The absence of a papal appeal concerning recent clashes and bloodshed in Tibet does not mean there is a lack of concern over the situation, a Vatican official said.While Pope Benedict XVI is concerned about all human hardship, there are "no direct sources of information" about what is happening in Tibet, the official said.
There is no papal representative or Catholic community living in Tibet to provide accurate, reliable news and clarifications necessary for making official declarations, the official said.
The Vatican official, who asked not to be named, said the lack of a papal comment March 16 "does not mean that the pope is not following or is not concerned."
Once information is available, it may just be a question of when the Vatican or pope will make a statement, the official said.
Sometimes during his Sunday Angelus address or at the end of his Wednesday general audience, the pope appeals on behalf of people in crisis.
During his March 16 Angelus address, Pope Benedict paid tribute to the kidnapped archbishop of Mosul who was found dead recently and appealed for an end to the violence in Iraq.
He made no mention of the bloody demonstrations that began March 10 in the Tibetan city of Lhasa.
What began in Tibet as relatively peaceful protests to mark the 1959 uprising against Chinese rule turned to rioting followed by a fierce crackdown by Chinese troops.
Chinese authorities said the final death toll was 13 people while Tibetan exile groups put the figure at more than 80.
China claims sovereignty over Tibet while many Tibetans, including those loyal to the exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, want a return to autonomy for the region. The Dalai Lama called the crackdown "cultural genocide."
A March 14 statement by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent federal body, said: "Religious freedom restrictions and abuses in Tibet have long been some of the worst in China. The quick show of force used over the last week is part of the Chinese government's wider policy to discredit the Dalai Lama by accusing him of trying to disrupt the 2008 Olympic Games" in China.
The commission urged the United States to take steps to ensure the Chinese government does not increase its repression of rights before the Olympics.
The commission called for the U.S. to designate funding to human rights groups to monitor conditions during the Olympics and to instruct U.S. citizens participating in the Olympics about China's commitment to international human rights.
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