Scores of Tibetans led by monks from Drepung and Sera Monastery were known to have been arrested for staging peaceful pro-Tibet protests in the Tibetan Capital, Lhasa, yesterday coinciding with the 49th anniversary of the 1959 People’s Uprising against Chinese occupation of Tibet, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
According to sources within Tibet, about three hundred monks from Drepung Monastery, located on the outskirts of the capital, attempted to start a planned peaceful protest march yesterday towards Barkhor Street, Lhasa. However, they were obstructed from proceeding with their peaceful march by a large number of Chinese armed police before reaching Lhasa. Few monks from the group suspected to be the ringleaders were believed to be arrested by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials.
In a similar incident yesterday, a group of around ten people including both monks and lay people led a peaceful pro-Tibet march from Tsuklakhang Temple by raising pro-independence slogans, distributing pamphlets and raising banned Tibetan national flags at the Barkhor Street in Lhasa. They were arrested immediately by the stationed Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials following a brief protest march on Barkhor Street – one of the busiest market areas around the city. The arrested Tibetans were reportedly beaten severely and manhandled by the PSB officials. Moreover, the shops and vendors around Barkhor Street were ordered to close and pack away. The identities of those arrested were not able to be ascertained at the moment but according to a sources within Tibet, the detained monks were said to be visiting student monks of Drepung and Sera Monasteries, mainly from the Amdo region of Tibet. Additional contingents of armed forces were deployed to the area to issue an explicit warning to people against undertaking further protest as well as to control and monitor the activities of the people. The Centre will continue to monitor the situation inside Tibet and will report more updates as and when information surface.
In yet another incident yesterday, a protest was also reported from the traditional Tibetan area of Amdo in Mangra County, Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) ‘Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture’ (“TAP”) Qinghai Province. About 137 monks from Lhutsang Monastery in Mangra County, Tsolho “TAP” and 215 laypersons from the area were barred by the Mangra County People’s Armed Police (PAP) forces when they converged outside the County Assembly Hall where a government sponsored show was going on. Sensing a protest by the Tibetans, the show was forced to discontinue. Later monks and laypeople started shouting slogans “Long live Dalai Lama” and “The Dalai Lama should return to Tibet”. At the moment there is no report of people having been arrested from the area, although, the concerned authorities are known to be investigating those involved in the protest.
The Chairman of the government of “Tibet Autonomous Region” (“TAR”), Jampa Phuntsog, on the sidelines of 11th National People’s Congress confirmed the incidences to have taken place in a report released by the Associated Press.
The Chinese authorities have already tightened their grip on the activities of the Tibetan people inside Tibet preceding the Beijing Olympics. Earlier the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Social Security in order to intensify efforts to preserve social order ahead of the Beijing Olympics, issued orders to eliminate conflicts, chaos, and other activities concerning social order between March and September. The mouthpiece of China’s ruling Communist Party, the People’s Daily, reported, “We should make concerted efforts to properly resolve outstanding problems affecting social harmony and stability.”
The Centre deems the case as an outright clamp down on the freedom of opinion and expression and assembly in Tibet in the name of maintaining stability and social order.
Freedom of Expression is a fundamental human right which is a prerequisite to the enjoyment of all human rights. Article 35 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) guarantees “freedom of expression, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration.” Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims: ‘Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers’.
TCHRD is gravely concerned about the fate of those Tibetans who were detained yesterday and would like to seek immediate intervention by governments and the international community. Since their activities constitute nothing more than a peaceful expression of their opinion, thought and exercise of their basic human rights, TCHRD calls upon the Chinese authorities to release them unconditionally