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LISA MULLINS: I'm Lisa Mullins, and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. The Dalai Lama says Tibet is a “hell on Earth” where Tibetans live in constant fear under Chinese rule. He said this on the 50th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against China which caused him to flee into exile in India. One year ago on the anniversary, there were disturbances in Tibet and adjoining Chinese provinces where there are large Tibetan populations. This year, China has stepped up security. And as The World's Mary Kay Magistad reports, its upped its PR efforts, too.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: In the world view of China's state-run media, Tibetans should be getting down on their knees and thanking China for rescuing them decades ago from a life of oppressive serfdom under the Dalai Lama. This documentary ran today on China's state-run television network CCTV. It tells how much better off Tibetans are now, how happy they are, how much better they live. Even the narrator's tone is soothing. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu today praised China's achievements in Tibet.

MA ZHAOXU: Reforms in Tibet are an important milestone in the world's anti-serf movement. It was a great step forward for the cause of international human rights. It was a great contribution by the Chinese people, including the Tibetan people, to the course of world democracy, freedom, and human rights.

MAGISTAD: Many Tibetans feel differently. They see China's presence in Tibet as an occupation that is destroying their culture and marginalizing them in their own land. Today, the Dalai Lama spoke about this from his home in exile, in the Indian mountain town of Dharamsala.

DALAI LAMA: Having occupied Tibet, the Chinese Communist government carried out a series of repressive and violent campaigns. These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth. The immediate result of these campaigns was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans.

MAGISTAD: And then, the Dalai Lama said, the Chinese went on to destroy thousands of Buddhist temples, monasteries, and nunneries, and exploit and extract Tibet's natural resources. He is seeking autonomy for Tibet and Tibetan areas within China. The Chinese government says this quest for autonomy is just a veiled attempt to split China – and they'll never let it happen. This frustrates Tibetans, and last year at this time, Tibetan anger spilled onto the streets, first in Lhasa, then into dozens of villages and towns in western China – ethnic Tibetan areas of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces that were once part of the Tibetan kingdom. A fierce Chinese crackdown followed, and Tibetan exile groups say more than 100 Tibetans were killed. That's as compared to the 18 people killed when Tibetans rioted in Lhasa last year – many of them Han Chinese. Kate Saunders is Communications dDrector for the International Campaign for Tibet, which uses sources inside Tibetan areas to keep updated. She says security has increased significantly around this anniversary.

SAUNDERS: We've seen increased numbers of troops being moved into areas of the plateau that have been protest flashpoints in the buildup to the anniversary and during the Tibetan New Year period at the end of February. In Lhasa itself, it seems that there are troops in almost every government building, courtyard, at almost every intersection. On the roofs, there are snipers armed with automatic weapons.

MAGISTAD: The Chinese government has acknowledged that it has increased security in Lhasa, but overall, it says Tibetans are happy and all is peaceful. And Chinese officials say if the Dalai Lama says anything else, he's lying. For The World, I'm Mary Kay Magistad, in Beijing.

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