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Monk Protests in Tibet Draw Chinese Security
By Jim Yardley
The New York Times
Friday 14 March 2008
Beijing - Chinese security forces were reportedly surrounding three monasteries
outside Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, on Thursday after hundreds of monks took
to the streets this week in what are believed to be the largest Tibetan protests
against Chinese rule in two decades.
The turmoil in Lhasa occurred at a politically delicate time for China, which
is facing increasing criticism over its human rights record as it prepares to
play host to the Olympic Games in August and is seeking to appear harmonious
to the outside world.
Beijing has kept a tight lid on dissent before the Games. But people with grievances
against the governing Communist Party have tried to promote their causes when
top officials may be wary of cracking down by using force.
Qin Gang, a spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, confirmed Thursday that
protests had erupted in Lhasa, but declined to provide details. He described
the situation as stable.
"In the past couple of days, a few monks in Lhasa have made some disturbances
in an effort to cause unrest," Mr. Qin said Thursday at a news conference.
"Thanks to the efforts of the local government and the democratic administration
of the temples, the situation in Lhasa has been stabilized."
Tibet was taken militarily by China in 1951 and has remained contentious, particularly
because of the bitter relations between the Communist Party and the Dalai Lama,
the exiled spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism. Sporadic talks between China
and the Dalai Lama's representatives have produced no results, and Beijing continues
to condemn him as a "splitist" determined to sever the region's ties
to China. The Dalai Lama has said that he accepts Chinese rule but that Tibetans
need greater autonomy to practice their religion.
China plans to have the Olympic torch carried into Tibet over Mount Everest
- a route that has brought protests from many Tibet advocacy groups. Fearing
more demonstrations, officials said they would prohibit climbing on the north
face of Everest until after the torch ceremony.
The defiance reported this week in Lhasa is highly unusual. Security is heavy
there, and the penalty for protesting is harsh. News of the protests has been
censored in the Chinese news media, and Beijing does not allow foreign journalists
to travel to Lhasa without permission. But accounts from Tibetan advocacy groups,
from the United States-funded Radio Free Asia and from tourists' postings on
the Internet suggest that protests emerged from three of the most famous monasteries
in Tibetan Buddhism.
Robert Barnett, a Tibet specialist at Columbia University who has communicated
with Tibetan exiles, said the initial incident occurred Monday when about 400
monks left Drepung Loseling Monastery intending to march five miles west to
the city center. Police officers stopped the march at the halfway point and
arrested 50 or 60 monks.
But Mr. Barnett said the remaining monks held the equivalent of a sit-down
strike and were joined by an additional 100 monks from Drepung.
"They were demanding specific changes on religious restrictions in the
monastery," Mr. Barnett said. He said monks want the authorities to ease
rules on "patriotic education" in which monks are required to study
government propaganda and write denunciations of the Dalai Lama.
On Tuesday morning, the Drepung monks apparently agreed to return to the monastery.
But another protest was under way in the heart of the city, outside the Jokhang
Temple, the most sacred temple in Tibet. About a dozen monks from the Sera Monastery
staged a pro-independence demonstration, waving a Tibetan flag. Police officers
arrested the monks. Foreign tourists posted video on the Internet of officers
shooing onlookers away.
The arrests sparked another protest on Tuesday. Witnesses told Radio Free Asia,
the news agency funded by the United States, that 500 or 600 monks poured out
of the Sera Monastery, about two miles north of the Jokhang Temple. They shouted
slogans and demanded the release of their fellow monks.
"Free our people, or we won't go back!" the monks chanted, Radio
Free Asia reported. "We want an independent Tibet!"
Witnesses said the police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.
A protest was reported on Wednesday at the Ganden Monastery, about 35 miles
east of Lhasa.
The protests were timed to observe the 49th anniversary of the failed 1959
Tibet uprising that forced the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India. Mr. Barnett
said the protests were the largest in Lhasa since 1987 and 1988, when protests
by monks from the Drepung and Sera Monasteries led to a bloody clash with Chinese
security forces.
Mr. Barnett said he doubted that the protests were coordinated, though he said
the small group of Sera monks arrested Monday must have anticipated a confrontation.
Their photographs have already been forwarded to Tibetan exiles in India and
posted on the Internet by groups that support independence for Tibet.
He said that Chinese troops seemed to be more restrained than in the past,
even as the protesters took the bold step of waving the Tibetan flag.
The Olympics also have emboldened protesters outside China. Tibetan exiles
in northern India who vowed this week to spend six months marching to Lhasa
to protest China's control of their homeland were arrested Thursday. They then
began a hunger strike that they said would continue until they were released.
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Heather Timmons contributed reporting from New Delhi.
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Shops on Fire Amid Tibet Protests
BBC News
Friday 14 March 2008
Fires have broken out in the Tibetan city of Lhasa, Chinese state media reports
say, as rare street protests in the province appear to gather pace.
Xinhua news agency said witnesses described shops being set on fire.
Rallies by monks have continued through the week, in what campaign groups say
are the largest protests against Beijing's rule in 20 years.
An eyewitness told the BBC how security forces and monks clashed on Wednesday,
with several monks being beaten.
John, a US national who left Lhasa on Thursday, said that about 300 monks had
tried to leave the Sera monastery to protest.
But security forces brandishing clubs stopped them and at least one monk was
beaten to the ground, he said.
Meanwhile, the police were reported to have sealed off three monasteries in
the city.
Witnesses said police were at Drepung and Sera monasteries on Thursday, and
the US-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said a third monastery,
Ganden, was also surrounded.
"It seems that lay people have now become involved in the protests,"
ICT spokeswoman Kate Saunders said.
She added that her group had received reports that the Tromsikhang market in
Barkor Street - a busy commercial neighbourhood - was either on fire or had
burnt down.
And at least one police car had been set on fire in the city on Friday, she
said.
US embassy officials in Beijing told the Associated Press that US citizens
had reported gunfire and rioting in Lhasa.
The protests began earlier this week, when a number of monks were reportedly
arrested after a march marking the 49th anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against
Chinese rule.
Hundreds of monks took to the streets to demand their release - and reports
say tear gas was used to disperse them.
Correspondents say there is growing evidence that protests against Chinese
rule are intensifying, despite assurances by Beijing on Thursday that the situation
was under control.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Tibet, but many Tibetans remain loyal to their
spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled in 1959 and currently lives in exile
in India.
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