ICT: Authorities acknowledge 4,000 detentions: thousands ‘disappear’ in ongoing Lhasa crackdown; Unrest at Drepung follows new patriotic education campaign
Filed Under Tibet, Human Rights, China | Posted on April 15, 2008
International Campaign for Tibet
April 14th, 2008
Raids on people’s houses and ‘disappearances’ are continuing every day during the ongoing crackdown in Lhasa, and there are new fears for monks at Drepung monastery after more troops were deployed following unrest there over the past few days.
Details of the incident at Drepung are unclear, although it is known that the unrest followed the arrival of a ‘patriotic education’ team at the monastery last week. There are also serious concerns of a humanitarian crisis in Lhasa’s monasteries, as food and water supplies are running low and monks prevented from leaving.
Mary Beth Markey, Vice President for Advocacy at the International Campaign for Tibet, said today: “Chinese authorities claim they are conducting political campaigns against the influence of the Dalai Lama to ‘restore order’ in Tibet, while Tibetans are risking their lives to call for the Dalai Lama’s return. This wrong-headed approach by the Chinese state creates more resentment and risks provoking further dissent and an increase in brutality from force now surrounding many monasteries in Tibet.”
Since March 10 when Tibetan protests began in Lhasa, one or more instances of protest have been reported in each of at least 52 county-level locations in Tibetan areas of China, as well as in Chengdu (the capital of Sichuan), Lanzhou (the capital of Gansu), and Beijing, according to a report today by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (www.cecc.gov).
China’s state-run media has acknowledged the surrender or detention of nearly 4,000 “rioters” in Lhasa and in Gannan (Kanlho) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Gansu province (Xinhua, April 9). The disclosure raises by more than 2,000 the previous total of officially acknowledged surrenders and detentions in Lhasa and Gannan. Authorities have released more than half of the nearly 4,000 persons and formally arrested more than 400 persons on undisclosed criminal charges. (www.cecc.gov).
Disappearances and intimidation in Lhasa described as ‘Second Cultural Revolution’.
Read the complete release, with photographs here.
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