Tense Situation in Tibet After Crackdown on Mine Protests

20th August 2013

Emerg­ing reports from Tibet say over hun­dred Tibetans were injured and one man com­mit­ted sui­cide in Yul­shul Coun­ty, Kham region of east­ern Tibet, after a mas­sive crack­down car­ried out by armed Chi­nese mil­i­tary forces to dis­perse Tibetans peace­ful­ly protest­ing against dia­mond min­ing in the region.

“The pro­tes­tors were severe­ly beat­en by Chi­nese secu­ri­ty forces with gun butts and hurl­ing tear gas to dis­perse the peace­ful protest­ing against dia­mond min­ing in Yul­shul Coun­ty in east­ern Tibet. The sit­u­a­tion remains tense in the coun­ty, as there is a grow­ing anger over the severe crack­down,” sources said.

“Local Tibetans are con­cerned that the min­ing activ­i­ties are not sanc­tioned by the Cen­tral gov­ern­ment offi­cials and that they could trig­ger envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems, includ­ing pol­lu­tion. Pro­test­ers raised their hands and shout­ed slo­gans such as “stop the destruc­tion of the envi­ron­ment”, while putting up large ban­ners dis­play­ing Pres­i­dent Xi Jin­ping and his recent envi­ron­ment speech,” Ven Kon­chok told The Tibet Post Inter­na­tion­al (TPI), cit­ing sources in the region.

“Over hun­dred Tibetans were wound­ed in the Chi­nese crack­down, while at least eight Tibetans were arrest­ed and 15 oth­ers tak­en to a hos­pi­tal. The total num­bers of injured and arrest­ed still can­not be con­firmed, this hos­pi­tal alone treat­ing 15 pro­test­ers,” said Kon­chok Dhondup, Tibetan monk cur­rent­ly liv­ing in Dharamsha­la, cit­ing local con­tacts.

“Over 1,000 Tibetans gath­ered to protest against the min­ing activ­i­ties in each of the three sacred Bud­dhist sites in Yul­shul Coun­ty. The mas­sive crack­down fol­lowed a tense con­fronta­tion between local Tibetan pro­tes­tors and Chi­nese min­er work­ers at three sacred Bud­dhist sites hav­ing dia­mond reserves in Dza­toe in Yul­shul Coun­ty (Chi­nese: Yushu Pre­fec­ture in Qing­hai Province) since August 13.

“A Tibetan man iden­ti­fied as Sokpo Choedup was seri­ous­ly injured after what appears to be a self-inflict­ed knife wounds and was tak­en away by Chi­nese police,” Ven Kon­chok said.

“Hun­dreds of armed mil­i­tary forces imme­di­ate­ly arrived at the holy sites,” said Kon­chok. “Over 500 armed police stormed holy sites in Atod Yult­so and Zachen Yult­so and fired tear­gas to dis­perse the pro­tes­tors. The pro­tes­tors were tor­tured, severe­ly beat­en with gun butts, threat­ened with being shot if they don’t end their protests,” he added.

“The local Tibetans how­ev­er com­plained that the min­ing work­ers increase envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion in the coun­ty, that against China’s envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion law and are car­ried out by the work­ers in coor­di­na­tion with cor­rupt state and local offi­cials, with­out sanc­tions from the cen­tral gov­ern­ment,” he fur­ther added.

Kon­chok stat­ed that the Chi­nese secu­ri­ty forces have planned a major crack­down on those sit­ting in protest at Chi-dza holy site on August 17.

“China’s large-scale exploita­tion of min­er­al resources in Tibet has led to sus­tained socio-eco­nom­ic and envi­ron­men­tal prob­lems. Mas­sive influx of Chi­nese migrant work­ers into Tibetan areas deprives Tibetans of employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties,” said the Cen­tral Tibetan Admin­is­tra­tion (CTA) baed in Dharam­sala-India after the inci­dent.

The CTA said it has “repeat­ed­ly called on Chi­na to ensure active par­tic­i­pa­tion of Tibetan peo­ple in all deci­sion mak­ing process and that social, envi­ron­men­tal and cul­tur­al impacts assess­ment are car­ried out.”