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Reading the news this morning I was not surprised to hear little about the Olympic torch and its passage through Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. However, what DID strike me was some of the information found while reading an article from the AFP:
The five-kilometre-relay, which took place amid heavy downpour in this Indian Ocean city, ended at the Chinese-built National Stadium without any incident or breach of security.
Interesting, isn’t it? That China has such an influence in the city and the torch passes without so much as a single protest?!
Not only that, but:
Tanzania, long a socialist country with close ties to the eastern Communist bloc, enjoys excellent relations with China since diplomatic ties were established in 1964.
The Asian giant, which has an aggressive economic policy on the mineral-rich continent, is a major investor in the east African nation’s fledgling economy.
Bilateral trade stood at 794 million dollars (500 million euros) in 2007, close to a 50 percent increase from the previous year.
President Jakaya Kikwete is currently on a four-day state visit to China and the flame was met at the airport by Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda late Saturday. It will then be flown Oman less than 24 hours later.
Interesting, eh?
China has arrested nine Tibetan Buddhist monks who have been accused of a bomb attack, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
Chinese officials said the monks’ homemade bomb exploded in a government building in eastern Tibet on 23 March.
Xinhua news agency did not explain why the alleged bomb incident was not reported at the time.
News of the arrests came as Beijing continued to attack overseas critics of its crackdown in the Himalayan region.
Xinhua said the monks confessed to planting the explosive in Gyanbe township.
Beijing’s claims that the recent Tibetan protests were part of a violent campaign by the Dalai Lama, the region’s exiled spiritual leader, to disrupt Chinese rule in Tibet and sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August.
Bombing unreported
The alleged bombing is the first to be reported in Tibet since the anti-China protests began 10 March in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.
After China’s crackdown, demonstrations by pro-Tibet activists – and other groups critical of Beijing’s human rights record – have haunted the Olympic torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco this month, stirring anger in China.
Chinese President Hu Jintao took a hard line Saturday, saying the problems in Tibet were a purely internal affair directly threatening Chinese sovereignty.
