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| Tibetan school students joining protests at the Dolma Square in front of the Rongwo Monastery, where Kalsang Jinpa, 18, passed away in his self-immolation protest on November 8, 2012. |
China has ruled out allowing foreign observers into Tibetan areas amid continuing self-immolation protests, with officials on Friday blaming “exiled separatist forces” for the recent unrest.
On Friday, hundreds of Tibetan students protested in the
monastery town of Rebkong (Tongren in Chinese) in north-western Qinghai
province. This followed self-immolation protests by an 18-year-old Tibetan,
Kalsang Jinpa and a 23-year-old mother, Tamding Tso, in the town earlier this
week.
At least six Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past
week, with three teenage monks on Wednesday carrying out protests in the
Ngoshul Monastery in Aba, a county in south-western Sichuan that has witnessed
most of the at least 68 self-immolations seen in Tibetan areas. Overseas groups
said a Tibetan man had also carried out a protest in the Tibet Autonomous
Region (TAR) earlier this week.
The immolations have brought a tight security clampdown across
Tibetan areas, not only in the TAR but also in the provinces of Sichuan,
Qinghai and Gansu.
The monastery town of Rebkong, where two self-immolations were
reported this week before Friday’s protests by students, has been under heavy
security since March, when a monk and a farmer set themselves on fire.
Overseas groups said 5,000 students gathered in front of the
famous 14th century Rongwo monastery on Friday morning. Photographs showed
large crowds of Tibetans around the golden statue of Dolma, which sits on a
square located at the monastery’s entrance.
Monks in Rebkong told The Hindu in
interviews during a visit in April that the tight security presence had led to
tensions. Back then, a permanent SWAT van was stationed outside the monastery
near the square, with patrols of armed police walking through the town’s narrow
streets among monks and students.
Officials from the TAR government held a meeting in Beijing on
Friday along the sidelines of the Communist Party’s 18th National Congress,
which opened on Thursday. Officials from every province or region meet during
the congress to review the past decade and announce new policy measures.
TAR officials reiterated the government’s view that the protests
were being instigated by external separatist groups. “External Tibetan
separatist forces and the Dalai clique are sacrificing the lives of others to
achieve ulterior political motives,” Lobsang Gyaltsen, the TAR Deputy Governor,
was quoted as saying by Reuters. “We believe that this is contrary to
humanity’s common conscience and morality, they will never achieve their evil
purposes and will also suffer intense condemnation.”
Qiangba Puncog, the head of the TAR government’s People’s
Congress, added that the protests were “concentrated around six to seven
monasteries out of more than 10,000 in the region”.
He ruled out allowing foreign observers into Tibetan areas, as
suggested recently by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Navi Pillay.
Editor's NOTE-- Ananth Krishnan is Beijing based correspondent for the Indian Newspaper- The Hindu, and the above article is originally published on The Hindu. The paper has been highly pro China for last many years, however in recent times with the change of Editor, the paper is being more or less unbiased and remaining to the ethics of journalism.
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