Don't buy your ticket yet, there won't be a Tibet left by the time China finish with it...
Monday, March 10
- A notice by CTMA stating the mountain will be closed during the torch realy is sent to Everest climbers. Chinese officials claim crowding and safety concerns as reason for the ban.
- Reports that Chinese officials also attempt to convince Nepal to close the icefall on the south side during the torch are denied.
- A peaceful march starts in Lhasa with about 300 monks from various monasteries involved.
- In Kathmandu, Chinese embassy officials actively intervene with the handling of Tibetan demonstrators outside the Chinese embassy. The officials reportedly direct and position the Nepalese police and spit on an American who takes photos.
Tuesday, March 11
- Chinese officials tell AFP that the ban on Everest North side climbing is a "misunderstanding." ExWeb recieves requests to remove the official notice from its website. Some expedition leaders report that they are threatened by lifetime climbing bans if they give reports to media.
Wednesday, March 12
- Nepalese Tourism Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung announces that also the south side of Everest will be closed for climbing during the torch relay. Gurung says the move has been taken in response to a request from China, "this is to prevent some people who could infiltrate and cause trouble during the time when they take the torch to the top."
- ExWeb reports that on March 7, China's state-owned Export-Import bank assured Nepal soft loans of 121 Million Euro.
- The Ganden monastery in Lhasa is surrounded by armed paramilitary police. Layers of soldiers and up to 2000 police are stationed around the Sera and Drepung monasteries. Monks are trapped with dwindling food supplies.
Thursday, March 13
- Media blackout in Lhasa. No pictures come out from the Tibetan capital, an no foreign journalists are allowed. Reporters trying to phone monasteries receive replies such as, "the monks are all in their rooms."
- An ExWeb contributor traveling through Tibet to Lhasa shortly before the "black Monday" reports a curfew, and lots of checkpoints on the way in to the city.
- Tibetan and foreign demonstrators in India, resisting arrest by sitting or laying down, are hauled away into police buses. Demonstrators announce hunger strikes in symphaty with hunger strikes in Tibetan monasteries.
Friday, March 14
- About 80 dead, four monks torching themselves, a monastery badly damaged, and Chinese buildings set ablaze are repoted from Lhasa. Due to international reporters being banned from the city, the reports are unconfirmed. "There could be several hundred tanks and they were shooting into the crowds,” a private witness told RFA’s Tibetan service.
- ExWeb's reporter and local tourists report a war-zone with tanks/armoured vehicles driving round in the streets, shops on fire, total curfew, and far worse violence than news reports are stating.
- Voices are raised for a boycott of Beijing Olympics.
Sunday, March 16
- China claims only 10 dead, "most shopkeepers," it blames Dalai Lama and Tibetans for the killings and declares a "people's war" on protesters inside and outside of Tibet.
- There are no further reports about the current status of climbing permits on Everest or elsewhere in Himalaya.
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