The long view of Tibet

Re “Dalai Lama says he may quit,” March 19

The Times mentions a quote, “If the world doesn’t speak up, it will be another Burma.” Tibet has been “another Burma” for a long time already. Tibet’s chosen future leader, the Panchen Lama, is imprisoned. The current leader, the Dalai Lama, is in exile. Homes and places of worship or cultural importance have been destroyed or desecrated, and Tibetans have been killed, imprisoned, abducted or exiled for decades. Fifty years of brutal occupation by the Chinese has resulted in systematic cultural genocide. Maybe the symbols and the languages are different, but the brutal oppression is the same.

Tibet also reminds me of the West Bank -- in both places, the occupiers are forcefully moving their own citizens onto the land of the original residents.

Elke Heitmyer

Sherman Oaks

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Why is it that many nations recognize the independence of Kosovo, in spite of the fact that Kosovo has been a part of Serbia since its existence, but no one appears to recognize that Tibet was an independent country, which is illegally occupied by the Chinese, and should therefore have the full support of all nations to regain its independence?

Pauli Peter

Los Angeles