Recent Important News from Tibet

Over the last couple weeks, two very significant stories were reported by Radio Free Asia that somehow fell through the cracks – at least as far as being reported here on the SFT blog. On April 23rd, it was reported that Chinese authorities in Tibet are planning a massive Chinese-only “patriotic rally” in the courtyard in front of Lhasa’s Potala Palace – historic home of the Dalai Lamas – to welcome the Olympic torch to the Tibetan capital. A few days later on April 27th, RFA reported on a stunningly courageous protest by two young Tibetan nuns in Kardze, Kham region of Eastern Tibet (China’s Sichuan province). RFA’s report on the protest includes news about the “oppressive police presence” in Tibet. First, the protest:

Tibetan Nuns’ Courageous Protest

The nuns, identified as Bumo Lhaga, 32, and Sonam Dekyi, 30, (pictured, above) belong to the Drakar nunnery in Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi]. On April 23, around 1 p.m., they handed out leaflets in Kardze town center calling for the return of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, the sources told RFA’s Tibetan service.

A source told RFA:

“They began by distributing handwritten flyers calling for the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet and saying that Tibet is independent. Chinese security officers saw the flyers and began to collect them, demanding to know who had distributed them.”

“The nuns were observed on a street-corner shouting slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama and for freedom for Tibetans. They were quickly detained and taken away in a police vehicle. Even while being taken away, they continued to shout.”

Sonam Dekyi’s mother, contacted by phone on April 26, said:

“My daughter, Sonam Dekyi, fulfilled her purpose in life. She made her own decision to protest, knowing fully the risk and danger that she would face. I am not worried at all. If she doesn’t survive Chinese torture, I have no regrets…As His Holiness wished, she protested peacefully and didn’t resort to any kind of violence.”

Another source who witnessed the protest said the two nuns “were fully prepared for the eventualities that would follow. They were dressed warmly and bundled themselves to face both beating and cold during detention. There were armed Chinese police everywhere but they couldn’t see them protesting for quite some time, and then later when they came for the second round, the police saw flyers. When police asked who had distributed the flyers, they showed themselves and shouted slogans in the presence of police.”

A Kardze resident, contacted by phone, said anyone planning to visit the area had “better wait until next year… Troops are everywhere.”

In Lhasa, as in other Tibetan areas, residents report tight security and an oppressive police presence.

A Lhasa resident told RFA:

“We are in hell now. When we go out to shop for groceries, we have to have two IDs: a residence permit and an ID issued by the Lhasa municipal government. We have been told not to leave [Lhasa] or to move around until the end of May. We are being forced to criticize the Dalai Lama.”

“Many of us who rent shops or homes have been warned that if we have links to separatists, or if protesters are found on our properties, the property owners will be detained and punished. So it is hell here in Tibet.”

Chinese authorities have made numerous arrests and launched a “patriotic education” campaign aimed at Tibetans in the wake of rioting that began in Lhasa in mid-March but spread to other Tibetan areas as well.

Olympic Rally at Potala; No Tibetans Welcome

RFA’s Cantonese service reports:
Authorities in Tibet are planning a mass rally of Han Chinese government supporters to support the arrival of the Olympic torch in Tibet’s iconic Potala Palace, former home of the exiled Dalai Lama.

“The activity will take place in the main courtyard of the Potala Palace, and we are expecting tens of thousands of people to show up,” a travel agency employee surnamed Chen told RFA.

“There are thousands of people in our industry,” Chen said. “At least 20,000 people will be there. Han Chinese tourists can join in, but Tibetans are not welcome.”

Sources in the tourist industry in Tibet said the activity was aimed at preventing a repeat of the Tibetan pro-independence protests seen in London, Paris and San Francisco.

China’s Olympic torch relay has been disrupted by protests in major cities, largely over Chinese rule in Tibet, where a wave of anti-government riots and protests erupted in March, triggering an armed crackdown.

“The Olympic torch is coming to Lhasa, so we want to do this to protect the flame. It’ll be similar to pro-Chinese demonstrations you have already seen overseas,” Chen said. “We will get together and wave the national flag, the red flag, and so on. We have already applied to do this and the Party Youth League has approved it,” he added.

Meanwhile, authorities elsewhere in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) were stepping up patriotic re-education campaigns in the wake of riots and anti-Chinese protests in Tibet which sparked an armed crackdown in mid-March.

An official in the Songren county government said all officials had been ordered to attend patriotic education classes several times a week until after the Olympic Games, hosted this year in Beijing, were over.