest ended when the police fired tear gas.

In Sydney, protesters scaled a wall surrounding China's consulate and removed the Chinese national flag and tried to replace it with a Tibetan flag. Four people were arrested when police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd after a plain clothes officer had been attacked.

Tibet's government-in-exile urged the United Nations to intervene to end what it called "urgent human rights violations" by China in the region.