Germany Suspends Aid Talks with China Over Tibet Violence

Germany said it was suspending intergovernmental aid talks with China if the country did not end a bloody clampdown on Tibetan protesters, raising the stakes in a highly charged international conundrum over how to deal with Beijing's rights violations months before the city hosts the Olympic Games.

More than 500 buildings have been damaged in last week's violent protests, with 325 people injured and 11 people killed, the Chinese government-run Xinhua News Agency said. Tibetan exiles based in northern India's Dharamshala said about 100 protestors have been confirmed killed by security forces. The unrest began March 10 when Buddhist monks marched in Lhasa calling for an end to religious restrictions and the release of imprisoned colleagues.

Beijing has blamed Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama to try to wreck the Aug. 8-24 Games. The Dalai Lama insists he only wants greater autonomy for his homeland, not independence from China. On Wednesday, China stepped up its criticism of the Dalai Lama telling a teleconference of regional officials: "We are engaged in a fierce battle of blood and fire with the Dalai clique, a life-and-death struggle between the foe and us."

The harsh rhetoric has raised hackles in the West where the Tibetan spiritual leader is usually welcomed by governments. "The language used by the Chinese government is unspeakable," Nooke said, Germany's human rights commissioner, in an interview with German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "The vocabulary of the Chinese Cultural Revolution is being used here again. That scares me. We shouldn't allow a country like China to get away with it."

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