| Phayul[Sunday, April 13, 2008 05:09] |
Tenzin Dasel
New Delhi - The official website of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India crashed Friday, Tibetan officials said.
The website, www.tibet.net, offered "page can not be displayed" or if surfed from within the United states takes one to pages of web hosting service providers like bluehost.com that says "There is no website configured at this address. You are seeing this page because there is nothing configured for the site you have requested."
The hacked website, built eight years ago is the online platform of the exile Tibetan government's press releases, and official news reports.
AFP reported that the website carried 'a flurry of anti-Chinese statements since March 10, when Beijing ordered a crackdown on riots which erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.'
However, Kalsang Rinchen, a former editor of the website told phayul that he did not see any anti China statements on the website. "There were appeals to stop killings in Tibet and allow free access to media. Yes, there were reports of deaths and unrest also. The world's media was carrying reports of Tibet unrest but that does not make them anti-China."
Rinchen said that the site strictly operated within the exile government's policy of middle way approach of seeking dialogue with China. "You will not find a single word that is indicative of supporting independence for Tibet. Every content of the site is geared towards achieving a conducive atmosphere for dialogue with China. Even the name 'Tibetan government in exile' stopped to be used by the site. It is called the 'official website of the Central Tibetan Administration'."
The international media sourced the death toll in Tibet claimed by exile Tibetans to this website as it was representative of the official position.
Earlier, Indian newspapers reported an attack on computer servers of India's diplomatic mission in Beijing.
"It is the intention of the hackers to ensure that our information do not get out," Tenzin Takla, spokesman of Dalai Lama told AFP but declined to say whom he suspected.
Rinchen said that if Chinese government's website had been hacked, the blame would fall on the 'Dalai Clique' as usual. "The Tibetan government has not accused China of hacking the site. That's the difference between the two."
The Dalai Lama's official website -- www.dalailama.com -- is safe.
Tibetan exiles said they did not know who had hacked into the website but said they suspected it could be the Chinese.
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