The clock is ticking for Tibet. If nothing is done, a country, its people, religion and culture will continue to grow fainter and fainter and could one day disappear. That would indeed be a tragedy. There are no restraints on Tibet's Chinese overseers. They are the accuser, judge, jury, prison warden and sometimes executioner rolled into one.
Punishment is arbitrary, swift, vicious and totally without mercy and without recourse.
The administration must appoint a special representative for Tibet who both understands the conditions there and who will aggressively pursue improvements. The administration must raise with the PRC the issue of Tibet both before and during the forthcoming visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin to Washington. Efforts to obtain the release of political prisoners must be part of this initiative. Efforts to open Tibet to the international press and human rights groups must go forward. As long as the Chinese continue to exercise power away from public scrutiny, brutal excesses will continue.