.Death reports as Chinese police open fire on monks and nuns
Hundreds of monks, nuns and local Tibetans who tried to march on a local government office in western China to demand the return of the Dalai Lama have been turned back by paramilitary police who opened fire to disperse the crowd.
Local residents of Luhuo said two people – a monk and a farmer – appeared to have been shot dead and about a dozen were wounded in the latest violence to rock Tibetan areas of China.
The demonstration began at about 4pm local time when about 200 nuns from Woge nunnery and a similar number of monks from Jueri monastery marched out of their hillside sanctuaries and walked towards the Luhuo Third District government office in the nearby town. They were swiftly joined by an estimated several hundred farmers and nomads, witnesses said.
Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “Tibet belongs to Tibetans”, they approached the district government office. However, paramilitary People’s Armed Police swiftly appeared and ordered the crowd to turn back. Town residents reported that, in the ensuing melee, shots were fired and two people appeared to have died.
They identified one of those believed to have been killed as a farmer, Congun Dengzhu, and the second as a monk whose name was not known. About a dozen people were reported to have been wounded. Several people who answered the phone in Luhuo late yesterday said there had been two casualties in the town but refused to speak further.
Security was already tight in Luhuo county, as in other Tibetan communities in China. The turmoil erupted with a riot in Lhasa on March 15 in which Chinese officials say 19 people were killed when angry Tibetans rampaged through the Tibetan capital, stabbing and hacking at ethnic Han Chinese and setting fire to Chinese shops and offices.
The latest demonstration, in a remote corner of a province that abuts Tibet and has a mainly Tibetan population, came as the authorities in Lhasa issued their Number Eight list of those most wanted in connection with the violence.
The new list, issued by the Tibetan Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau rather than by Lhasa city authorities, of eight people brought to a total of 53 the number of those now being sought. State-run television has been running grainy photographs of those who are wanted, taken from video grabs and stills shot during the riot on March 15.
The man whose picture appeared as Number 52 on the list has appeared in one of the most famous images from that day of violence in which a group of Tibetans can be seen setting light to a Chinese flag while a young man in Tibetan dress and carrying a machete-type knife stands in the background.
China says it has acted with the utmost restraint in response to the unrest. It said paramilitary had opened fire on protesters in Aba, a nearby district of Sichuan province, last week, wounding four people. Tibetans say several people were killed in the shooting.
A police spokeswoman said five people had been detained in Lhasa in relation to arson during the riot. She said three Tibetan women in their twenties faced arson charges and had confessed. An investigation was still under way in the other two cases. Officials said last week 24 people had been arrested and more than 150 had given themselves up.
The Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in India said today that the death toll in the clashes had risen to 130, but they gave no breakdown or details of the casualties. Foreign journalists have been barred from approaching any Tibetan areas where unrest has been reported, and the numbers are extremely difficult to verify.
Security is tight across Tibetan areas of China. Civil servants in many districts have been ordered to report to their offices every day – including Saturdays and Sundays – and to take part in “patriotic education”.
Timesonline
Local residents of Luhuo said two people – a monk and a farmer – appeared to have been shot dead and about a dozen were wounded in the latest violence to rock Tibetan areas of China.
The demonstration began at about 4pm local time when about 200 nuns from Woge nunnery and a similar number of monks from Jueri monastery marched out of their hillside sanctuaries and walked towards the Luhuo Third District government office in the nearby town. They were swiftly joined by an estimated several hundred farmers and nomads, witnesses said.
Shouting “Long Live the Dalai Lama” and “Tibet belongs to Tibetans”, they approached the district government office. However, paramilitary People’s Armed Police swiftly appeared and ordered the crowd to turn back. Town residents reported that, in the ensuing melee, shots were fired and two people appeared to have died.
They identified one of those believed to have been killed as a farmer, Congun Dengzhu, and the second as a monk whose name was not known. About a dozen people were reported to have been wounded. Several people who answered the phone in Luhuo late yesterday said there had been two casualties in the town but refused to speak further.
Security was already tight in Luhuo county, as in other Tibetan communities in China. The turmoil erupted with a riot in Lhasa on March 15 in which Chinese officials say 19 people were killed when angry Tibetans rampaged through the Tibetan capital, stabbing and hacking at ethnic Han Chinese and setting fire to Chinese shops and offices.
The latest demonstration, in a remote corner of a province that abuts Tibet and has a mainly Tibetan population, came as the authorities in Lhasa issued their Number Eight list of those most wanted in connection with the violence.
The new list, issued by the Tibetan Autonomous Region Public Security Bureau rather than by Lhasa city authorities, of eight people brought to a total of 53 the number of those now being sought. State-run television has been running grainy photographs of those who are wanted, taken from video grabs and stills shot during the riot on March 15.
The man whose picture appeared as Number 52 on the list has appeared in one of the most famous images from that day of violence in which a group of Tibetans can be seen setting light to a Chinese flag while a young man in Tibetan dress and carrying a machete-type knife stands in the background.
China says it has acted with the utmost restraint in response to the unrest. It said paramilitary had opened fire on protesters in Aba, a nearby district of Sichuan province, last week, wounding four people. Tibetans say several people were killed in the shooting.
A police spokeswoman said five people had been detained in Lhasa in relation to arson during the riot. She said three Tibetan women in their twenties faced arson charges and had confessed. An investigation was still under way in the other two cases. Officials said last week 24 people had been arrested and more than 150 had given themselves up.
The Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile in India said today that the death toll in the clashes had risen to 130, but they gave no breakdown or details of the casualties. Foreign journalists have been barred from approaching any Tibetan areas where unrest has been reported, and the numbers are extremely difficult to verify.
Security is tight across Tibetan areas of China. Civil servants in many districts have been ordered to report to their offices every day – including Saturdays and Sundays – and to take part in “patriotic education”.
Timesonline
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