Tibet’s true leader, the Dalai Lama, has said that he’s not going to tell his followers inside Tibet to surrender to the Chinese. This even though he fears that their protests may lead to “an imminent blood bath.” He fears this, but he also believes there’s nothing he can do to prevent it from happening.

“I do feel helpless,” he said. “I feel very sad, very serious, very anxious. Cannot do anything.”

No, there’s nothing he can do… except for using his name to get the international media and foreign government to pay some attention to what’s happening and what has already happened in Tibet.

Although Chinese media report that only 10 Tibetans have been killed, aides to the Dalai Lama say that as many as 80 civilians have been killed by the Chinese, on Friday and Saturday alone.

The violence and the protests are escalating:

For the second straight day on Sunday, protests spread into different Tibetan regions of China. Buddhist monks and police reportedly clashed in a Tibetan region of Sichuan Province. A crowd of 200 Tibetan protesters burned down a local police station, news agencies reported.

One witness said a police officer was killed in the confrontation. But the India-based Tibet Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported that the police in the region had killed at least seven Tibetan protesters.

Now is the time for the international community to stand up. Tibetans are, finally, openly challenging the Chinese. They’re fighting back. They have to do so, but they can’t free Tibet by themselves. They need powerful Western and Asian countries to support them.

I realize, of course, that Tibet doesn’t have anything the West wants. China does. And… normally, foreign policy is about quid pro quo and a country’s own immediate interests. However, sometimes we have to do something just because it’s the right thing to do. Such is the case with Tibet.