Troops in Tibetan town in China
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=303235
2009/03/24
SECURITY forces patrolled the streets of a Tibetan town in northwest China yesterday after a weekend protest led to the detention of nearly 100 monks .
“Security patrols continue today and there are still very few people in the streets,” a resident, who could not be named for fear of reprisal, told reporters by telephone.
The woman said she was unsure about the number of security forces, but the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said in an e-mailed statement that new troops had arrived.
“The latest information … is that new troops from Xining (Qinghai’s capital) have been deployed in the area,” said Kate Saunders, communications director of ICT.
Ninety-three monks were held by authorities after what Chinese State media called a riot in which a mob attacked a police station in Rabgya, a town in the mountains of Qinghai province.
It was the first reported case of major unrest in Tibetan-populated areas this year, and came less than two weeks after the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in the region.
It also came just over a week after the first anniversary of riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, which began on March 14 last year.
The protest began after a man held on suspicion of “Tibet independence” activities disappeared, the official Xinhua news agency said.
A video of the protest shot from a mobile phone and posted on the Tibetan news website phayul.com – the authenticity of which could not be confirmed – showed a large crowd of monks and lay-people shouting loudly.
According to Xinhua, the protesters had been “deceived by rumours” about the man, who was taken into custody in Rabgya on suspicion of being involved in advocating “Tibet independence”.
The man, identified as Zhaxi Sangwu, disappeared after swimming across the Yellow River that flows through the town, Xinhua quoted police and a witness as saying.
The London-based group Free Tibet quoted a source as saying the protesters assembled because they believed he had been forced to jump into the river as the only way of escaping the police station.
Tibet’s government-in-exile, in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, said yesterday the man was a monk arrested for pulling down a Chinese flag and replacing it with a Tibetan one.
But it said the subsequent protest was peaceful and denied official media reports that monks attacked the police station.
“Describing the incident as an attack is not accurate as it has been used by the Chinese authorities,” said Thubten Samphel, a spokesperson for the exiled administration.
“The Tibetan protests in front of the police station came as a result of one young monk who committed suicide by jumping into a river. That he was forced to take such desperate action led them to protest.”
Chinese authorities have launched a massive security clampdown in recent weeks to quell possible unrest related to the 50th anniversary of the uprising, which led spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to flee into exile.
“The Dalai Lama has requested Tibetans to show restraint and also asked the Chinese authorities not to provoke Tibetans by increasing the current crackdown,” Samphel said.
Another resident in Rabgya said he did not know if the monk had wanted to commit suicide or simply escape, or even whether he was dead. — Sapa-AFP