Tibetan Protesters Injured in Crackdown; Self-Immolations Continu

BEIJING — At least five Tibetans have set fire to themselves in recent days to protest Chinese rule in Tibetan regions, while at least 5 Tibetan students were in critical condition and 15 others were being treated for injuries after security forces cracked down on a large protest in western China on Monday, according to reports by Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet, an advocacy group.

The protest took place in an area of Qinghai Province that the Chinese call Hainan Autonomous Prefecture, and that Tibetans call Tsolho. More than 1,000 Tibetans, mostly students and teachers, took to the streets to demand equal rights for ethnic minorities and the freedom to study and use the Tibetan language. Several reports said the protest began after local officials distributed a booklet that condemned Tibetans who had self-immolated and belittled the Tibetan language.

With the five recent self-immolations, at least 22 Tibetans have set fire to themselves this month alone, and 86 since 2009, according to Radio Free Asia. The first case was a monk from Kirti Monastery, which became the heart of the self-immolations last year and earlier this year, though the acts have since become more widespread and now constitute one of the largest such phenomena anywhere in the world in recent memory. The latest four cases were reported Sunday and Monday in the western China provinces of Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai, which all have significant Tibetan populations.

The students who protested Monday were from the Chabcha Sorig Lobling School, according to Free Tibet. They gathered at 5:40 a.m. and marched peacefully into the town of Chabcha. Chinese security forces began a violent crackdown at 9 a.m., the report said. “It’s still unclear what happened next, but many young students were so badly injured they were taken straight to hospital,” Free Tibet said. Security forces locked down the town, the group added. Radio Free Tibet reported that security forces fired tear gas and beat students with rifle butts, arresting four.

The events could not be independently confirmed; Chinese officials have barred foreign journalists from traveling to the sites of protests or self-immolations by Tibetans. Phone calls made on Tuesday to offices of the prefecture government and party committee went unanswered. A woman answering a call on the prefecture emergency hot line said she had not heard of any protests.

Radio Free Asia, which is financed by the United States government, said the school in Chabcha, known as Gonghe in Chinese, trained students in medicine. The offending booklet that inspired the protests was called “Ten Real Views of Tsolho Area,” and the medical students burned all the copies given to them and “called for equality among nationalities and freedom to study the Tibetan language,” according to a person who was quoted anonymously by Radio Free Asia.

Moves by officials in Qinghai to restrict the use of the Tibetan language, particularly in classrooms, have resulted in protests by students before. The northeast Tibetan region that Qinghai encompasses, generally called Amdo, is historically an area known for Tibetan scholarship and the production of cultural works. Even today, poets, writers and singers in Qinghai create works in the Tibetan language that are distributed widely across the Tibetan world.

Source Credit: The New York Times

Dalai Lama Wants Thorough Probe Into Tibet Deaths

ABC News.
Lashing back at criticism from Beijing, the Dalai Lama on Tuesday said China needs to thoroughly investigate the causes of self-immolations by Tibetans and blamed "narrow-minded Communist officials" for seeing Buddhist culture as a threat.

The Dalai Lama also called on foreign media and members of Japan's parliament to visit Tibet — though such trips are severely restricted — to see that what is happening there does not go ignored.
"I always ask the Chinese government, please, now, thoroughly investigate," the Tibetan Buddhist leader said. "What is the cause of these sad things?"
The Dalai Lama was speaking to a group of Japanese lawmakers that included opposition party head Shinzo Abe, an outspoken China hawk seen by many as the top contender to become the country's next prime minister.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing has lodged a protest with Japan following the Dalai Lama's visit.
"China is opposed to any country or any individual providing a stage for his separatist moves," Hong said.
Eight self-immolations have been reported over six days in China's Tibetan region, including two on Monday. China has long accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of inspiring and even glorifying such acts, though the Dalai Lama says he opposes all violence.
Hong had launched a new salvo at the Dalai Lama on Monday, claiming he was taking Japan's side in an ongoing territorial dispute and calling him a separatist who is aligning with Japanese right-wingers.
Chinese media said the Dalai Lama called the islands by their Japanese name during a news conference in Yokohama last Monday, but an Associated Press review of a tape of the event showed he referred to them only as "the islands."
Tibet support groups overseas say the increase in protests in recent days is meant to highlight Tibetan unhappiness with Chinese rule as the country's leaders hand over power to younger successors at a party congress in Beijing.
The Dalai Lama has said the self-immolations are a symptom of the desperation and frustration felt by Tibetans living under the Chinese government's hardline policies in the region, including tight restrictions on religious life.
The Dalai Lama fled to India following an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule over Tibet. He denies seeking the region's independence, saying that he wishes Tibetans to enjoy real autonomy and protection of their traditional Buddhist culture.
In his remarks Tuesday, he said China's top leaders may not realize the severity of that frustration because "narrow-minded Communist officials" on the ground fear Tibetan Buddhist culture and may not be relaying the real situation to Beijing.
"These officials on the spot may not reply clearly to the higher authority," he said, suggesting that foreign media and lawmakers should go to Tibet to see the situation there and share it with the outside world.
Access to Tibet is controlled by regional security services and is permanently off limits to foreign journalists, except when the government grants special access. Such access has become increasingly rare in recent years as Beijing seeks to maintain tight control over the story and prevent detailed reporting on unrest.
Since anti-government riots in 2008, access even to traditionally Tibetan areas in provinces neighboring the Tibetan Autonomous Region has been tightly restricted. The vast majority of the self-immolations have taken place in such areas, often near large monastic communities, and authorities have responded with a smothering police presence.
Source Credit: ABC News and AP