China increases security in Tibet as anniversary nears
Posted by John Malloy on 03/09/2009
BEIJING: Security forces in central Tibet have increased patrols and border vigilance in advance of a sensitive anniversary to guard against possible disruptions caused by followers of the Dalai Lama or by Western groups advocating Tibetan independence, according to state news agency reports Monday. Meanwhile, a police car and a fire engine were attacked with homemade explosives in a Tibetan area on Monday, but no one was wounded.
The announcement of the increased patrols came one day before the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule. After the 1959 revolt was suppressed, the Dalai Lama fled into exile in India.
Last March, the police clamped down on a protest by Buddhist monks in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, prompting many Tibetans to riot in the streets. The uprising quickly spread to other Tibetan areas of China, becoming the largest-scale Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule in decades.
The Chinese government fears the same thing could happen again this year, and it has been flooding Tibetan regions across western China with troops and police officers, creating an unofficial state of martial law. Foreigners have been barred from many areas.
In the conflict last year, at least 19 people were killed in the riots in Lhasa, most of them Han Chinese civilians, according to the Chinese government. In the ensuing crackdown, 220 Tibetans were killed, nearly 1,300 were wounded and nearly 7,000 were detained or imprisoned, according to the Tibetan government in exile, which is based in Dharamsala, India. More than 1,000 Tibetans are still missing.
Early Monday, a police car and a fire engine parked in a timber farm in a Tibetan area of Qinghai Province were attacked with homemade explosives, Xinhua the state news agency reported. No one was wounded.
The attack took place at 2:15 a.m., and the emergency lights and roofs of the vehicles were destroyed, Xinhua reported. The attack occurred after the forest police stopped a local timber truck Sunday at a checkpoint to inspect cargo and licenses, Xinhua said. That led to an argument between the people in the truck and the police, which then resulted in a protest by dozens of local residents at the police station.
Simmering resentment at Chinese rule has manifested itself in various ways in recent weeks. In late February, many of China’s six million Tibetans chose not to celebrate Losar, the Tibetan New Year, to mourn those who suffered during the unrest last year. Monks and nuns have held protests in Tibetan areas of Gansu and Sichuan Provinces. One monk in northern Sichuan set himself on fire in a marketplace…
www.iht.com
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