Sometimes the most interesting news is the worst kind of news.

As you know, in 1951 the People’s Republic of China asserted control over Tibet, forcing them to sign a 17-point agreement. Before that, Tibet existed as a sovereign nation. However, Tibetan exiles say that 1.2 million people have died as a direct result of the “Great Leap Forward,” which China denies. Living conditions in Tibet are also considered substandard as a result of Chinese rule.

Yesterday, Boing Boing collected a series of stories detailing how Tibetan refugees were shot crossing the border. Stranger yet is that China admits that the PLA killed some of the refugees:

China admitted that its soldiers killed a person who was trying to flee Tibet, but the official account contradicted eyewitness reports that the troops had shot at unarmed refugees. The state-run Xinhua news agency released a short report of the September 30 incident that occurred near Mt Everest, saying soldiers had found nearly 70 people trying to illegally cross the Tibetan border into Nepal.

Interestingly enough, there is actually video footage of the atrocity:

The video footage, taken by a Romanian cameraman who was at advance base camp on Mount Cho Oyo at the time, depicts a line of Tibetans walking uphill through the snow on the Nangpa Pass when a shot is heard and one of the figures falls to the ground. The video clearly depicts that the Tibetans had their backs to the soldiers, were unarmed, and offered no resistance. The nun who died, Kelsang Namtso, appears to have been shot in the back.

I have no idea what can be done about this, but given China’s poor human rights record, this will just keep on happening. It’s the classic Machiavellian state–do what you need to to browbeat the people, assert power, and silence dissidents.