From Shadow Tibet
May 9, 2008
The following letter was written by a resident of Lhasa, who wishes to remain anonymous. It gives a personal account of the current situation and the tense atmosphere in the city:
Yesterday it was quite hot outside and the soldiers guarding one of the petrol stations had a big umbrella to protect them from the intense sunlight. Today it’s the opposite: cold, cloudy and even light snowfall as storm-fronts hover over the mountains and sometimes close in on the valley. Like the weather here in Lhasa the rules are quickly changing too. One day you can go nearly everywhere, the next, military checkpoints won’t let you pass. At the beginning of last week it seemed life was getting back to normal. Guards at the checkpoints relaxed and they seemed not as serious anymore, and overall, there was less military on the streets. But then suddenly heavy military presence was back. A few days ago, in the evening, I walked up Beijing Road. As I did, many military trucks passed me and there were patrols everywhere, only a few cars were to be seen driving around, and the streets were near empty of civilian people. The atmosphere was tense and made the young, normally childish looking soldiers, suddenly look scary. (more…)
A number of monks of Drepung Monastery in Tibet were detained by the Chinese security officials in and around 12 April 2008 following the monks’ protest against Chinese “Work Team” who paid a visit to the monastery to conduct “Patriotic Education” Campaign, according to confirmed information received from reliable sources by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). (more…)
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reports that around 70 monks of Ramoche Temple in Lhasa were detained in a night-time raid on April 7th. People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials raided the monks’ residences and took them away to an unknown location.
At present only a few monks are left in the Ramoche Temple, which previously housed around a hundred monks.
Severe restrictions have been imposed on the movement of the monks at the Ramoche Temple since the March 14th protest in Lhasa. TCHRD confirmed a case of one monk, Thokmey, committing suicide in Ramoche Temple following massive crackdowns by the PAP and PSB officials on March 22nd.
Similar restrictions were imposed on all the major monasteries of Tibet including Drepung, Gaden and Sera. All access to these monasteries has been severely restricted, with around-the-clock monitoring by a heavy presence of PAP and PSB officials since demonstrations broke out on March 10th in Lhasa and other parts of Tibet.
TCHRD’s press release goes on to show how the Chinese government has defended the presence of PAP and PSB personnel in Tibet.
XIAHE, China (Reuters) - Fifteen Tibetan Buddhist monks interrupted a state-sponsored media tour of a restive region of western China on Wednesday, demanding the return of the Dalai Lama and yelling that they had no human rights.
In the second such incident in as many months, the monks, carrying a banned Tibetan flag, burst out of a building at the Labrang monastery in the town of Xiahe, in the northwestern province of Gansu, and rushed across a plaza to a group of 20 visiting Chinese and foreign journalists.
“The Dalai Lama has to come back to Tibet. We are not asking for Tibetan independence, we are just asking for human rights. We have no human rights now,” one monk told the reporters in Chinese. (more…)
Times Online
April 7, 2008
Ten people were wounded when Chinese paramilitary police opened fire on a crowd of Tibetans protesting against limits on a prayer ceremony and demanding the return of the Dalai Lama, witnesses said.
The violence was in a remote town in western Sichuan province on Saturday, where monks at the Lingque temple had been joined by several hundred pilgrims for an annual ceremony, the Torgya, which is meant to exorcise evil elements from society. (more…)
Times Online
April 4, 2008
Jane Macartney in Beijing
Chinese paramilitary police have killed eight people after opening fire on several hundred Tibetan monks and villagers in bloody violence that will fuel human rights protests as London prepares to host its leg of the Olympic torch relay this weekend.
Witnesses said the clash – in which dozens were wounded – erupted late last night after a government inspection team entered a monastery in the Chinese province of Sichuan trying to confiscate pictures of the Dalai Lama. (more…)
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy released photos yesterday of hundreds of Tibetans holding a solidarity march in Holkha Township, Tsigorthang County (Ch: Xinghai Xian), Tsolho TAP, Qinghai Province on March 25. The march and prayer session were held for those who lost their lives in the recent series of protests in Tibet. (more…)
According to monks at Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, Chinese security forces raided 6 monasteries in North-Eastern Tibet on March 28th. The monasteries included Ngaba Kirti Monastery, Ngatue Amdu Monastery, Gomang Monastery, Dongri Monastery, and Tsennyi Monastery, all in Amdo Ngawa county (Ch: Aba Xian), and Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery in Dzoege county, Ngaba TAP, Sichuan Province. (more…)
As foreign diplomats are being guided around Lhasa by the Chinese government, many Tibetans have protested again in the capital today, at Ramoche Monastery. There were some reports of violence.
A second protest was reported in front of Tsuglag-khang (Jokhang) temple and Beijing East road, with thousands of Tibetans joining.
The Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) forces arrested over a hundred monks from Ngaba Kirti Monastery, in Ngaba County (Ch: Aba Xian), Ngaba TAP, Sichuan Province, during a raid of the monastery this afternoon. Several hundred PAP and PSB forces arrived at Ngaba Kirti Monastery in the morning, dispersing people, devotees, and visitors gathered around the monastery compound. They also ordered surrounding shops to shut down.
At first the PAP and PSB forces barred the monks from venturing out of their rooms, which was followed by a sudden raid of every monk’s room. The troops ransacked any portraits of the Dalai Lama and looked for any incriminating documents. After the raid, around 5:00pm (Beijing Standard Time), at least a hundred monks were forcibly taken away by the armed forces to Ngaba County PSB Detention Centre. The current atmosphere inside the Kirti Monastery is known to be very tense and volatile.
According to TCHRD’s latest information, sandbag barricades were erected by PAP forces around Kirti Monastery and the surrounding area to curb the fresh outbreak of protest by the local residents of Ngaba County.
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