Police in Tibet arrested 16 Buddhist monks and accused them of involvement in bombings on April 5, 8 and 15 in villages near Qamdo. All three bombings involved homemade explosives and caused only property damage, authorities said. (NYT [2], June 6) While the claims were picked up by the NY Times, ongoing harsh repression in Tibet is noted only by the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). On May 30, Chinese security forces arrested twelve monks of Dingri Shelkar Choedhe Monastery during a night raid for resisting the "patriotic re-education" campaign—meaning they had refused to denounce the Dalai Lama. (TCHRD [3], May 31)
Several Tibetan nuns have been arrested in recent weeks in Kardze county, Sichuan province. Three from Dragkar Nunnery were arrested for holding a peaceful protest outside the Kardze County Public Security Bureau May 28. After their arrests, a 21-year-old female student, Rigden Lhamo, staged a lone protest outside the Security Bureau, and was also arrested. There were reports that security forces opened fired on her, although it could not be confirmed that she was wounded. (TCHRD [4], May 29) At a similar protest in Kardze May 23, two nuns were reportedly severely beaten by police before they were taken into custody. (TCHRD [5], May 26)
The New York Times did note that Indian police arrested 265 Tibetan exiles marching to their homeland June 4 and will send them back to the northern Indian town where they began their protest nearly three months ago. Fifty other Tibetans are still camping at Berinag, Uttrakhand state, and plan to make another attempt to cross over to Tibet next week, said Pema Dorjee, a march coordinator from the Tibetan People's Uprising Movement. They hope to arrive in their homeland to coincide with the start of the Beijing Olympics. (AP [6], June 5)
There were also 250 arrests in Nepal [7]'s capital Kathmandu, where Tibetan exiles held a protest in front of a Chinese embassy building. Protesters, included monks and nuns, waved flags of the Tibetan government in exile and shouted "Liar China," "Free Tibet" and "Stop the killing in Tibet." After briefly tussling with police, the protesters were hustled into waiting vans. (Australian Broadcasting Corp. [8], June 6)
See our last posts on Tibet [9].
