Tibetans refuse to hoist Chinese flag, Driru tense as China cracksdown

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Tibetans refuse to hoist Chinese flag, Driru tense as China cracks down on Tibetans

Chinese authorities in Driru county in eastern Tibet have tightened grip on Tibetans in several areas after Tibetans defied Chinese authorities' order to raise the Chinese national flag atop their houses coinciding with the Chinese national day celebrations. Ngawang Tharpa, a Tibetan living here with contacts in the region said the situation is "tense" in Driru as Chinese government officials and security forces numbering around 18000 have arrived in Driru from Nagchu County and other areas in the Tibet Autonomous Region since September 10.

The authorities propagated that the Tibetans must love their motherland and hoist Chinese national flag on their houses, leading to a standoff between the government authorities and the locals, he said.

On September 28, Tibetans of Mowa village clashed with Chinese security forces after defiant Tibetans refused to raise the Chinese flag and threw them into a river, said Tharpa. Mowa village and Monchen village are currently surrounded by Chinese troops form all sides, added Tharpa.

Around 40 Tibetans from nearby villages of Taklhay, Bharo, Neshoe and Taring were arrested after they went to urge against use of force and violence on the Tibetans of Mowa village. "The Tibetans who were involved in anti China protests were threatened that they would be barred from using hospital facilities and their children would be expelled from their schools. They were even told they would not be permitted to pick caterpillar fungus (yartsa gunbu)," added Tharpa.

Around 1000 Tibetans including an 83-year-old Tibetan senior sat on a 24-hour hunger strike outside the Chinese government's administrative compound to demand the release of the arrested Tibetans on September 28. The authorities released the 40 Tibetans after Deputy Party Secretary of TAR Wu Ying Jie and Nagchu County party secretary Dothog arrived later that day. Many of the Tibetans released had injury marks on their heads sustained from baton charge, the same source said.

The authorities have built 6 more check-posts around the area and a large military camp near Mowa village and a few smaller camps near Traring and Monchen villages.

The authorities are strictly monitoring all movements in and out of the area intercepting all communication lines; the source said adding that is therefore difficult to acquire the details about arrests and torture etc.

Some locals that the source knew compared the situation to that of the Cultural Revolution Days. "There are 7 to 10 soldiers in front of each household around the clock," he said.

Tibetans refuse to hoist Chinese flag, Driru tense as China cracks down on Tibetans - www.phayul.com

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China still iup sh'ts creek trying to make the Tibetans into Han!

 

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Re: Tibetans refuse to hoist Chinese flag, Driru tense as China cracks

This is what happens when Tibetan villages refuse to fly the Chinese flag

One of China's creepier policies in the Tibetan Autonomous Region is a 2011 initiative known as the "nine haves." Some of the nine are about development ("to have roads, to have water, to have electricity"), but one is less about helping Tibetans and more about entrenching Beijing's control in a region that doesn't seem to want it: "to have a national flag." Every house and monastery building would be required to fly the crimson, five-starred flag of China. (Monasteries are also required to display portraits of Chinese leaders.) It was to be a show of submission to Chinese rule and a continuation of Tibet's slow cultural dilution.

The rural Tibetan county of Driru, though, has defied the rule, with villagers refusing to fly the flag. On Sept. 27, Chinese authorities responded by sending in "thousands" of Chinese troops to force up the flags, according to Tibetan exile outlets and Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government-backed outlet that's among the few foreign media organizations regularly reporting on Tibet. Now, a week later, Chinese flags are still not flying.

Some Tibetans initially clashed with the troops when they arrived, precipitating a tight security clampdown. "Groups of seven paramilitary policemen have been stationed at each house and are watching the Tibetans," an unnamed Tibetan local told Radio Free Asia. "Villagers are not being allowed to tend to their animals, and any Tibetan found loitering in the town is being taken away."

Earlier in the week, hundreds of Tibetans reportedly gathered in the Driru county seat, a village called Mowa, to protest on behalf of the civilians who had been taken away by the Chinese troops. It's estimated that 40 locals have been taken.

The most significant moment may have been on Tuesday, Oct. 1. That was China's National Day, the equivalent of America's July 4, a major national holiday – and one in which the flag is particularly important. It seems likely that the troops had arrived to ensure that all Chinese flags would fly in Tibet by the National Day. They didn't – and photos of Driru, taken clandestinely by locals, make it appear as akin to a military occupation.

Tibetans in Driru have held a number of protests against Chinese rule. In August 2012, demonstrations against Chinese mining expansion there ended when a Chinese troops shot and killed one of the protesters. Locals held more anti-mining protests in May.

The nature of China's rule has changed dramatically over the past four decades, easing with remarkable speed from the indoctrination and totalitarianism of Mao Zedong's era to the market reforms and flexible civil rights of today. But these sorts of stories from Tibet – portraits of political leaders required to be displayed in monasteries, national flags forced up over the homes of villagers – are a reminder that some of the old habits still remain.

This is what happens when Tibetan villages refuse to fly the Chinese flag