Beijing, China - Chinese police have detained nearly 100 people, mostly monks, after an angry crowd besieged a police station to protest the disappearance of a fellow lama, making the first major outburst of Tibetan unrest since last year.
Many of those outside the police station wept and shouted slogans. Monks and local Tibetan residents surrounded the station for hours, some sitting cross-legged on the ground, crying out: “Love live the Dalai Lama.”
The new eruption of anger demonstrates how volatile the situation remains in Tibetan-populated areas of China since peaceful demonstrations by monks last March triggered a violent riot in the Himalayan capital, Lhasa. On March 14 last year, Tibetans rampaged through the streets demanding the return of the Dalai Lama and independence for the region. They set fire to office and shops and left 22 people dead, most of them ethnic Han Chinese.
Thousands of troops and paramilitary have been deployed across Tibetan areas and all foreigners banned as China has tried to prevent a renewed outbreak of last year’s protests that spread swiftly from Lhasa to dozens of Tibetan monasteries and communities.
This latest protest began when monks furious at the detention and disappearance of one of their number poured out of the 18th century Ragya monastery that overlooks the Yellow River and surrounded the police station on Saturday, state media said. The official Xinhua news agency put the number of protesters at several hundred.
It said they assaulted police and government staff, leaving several people slightly hurt. The authorities finally persuaded the last 30 protesters to disperse in the early hours of Sunday.
The report said the crowd had been deceived by rumours concerning Tashi Sangwu, who had been detained on suspicion of advocating Tibet independence. There were conflicting reports about what had happened to him.
Police and witnesses told Chinese media that he fled after asking to use the bathroom. He was seen swimming in the Yellow River, apparently to try to escape.
A report on the phayul.com website managed by exiled Tibetans said the monk jumped into the Yellow River to commit suicide after escaping the police. Tibetan exiles said the 28-year-old monk was being questioned after he unfurled a banned Tibetan flag on the roof of the monastery on March 10 – the 50th anniversary of an abortive uprising in Lhasa against Chinese rule that forced the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India. He also distributed pamphlets in the street, urging unified protest against Beijing.
Six people had been detained and another 89 had turned themselves in to the authorities after the protest outside the police station, Chinese media said. All but two were monks from the Ragya monastery and they were undergoing interrogation.
Tibetan sources in the region told The Times that hundreds of people, including local herdsmen as well as lamas, staged a sit-in outside the police station. They shouted slogans demanding Tibetan independence and many wept, saying police had forced the missing monk to take his own life in the nearby fast-flowing river.
One source said: “Now the whole town in filled with armed police. They are patrolling the streets and there is no way to find out what is going on now. It is cut off.”
The security clampdown has so far prevented major demonstrations, although small pockets of protests have been reported by Tibetan rights groups. Details were hard to come by since communications are poor in those areas with mobile phone services and some Internet links suspended. Most residents are afraid to talk for fear of official retribution.