#24.1

Two videos from RFA Unplugged (via the RFA Mandarin service):

This report was filed for RFA’s Mandarin service, at considerable risk to the reporter, Wei Si:

It’s a journey of about 400 kilometres along highway from Kangding to Ganzi, in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan. The road is liberally dotted with Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and temples.
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This is a continuation of an RFA Mandarin service report from Wei Si:

The monks in the lamasery in Daofu county, Sichuan province, also tell us that a group of reporters arrived a few days ago, but were turned away by Chinese security forces who were guarding the gates. Such incidents have become commonplace since the Tibetan anti-Chinese protests which began on March the 14th in Lhasa, they say.
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#19.1

Further protests in Sichuan ^RFA :

A Tibetan witness in Daofu (Dawu), in Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi), told RFA’s Tibetan service on April 5 that a protest was under way, with 15 people injured, five people of them seriously. The five who were gravely wounded were all initially taken into custody, the witness said.

“The monks called the head of Daofu county and warned that if those detained weren’t released, all the monks would continue protesting even if it meant they would be killed. So the county chief released those who were injured and detained. There were about 15 Tibetans who were injured and five are in serious condition,” the witness said.

“Please tell the world what we are doing here and that the Chinese are waging a violent crackdown,” the witness said. The call was lost, and the line was dead when a reporter tried to ring back.

An official at the Daofu Public Security Bureau confirmed that a protest had occurred but added: “Now everything is quiet and under control.” Tibetan exiles reported similar information after speaking with relatives in the Daofu area.

One source, based in India, said monks from the Mintso monastery planned a special ceremony to mourn those killed in earlier protests, despite a warning that Chinese police had orders to shoot on sight anyone seen protesting.

“Local people joined them, and the crowd grew to about 1,000,” the source said.

“They marched peacefully through the side road, but when they reached a cross-section, several hundred armed police stood there and blocked them. They then allowed the monks to pass and stopped ordinary Tibetans from going any further.”

“At that point, the Tibetans who were simply reciting prayers and marching peacefully were agitated and started raising slogans. They shouted ‘Long live the Dalai Lama’ and slogans [against the] deprivation of freedom for Tibetans inside Tibet. So the… police started firing at the Tibetan crowd and injured about five Tibetans seriously,” the source said,

The monks demanded that the injured Tibetans be returned to them, and the police handed them back, the source in India said. “They were taken to the local hospital but the hospital denied them treatment.”

Another Tibetan exile, in Switzerland, said he too had spoken to witnesses before the phone lines went dead, and they had reported 14 people injured, four of them seriously.

“Ten of the Tibetans are in stable condition,” he said. “The four in serious condition are on the way to China for medical treatment in a vehicle owned by Mintso monastery.”

#18.1

Chinese Police Fire on Tibetan Protesters, Death Toll Unknown ^RFA :

Paramilitary police in China’s southwestern Sichuan province fired on a crowd of Tibetan protesters demanding the release of two detained monks, killing and wounding an unknown number of people, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports.

At about 8 p.m. April 3, paramilitary People’s Armed Police fired on a crowd of several hundred monks from the Tongkor monastery in Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) and several hundred residents, witnesses told RFA’s Tibetan service.

The witnesses, who declined to be identified, said they believed 15 people were killed and dozens injured, with scores more unaccounted for as of April 4.

A source told RFA’s Cantonese service: “One monk has been killed, and seven Tibetans. Yesterday morning the police came to some Tibetan houses and asked them not to mourn those Tibetans who died in earlier clashes, and not to post the Dalai Lama’s pictures. Then they had a clash with the police. Many people have been beaten up and arrested.”

The unrest around Tongkor monastery—unaffected by recent unrest in Tibetan areas until this week—began after Chinese authorities tried to launch a “patriotic education” campaign there aimed at quashing support for Tibetan demonstrations elsewhere.

But when they tried to enlist the head lama, Lobsang Jamyang, on April 2, he refused, an authoritative source said. He is said to have told the authorities: “We cannot criticize the Dalai Lama, but I will discourage any incidents of protest here.”

#15.2

RFA reports:

Tibetan Protests Linger Amid Armed Police Presence in Western China

Hundreds of high-school students from a Tibetan middle school in the northwestern Chinese province of Gansu are boycotting classes in protest at the recent crackdown on Tibetan protesters in the region, sources in the area said.

“Many people protested and things got very chaotic,” a woman living in Chone (in Chinese, Zhuoni) county, Kanlho (in Chinse, Gannan) prefecture, told RFA’s Mandarin service.

“The protesters are Tibetan students from a local high school. It is not yet over,” she said.

A law enforcement official from the Chone county government told reporter Qiao Long: “The majority of the protesters are good people.” But while he didn’t deny the high-school students were striking, he declined to comment further.

At least two monks were reported killed in Chone in mid-March during a crackdown on Tibetan protests in the area, according to multiple sources.

“They were killed by troops on March 14,” a Tibetan resident said March 31. Residents said armed police from the central Chinese city of Wuhan, in Hubei province, had been deployed to the area to keep the peace.

“Armed police are trying to arrest Tibetans who remain at large. There are still some sporadic riots,” a Han Chinese resident of the region said Sunday.

And on the provincial border between Gansu and southwestern Sichuan province, monks continued to protest, despite a large armed police presence, Tibetan sources said.

Armed police were also reported in large numbers in Draggo (in Chinese, Luhuo) county in the Kardze (Ganzi) autonomous prefecture of Sichuan, and in Chigdril (Jiuzhi) county in the Golog (Guoluo) autonomous prefecture of Qinghai province, sources said.

#7.1

RFA reports on the most recent protests:

2,000 Tibetans Defy Chinese Crackdown as China Admits Shooting

“In the Tsekhog [Zeku] area in Huangnan prefecture, the monks are continuing their peaceful protests as of March 20,” a protester told an Amdo dialect reporter from RFA’s Tibetan service.

“Roughly 2,000 Tibetans, both monks and laypersons, are involved in the protests. The protesters are calling for the Chinese leadership to open a peaceful dialogue with the Dalai Lama and resolve the Tibetan issue peacefully,” the protester said, over the sound of slogans being chanted.

The protesters, who live in a traditionally Tibetan area of Qinghai which is home to large numbers of nomadic herders, were demanding a meaningful autonomous status inclusive of all Tibetan areas, but within the People’s Republic of China, he added.

They were also demanding that the Chinese leadership allow the Dalai Lama to visit the Amdo region, a cry raised during protests in another Sichuan town, Lithang, last summer.

“Right now there are no security forces in the area but we heard that they are coming. We have no freedom inside China,” the protester said. “We are right now protesting in front of the county government offices. We are about 2,000 protesters and we are protesting peacefully.”

Residents of Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) autonomous prefecture in Sichuan said two monks were shot dead by Chinese armed police after they defied a police cordon set up around the Kirti monastery. Local residents also said a “massacre” had occurred during the clashes around Kirti.

#6.2

From Kangding:

In Kangding, a heavily Tibetan town in western Sichuan province, next to Tibet, roads were crowded with troops who blocked most travel. Notices on walls warned locals not to protest and to stay away from the “Dalai clique”.

“Resolutely protect the unity of the motherland, protect unity among ethnic groups,” declared one red banner. ^source