World Now

Fractious Syrian opposition says it has formed a united coalition

Patrick McDonnell — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 07:09:36 -0800

BEIRUT -- The deeply divided Syrian opposition said Sunday that its myriad factions had reached an initial agreement to form a new coalition to oversee a push to oust the government of President Bashar Assad.

The new umbrella group, reportedly called the Syrian National Coalition, was unveiled Sunday in the Qatari capital of Doha, where the querulous opposition has been meeting for a week, trying to hash out its many differences.

The purpose of the new alliance is to serve as a kind of government in exile, helping to funnel international aid, organize rebel forces on the ground and build up foreign support for the rebel cause.

Further details are expected to be divulged later Sunday, dissident spokesmen told journalists in Doha.

Some reports suggested that not all opposition groups, including a Kurdish bloc, had signed off on the reported deal.

The United States and other opposition patrons have pressed dissidents to unify into a coherent entity that can work with the international community, with the ultimate aim of ousting Assad.

But the best-known opposition group, the Syrian National Council, has resisted the U.S.-backed unity offensive, fearing its influence would be diminished.

Critics have assailed the council as out of touch with events on the ground in Syria, torn apart by infighting, prone to lavish spending in five-star hotels and dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist group that seeks a major role in a post-Assad Syria.

According to reports from Doha, the Syrian National Council will be subsumed into the new coalition. The breakdown of seats for various factions was not immediately made public.

Opponents of the Assad family’s more than 40-year autocratic rule include a diverse mix that reflects Syria’s varied population. The opposition includes Islamists, secularists, Sunni Muslim Arabs, Kurds, Christians and even Alawites, the Muslim minority sect that includes Assad and many of his top commanders.

Inside Syria, Assad still maintains considerable support, despite an almost 20-month rebellion that has left thousands dead and broad swaths of territory beyond his government's control. Many Syrians fear Assad's fall could unleash the kind of chaos and sectarian bloodletting that convulsed neighboring Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Iraqi strongman in 2003. Assad labels his enemies foreign-backed "terrorists."

Opposition activists are hopeful that a new, more unified coalition will result in foreign allies delivering caches of heavy weapons to Syria's disparate rebel forces. The opposition has also called for the kind of Western air power that a Western-backed coalition provided last year to Libyan rebels fighting to oust Moammar Kadafi.

The United States says it has not provided lethal aid to the Syrian opposition. Some fear that such weaponry could fall into the hands of militants and Al Qaeda sympathizers, who are among the fragmented rebel forces on the ground in Syria.

Washington has given no indication that it will arm the rebels. But reports have suggested that several Arab states, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Libya, have provided arms to the Syrian opposition and helped bankroll the rebellion, paying the salaries of rebel fighters and channeling funds to anti-Assad exile factions.

One aim of the exile-based Syrian opposition coalition is to impose a central command structure on the dozens of anti-Assad militias now fighting inside Syria. However, many rebel units reject leadership from outside Syria and respond only to their unit commanders inside the country.

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--Patrick J. McDonnell and Rima Marrouch

Photo: Veteran Syrian opposition figure and human rights activist Haytham al-Maleh attends the General Assembly of the Syria National Council meeting in Doha, Qatar. Credit: Karim Jaafar / AFP/Getty Images

Israeli army fires warning shots into Syria

Edmund Sanders — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 06:08:14 -0800

JERUSALEM -- Israel fired warning shots into Syria on Sunday after an apparently errant mortar shell struck an Israeli military post in the Golan Heights, the latest example of regional spillover from Syria’s civil unrest.

The Syrian mortar caused no damage or injuries, but Israeli military officials have grown increasingly alarmed over how fighting between the Syrian army and Syrian rebel groups has inched closer to the Golan Heights border.

Until Sunday, Israel had restrained itself from responding to the handful of instances in which mortar shells and gunfire struck Israeli settlements or military positions in the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.

Sunday’s retaliation by Israeli soldiers marked the first such military engagement between Israel and Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel Radio reported that Syrian forces returned fire, though Israeli military officials would not comment on that report.

Last week Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he warned Syrian President Bashar Assad to move the fighting away from the border region. Israel also complained to the United Nations about three Syrian tanks that last month drifted into what it says is a demilitarized zone along the Syrian border.

Though tensions along the normally quiet frontier are rising, Israel is reluctant to get involved in Syria’s unrest, analysts say. Some fear military intervention by Israel -– Syria’s longtime enemy -- could backfire by rallying support around Assad.

“If Israel got involved, it would be good for Bashar since he could say he’s protecting the Arab nation,’’ said Moshe Moaz, a Syria expert at Hebrew University. “But I think both sides are going to be very careful not to be dragged into something that will escalate. If Bashar really upsets Israel, Israel could do something very serious to teach him a lesson.”

In 2007 Israel destroyed a Syrian nuclear facility that it feared could be used to develop nuclear weapons. But overt military clashes between the two countries have been rare in recent decades.

The Israeli action underscores how the Syrian conflict is spilling over its borders and, in at least two cases, prompting retaliatory fire from neighbors.

Turkey, which shares a more than 500-mile frontier with Syria, has repeatedly fired retaliatory artillery salvos into Syria in response to Syrian shells landing in Turkish territory.

The Turkish strikes began in October after an apparently errant mortar shell from Syria struck a home in a Turkish border town, killing five people: two women and three children.

Since then, Turkey has had a policy of firing back into Syria when shells from the Syrian side land on Turkish territory. Turkish commanders say they try to target the battery that fired into the Turkish side. There has been no definitive word on Syrian casualties from the Turkish retaliatory fire.

Turkey, though, unlike Israel, has been a major supporter of the Syrian opposition and has been a staging point and logistics center for rebels seeking to overthrow the Syrian government.

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-- Edmund Sanders and Patrick J. McDonnell

Must Reads: A 'Red Era' museum, Obama and mothers of the missing

Emily Alpert — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 05:00:00 -0800

From attacks in Afghanistan to the missing in Mexico, here are five stories you shouldn't miss from the past week in global news:

China museum builder lets history speak

Obama faces new Mideast challenges in his second term

As 'insider attacks' grow, so does U.S.-Afghanistan divide

Mothers from Central America search for missing kin in Mexico

Britain's crackdown on Web comments sparks free-speech debate

-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Marta Elena Perez of from Nicaragua attends Mass at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City on Oct. 28, 2012, with a photograph of her daughter, Karla Patricia Perez, who went missing in 2005. Credit: Marco Ugarte / Associated Press

Four dead in Gaza Strip fighting

Paul Feldman — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 11:56:59 -0800

GAZA CITY— Renewed clashes between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip left at least four Palestinians dead Saturday and 30 others wounded, according to Palestinian officials.

The violence began when an Israeli tank patrolling the northern Gaza border was struck by an anti-tank missile fired by Gaza militants. Four Israeli soldiers were wounded, including one in critical condition.

It was unclear which Palestinian militant group was responsible for the attack.

Israel Defense Forces struck back with ground fire and air raids over nearby areas, Palestinian witnesses said. Most of 30 injured Palestinians were residents of a neighborhood east of Gaza City that came under fire when militants fled to their area, Palestinians said.

Among the dead were Ahmed Dardasawi, 18, and Mohmad Harara, 17, Gaza hospital officials said.

The fighting raised fears that violence in the Gaza Strip could escalate. Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, condemned the “Zionist escalation and targeting of civilians," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said.

Shortly after the Israeli airstrikes, Gaza militants fired numerous rockets into southern Israel. No injuries were reported. Israel warned citizens living near the border to remain close to bomb shelters.

Back-and-forth violence has rattled the region for months despite efforts to broker a cease-fire.

Several Palestinian civilians have been killed in recent clashes, including a 12-year-old boy struck in crossfire and a mentally unstable young man shot by Israeli soldiers when he drifted close to the border, Palestinian officials said.The two deaths occurred last week.

On Thursday, an Israeli soldier was wounded when an explosive device destroyed a vehicle that was involved in maintenance work along the border fence.

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-- Rushdi abu Alouf

Photo: Wounded Israeli soldiers are wheeled into the Soroka hospital in Beersheva, southern Israel, following clashes along the Gaza Strip border, east of Gaza City on Saturday. Credit: Dudu Grunshpan / AFP/ Getty Images

Norway killer Breivik laments censorship, cold coffee behind bars

Emily Alpert — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 13:16:18 -0800

Anders Behring Breivik gunned down scores of teenagers in a methodical killing rampage last year on the Norwegian island of Utoya, at one point telling fleeing youths, "You're all going to die."

Now serving a 21-year prison sentence, Breivik has held forth on the topic of cruelty, weighing in on what he calls "an almost indescribable manifestation of sadism."

A bendable pen.

"It’s a nightmare of a tool and I get frustrated by using it," Breivik wrote in a lengthy letter to prison officials, as quoted by the tabloid Verdens Gang (link in Norwegian). The specially designed pen he is given to use -- so soft that it cannot be used as a weapon -- is "ergonomically malformed" and hurts him so much he cannot write, he complained.

The rubbery pen is just one in a litany of laments from Breivik, confined to three rooms at Ila Prison at a cost of more than $1.2 million annually to Norwegian taxpayers.

In the letter, Breivik reportedly complains of being searched every day in the nude and argues that his mail is so strictly censored that his freedom of expression has been stripped. When he is transferred from one area to another, his handcuffs are so sharp they cut into his wrists, he alleged.

His cell is chilly, he wrote, and the light switch is outside, forcing him to wait "up to 40 minutes" after summoning the guards to turn it on. At mealtimes, there isn't enough butter for the bread and the coffee is cold, the letter added, according to the Agence France-Presse news agency, quoting the tabloid.

Furthermore, the officers are "unwelcoming," Breivik wrote, according to the Norwegian tabloid. When he brushes his teeth, they supervise him, subjecting him to "mental pressure to quickly finish."

His attorney Tord Jordet confirmed to reporters that Breivik had written the complaint. "He is aware that, taken separately, his grievances can seem unimportant, but taken together, they paint a grim picture," Jordet told AFP on Friday. "His freedom of speech is being violated."

Prison spokeswoman Ellen Bjercke did not immediately respond to a request from The Times for comment late Friday in Norway. She told the Associated Press that Breivik had been given an electric typewriter Friday, but that it wasn’t tied to his complaint, which prison officials were still considering.

Norway prides itself on treating prisoners humanely, so much so that many foreign observers were stunned to learn Breivik would occupy the same three rooms as during his trial. During his trial, he had access to a computer, which has since been taken away, according to Norwegian media.

Breivik freely confessed and was convicted of killing 77 people, most of them teenagers, in an Oslo bombing and a shooting rampage nearby Utoya Island on July 22, 2011. He called the massacre an attempt to save Norway from being overrun with Muslims.

Survivors were unmoved by his plight, Verdens Gang reported.

"Breivik must remember that he’s not in prison for stealing a pair of socks," Utoya survivor Eivind Rindal told the paper. He should be thankful to be imprisoned in Norway, Rindal added. "A lot of other countries would have treated someone who did what he has done very differently."

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-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik holds a specially made soft pen in an Oslo courtroom in April. Credit: Heiko Junge / Associated Press

Mexican police charged in attack on CIA officers

Richard Fausset — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 11:33:29 -0800

MEXICO CITY — Fourteen officers in Mexico’s federal police force have been formally charged with the attempted murder of a pair of American CIA operatives who were attacked in their armored SUV in August on a road south of the capital, federal prosecutors said Friday.

In a statement, prosecutors said the officers’ actions were deliberate, alleging that they “intended to take the lives of two functionaries from the United States Embassy in Mexico,” as well as a member of the Mexican navy who was traveling with them through dangerous country on their way to a Mexican military training facility.

But in a phone interview, a spokesman for the prosecutors’ office left open the possibility that the attack could have been the result of a mixup, and not something more sinister.

“At this moment there are various lines of investigation,” said Jose Luis Manjarrez, including the officers’ “alleged relationship with organized crime,” but also the possibility that their attack was the result of "confusion."

Manjarrez added that the question of motive was “part of the investigation,” and would eventually be presented in court.

The attack has raised troubling questions here about the competence and trustworthiness of a federal police force that outgoing President Felipe Calderon has been trying to clean up and strengthen as his nation struggles in its fight against the powerful drug cartels.

Prosecutors allege the officers, all of them based out of a station in Mexico City, acted deceptively when confronted by investigators. They were in plain clothes and driving civilian vehicles when they approached the Toyota Land Cruiser, which had diplomatic license plates, and riddled it with 152 bullets.

But when the officers initially appeared before prosecutors, they showed up in their squad cars and had changed into their uniforms — “thereby encouraging the concealment of the cars that they had, and simulating a circumstance that turned out to be false,” the statement said.

Mexican officials said the investigation was carried out with the “close collaboration” of the federal police and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

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Photo: Forensic personnel check a U.S. diplomatic vehicle attacked with gunfire in the Tres Marias–Huitzilac highway in Morelos, Mexico, in August. Credit: Nuvia Reyes / AFP/Getty Images

South African court sentences rhino horn smuggler to 40 years

Robyn Dixon — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:54:54 -0800

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A South African court on Friday sentenced a Thai national to 40 years in prison for his part in a syndicate that smuggled dozens of rhino horns out of the country, the stiffest sentence ever handed down for such a crime in South Africa.

Two government ministers praised the court for sending a strong message that rhino horn smuggling would not be tolerated. But critics questioned why Chumlong Lemtongthai was convicted while charges were dropped against a South African farmer accused of involvement in the crime.

South Africa, home to about 90% of Africa's rhinoceroses, has faced an alarming rise in poaching with 488 of the animals illegally killed this year by Oct. 30, compared with 13 in 2007. According to the Department of Environmental Affairs, 2.4% of South Africa's rhinos were poached last year, with the rate increasing this year, posing a serious threat of extinction to rhinos.

The previous harshest sentence, 29 years, was handed down for poaching in August to two foreigners, Gearson Cosa, 35, and Ali Nkuna, 25, convicted of killing a rhino cow and her calf in the Kruger National Park, where around half the incidences of rhino poaching in South Africa occur.

The Laos-based syndicate, Xaysavang, exploited South Africa's laws that allow hunters to kill one rhino a year with a permit to illegally exported dozens of rhino horns. Lemtongthai confessed to organizing the bogus rhino hunts for Xaysavang to obtain horns to trade on the international black market and pleaded guilty to 59 charges of fraud and violations of customs, excise and environmental laws.

The syndicate recruited young Thai women, paid them $625 to take a "holiday" and obtained hunting permits for them. The young women didn't shoot the rhinos in the bogus hunts, but posed for pictures with the carcasses.

Disturbing video footage appearing on the website of South Africa's Mail and Guardian newspaper Friday showed hunters associated with the syndicate repeatedly shooting a rhino. The animal mewled and thrashed in agony, trying to get to its feet before dying.

Earlier this week, prosecutors dropped charges against South African farmer Marnus Steyl, two of his farm laborers, Patruis Matthuys and Obene Kobea, and a professional hunter and hunting safari operator, Harry Claasens. Claasens was granted immunity for turning state witness. Charges were also dropped against two foreign nationals, Punpitak Chunchom and an alleged middleman for the syndicate, Tool Sriton.

Steyl did not responded to calls and text messages Friday.

Julian Rademeyer, expert on rhino horn smuggling and author of a book on the subject, "Killing for Profit", said that the sentence was a major setback for the syndicate, allegedly led by a Laos national, but that the syndicate and others would likely find new means to smuggle horns.

"I think it's very significant that this is the stiffest sentence handed down to date in terms of our environmental legislation," Rademeyer said in a telephone interview. "I think it's a blow to the syndicate. But it's a bit like an octopus. You cut off one tentacle and another one grows."

Rademeyer said most of those convicted and sentenced for poaching in South Africa were middlemen or impoverished poachers used as cannon fodder by syndicates, with only one South African game farmer, Jacques Els, convicted of crimes related to poaching. Els was sentenced in March to eight years in prison and fined $120,000.

Rademeyer said the head of the syndicate in Laos was well-connected and well-protected, "so there's absolutely no way of cutting off the head of this syndicate. You arrest the people here and find someone else is sent in to do the job. You crack down on Vietnamese pseudo-hunters and find that Czech pseudo-hunters are coming in, paid by Asian syndicates."

The increase in poaching is associated with demand in Asia, particularly in Vietnam, where rhino horn consumed in the belief it does everything from ease hangovers to cure cancer, according to the anti-smuggling organization Traffic. But there's no scientific evidence that rhino horn -- made of keratin and similar to horses' hooves, cockatoo bills and turtle beaks -- has such curative properties.

The increase in South African poaching is tied to Asian crime syndicates, particularly in Vietnam, Traffic reported this year.

Handing down the sentence on Friday, magistrate Prince Manyathi said he did not want his children to grow up without the opportunity to see rhinos, local media reported.

"The guilty plea does not necessarily imply anything more than that the accused is realistic," Manyathi said.

The World Wildlife Fund praised South African law enforcement authorities for bringing the syndicate to justice but criticized prosecutors for withdrawing charges against the South Africans accused in the case.

"Sadly, this does not send a similarly strong message regarding South Africa's attitude to the ongoing involvement of its own citizens in rhino crimes," the WWF said in a statement.

National Prosecuting Authority spokeswoman Phindi Louw said the sentence sent a message that South Africa would do everything in its power to preserve the country's heritage.

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--Robyn Dixon

Photo: A dehorned black rhinoceros followed by a calf at the Bona Bona Game Reserve in South Africa. Credit: Stephane de Sakutin / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images.

Iran will investigate blogger's death in custody 'if necessary'

Patrick McDonnell — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:38:48 -0800

BEIRUT -- An Iranian parliamentary panel will investigate the death in custody of a young Iranian blogger, Sattar Beheshti, "if necessary," according to a lawmaker quoted by an Iranian news agency.

But Mansur Haqiqatpur, vice chairman of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, suggested to the Iranian Labour News Agency that there was no sign yet of irregularities that would trigger an inquiry, according to BBC Monitoring, which translates foreign news reports.

Human rights activists and press freedom groups have called on Tehran to investigate the case of Beheshti, who reportedly died this week following his arrest for criticizing the government on the Internet.

Reporters Without Borders said the 35-year-old blogger was arrested at his home Oct. 30 by members of the Islamic Republic’s cyber police on accusations of committing "actions against national security on social networks and Facebook."

A photograph said to be of Beheshti posted on social media sites shows a man wearing a dark T-shirt with a chain around his neck and a shaved head. In some postings, his image is flanked by candles and white pigeons in a sign of mourning.

Before his death, Beheshti had filed a complaint with prison authorities saying he had been beaten, "lending credence to reports that he died as a result of torture in detention," Amnesty International reported.

According to various accounts, Beheshti’s family found out about his death when authorities told his loved ones to collect his body.

On a Facebook page set up in solidarity with the blogger, a message in Farsi encouraged mourners to extend their condolences Friday evening at the Beheshti family home outside the Iranian capital.

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U.N.: 11,000 refugees pour out of Syria in 24 hours

Emily Alpert — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:31:09 -0800

Eleven thousand refugees have poured out of Syria in just 24 hours, a staggering number as violence surges near the border, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday.

The Friday deluge is more than triple the usual numbers of 2,000 to 3,000 people escaping daily, agency spokeswoman Sybella Wilkes said. Nine thousand Syrians fled to Turkey alone, most of them reaching the border overnight. The numbers were nearly enough to fill a typical refugee camp.

The rest of the day's refugees went to Jordan and Lebanon.

Vast, sudden waves of refugees usually mean the violence raging in Syria has veered especially close to one of its borders, Wilkes said. Scores of refugees showed up wounded over the last 24 hours; two have died.

“The numbers are increasing by the hour,” Wilkes said. “The Turkish government says it can take weeks or even months to build a camp. But it can take only hours to fill them.”

A Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of government rules, told the Associated Press that most were escaping fighting in the towns of Harem and Ras al-Ayn. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition group based in London, reported rebels had stormed Ras al-Ayn and taken over the military and security forces, killing at least 20 members of Syrian security forces and capturing others.

"The fate of the captured governor and 25 police officers are still unknown," the group said on Facebook.

The Anadolu state news agency in Turkey reported more than two dozen Syrian soldiers, including two generals, were among the thousands of people who had fled to Turkey with their families. Turkish media showed people parting and climbing over barbed wire to cross the border.

The outpouring brings the number of Syrians registered or waiting to register as refugees to more than 408,000 people; the total number who have fled is believed to exceed 700,000 people. On top of that, the U.N. estimates at least 1.2 million people are displaced inside Syria.

As winter draws nearer, the refugee agency and other aid organizations are alarmed to have received only 35% of the money needed to help Syrian refugees scattered across the region. The total budget they had planned comes to nearly $488 million.

The shortfall puts refugees at risk as temperatures plunge, Wilkes said. “We need to winterize tents, to get heaters and extra blankets,” she said. “We’re not looking at luxury -- we’re looking at life-saving support here.”

The desperation is evident in other news of the continued crisis: At the Zaatari camp in Jordan, Syrian women told the World Food Program they had gone without food for two days to reach the border. Iraq, once considered a country of last resort because it was still reeling after its own war, now holds close to 50,000 Syrian refugees, the U.N. estimates.

In all, more than 2.5 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid, the U.N. estimates. The number is only expected to soar higher if the crisis is not quelled, officials have warned.

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-- Emily Alpert in Los Angeles

Photo: Syrians cross through barbed wire as they flee to Turkey on Friday after clashes between Syrian rebels and government soldiers. Credit: Veli Gurgah / European Pressphoto Assn. / Anadolu Agency.

Tibetans are content, China's Communist Party congress is told

Roger Ainsley — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 10:01:23 -0800

BEIJING -- As far the Communist Party is concerned, Tibet is the happiest place in China and dissatisfaction is stirred up by outside agitators.

So pronounced Tibet’s top delegates at the 18th Communist Party congress, which is convening this week in Beijing. They dismissed the rash of self-immolations by young Tibetans and accompanying protests by thousands of students as the work of outsiders manipulating Tibetans for political gain.

Since Wednesday, at least six Tibetans, mostly teenagers, have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule.

"Overseas separatists entice victims. Those people who support Tibetan independence call their deeds a heroic act and these people heroes," said Lobsang Gyaltsen, vice governor of the Tibet Autonomous Region, which is under Chinese rule. He blamed the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, for the immolations. “It is actually an act of murder to entice somebody to commit suicide .... The Dalai Lama group is sacrificing other people’s lives to achieve their evil goals."

In a conference room of the Great Hall of the People, decorated with fanciful floor-to-ceiling Tibetan landscapes, Tibetan delegates praised the Communist Party for raising living standards, bringing electricity, running water, television and free education to formerly nomadic people. Though Tibetans, the delegates identified themselves by their Chinese names and spoke with reporters at the news conference only in Chinese. The Communist Party secretary for Lhasa, Che Dalha, said the Tibetan capital had been voted the happiest city in China, and recited lyrics of a song.

"The sky is the bluest, the clouds are the whitest, the water is the cleanest and the people are the happiest," he said, adding, “and there are harmonious ethnic relations."

In protests against Chinese rule in Tibet, nearly 70 Tibetans have immolated themselves since last year. Eight cases have taken place in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and the rest in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces which have equally large Tibetan populations.

On Friday, more than 1,000 Tibetans, mostly students and young monks, marched through the central square of the western Chinese town of Tongren -- Repkong in Tibetan -- to commemorate an 18-year-old former monk who had immolated himself Thursday afternoon. It was the second day of large protests in the town.

Tongren, home of a 600-year-old monastery, lies at the eastern edge of the Tibetan plateau in Qinghai province, where the collision of Chinese culture has piqued Tibetans' fears of losing their identity. In 2010, there were major protests in the town as well about the reduction of Tibetan language education in the schools. There have been three self-immolations in the town this month alone, including that of a 23-year-old young mother who left behind a 5-year-old son.

Earlier this month, a U.N. human rights envoy, Navi Pillay, urged China to allow independent human rights monitors to visit Tibet. That suggestion was promptly rejected by the Chinese government.

"We welcome everybody to Tibet, but if people investigate issues like human rights, we don’t think that is appropriate," said Lobsang Gyaltsen, the vice chairman.

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-- Barbara Demick

Photo: Exiled Tibetans hold a portrait of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, during a protest Thursday in Dharmsala, India, in solidarity with Tibetans who have self-immolated. Credit: Ashwini Bhatia / Associated Press.