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Reports of 2 Tibetans Killed by Chinese Officers
BEIJING — A Tibet advocacy group based outside China said in a report released Friday that two Tibetans were killed Thursday night by Chinese paramilitary officers who were raiding a monastery in Sichuan Province to detain rebellious monks.
The group, the International Campaign for Tibet, said security officers beat to death a man, Dongko, 60, and a woman, Sherkyi, 65, as they gathered with other people outside Kirti Monastery to try to prevent 300 monks from being taken away.
Officers from the People's Armed Police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to quell riots, had put the monks in 10 trucks, the group said, citing as its source a monk from Kirti living in exile who remained in contact with the monastery. The officers then clashed with a large number of laypeople, many of them elderly, who tried to prevent the trucks from driving out the main entrance gate, the group said.
The report could not be independently confirmed, though information from the International Campaign for Tibet has generally been accurate. Several human rights groups said this week that Chinese officials had begun barring foreigners from the area.
One officer at a police station in the nearby county of Ganzi, known as Kardze in Tibetan, confirmed by telephone that violence had taken place in Aba (Ngaba in Tibetan). An officer answering the phone at a police station in Aba said that there was no violence and that foreign tourists could visit.
The standoff between Chinese forces and Tibetans at Kirti Monastery has been the most hostile one since a mass uprising in spring 2008 across the Tibetan plateau that involved rioting and protests by Tibetans and a brutal crackdown by mostly ethnic Han security officers.
Kirti was the scene of one of the most violent clashes at the time, and at least 10 Tibetans were shot dead, according to Tibet advocacy groups. Photographs of some of those dead Tibetans have been smuggled or e-mailed outside China.
The latest conflict began on March 16, when a 20-year-old monk, Phuntsog, killed himself by self-immolation to protest Chinese policies in Tibet. Security officers then locked down the monastery and began detaining monks. Some were reportedly beaten or tortured. Laypeople began gathering at the main gate of the monastery on April 12 to try to stave off a mass detention of monks. When officers raided the monastery at 9 p.m. on Thursday, the laypeople moved to protect the monks, the International Campaign for Tibet reported.
The American government criticized China this month for its treatment of monks at Kirti. On Monday, the English-language edition of Global Times, a populist Chinese newspaper, ran an editorial that said "the Chinese police intervened to control lamas that had stirred up trouble."
On Saturday, the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamsala, India, condemned the actions of the Chinese forces, as did the abbot of the Kirti Monastery that has been established in Dharamsala as an exile institution with ties to the one in Sichuan. The monks in India often get immediate updates about events in China through cellphone calls and other means.
Human Rights Watch released a statement on Friday saying the ban on foreigners in the area that took effect in recent days was a harbinger of a tough crackdown.
"The Chinese government has a history of sealing off Tibetan regions ahead of deploying disproportionate force to quell protests," said Phelim Kine, a researcher for the group. "Human Rights Watch has documented numerous incidents across the Tibetan plateau since March 2008 in which Chinese security forces have subjected protesters and those suspected of subversive activity, including Tibetan monks, to brutality and ill treatment during arrests."
nytimes
BEIJING — A Tibet advocacy group based outside China said in a report released Friday that two Tibetans were killed Thursday night by Chinese paramilitary officers who were raiding a monastery in Sichuan Province to detain rebellious monks.
The group, the International Campaign for Tibet, said security officers beat to death a man, Dongko, 60, and a woman, Sherkyi, 65, as they gathered with other people outside Kirti Monastery to try to prevent 300 monks from being taken away.
Officers from the People's Armed Police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to quell riots, had put the monks in 10 trucks, the group said, citing as its source a monk from Kirti living in exile who remained in contact with the monastery. The officers then clashed with a large number of laypeople, many of them elderly, who tried to prevent the trucks from driving out the main entrance gate, the group said.
The report could not be independently confirmed, though information from the International Campaign for Tibet has generally been accurate. Several human rights groups said this week that Chinese officials had begun barring foreigners from the area.
One officer at a police station in the nearby county of Ganzi, known as Kardze in Tibetan, confirmed by telephone that violence had taken place in Aba (Ngaba in Tibetan). An officer answering the phone at a police station in Aba said that there was no violence and that foreign tourists could visit.
The standoff between Chinese forces and Tibetans at Kirti Monastery has been the most hostile one since a mass uprising in spring 2008 across the Tibetan plateau that involved rioting and protests by Tibetans and a brutal crackdown by mostly ethnic Han security officers.
Kirti was the scene of one of the most violent clashes at the time, and at least 10 Tibetans were shot dead, according to Tibet advocacy groups. Photographs of some of those dead Tibetans have been smuggled or e-mailed outside China.
The latest conflict began on March 16, when a 20-year-old monk, Phuntsog, killed himself by self-immolation to protest Chinese policies in Tibet. Security officers then locked down the monastery and began detaining monks. Some were reportedly beaten or tortured. Laypeople began gathering at the main gate of the monastery on April 12 to try to stave off a mass detention of monks. When officers raided the monastery at 9 p.m. on Thursday, the laypeople moved to protect the monks, the International Campaign for Tibet reported.
The American government criticized China this month for its treatment of monks at Kirti. On Monday, the English-language edition of Global Times, a populist Chinese newspaper, ran an editorial that said "the Chinese police intervened to control lamas that had stirred up trouble."
On Saturday, the Tibetan government in exile, based in Dharamsala, India, condemned the actions of the Chinese forces, as did the abbot of the Kirti Monastery that has been established in Dharamsala as an exile institution with ties to the one in Sichuan. The monks in India often get immediate updates about events in China through cellphone calls and other means.
Human Rights Watch released a statement on Friday saying the ban on foreigners in the area that took effect in recent days was a harbinger of a tough crackdown.
"The Chinese government has a history of sealing off Tibetan regions ahead of deploying disproportionate force to quell protests," said Phelim Kine, a researcher for the group. "Human Rights Watch has documented numerous incidents across the Tibetan plateau since March 2008 in which Chinese security forces have subjected protesters and those suspected of subversive activity, including Tibetan monks, to brutality and ill treatment during arrests."
nytimes
