DHARAMSHALA, April 5: Chinese authorities in Gansu have interrogated and threatened the Tibetan students with “serious consequences” for commemorating the fifth anniversary of 14 March 2008 crackdown in Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet.
Citing sources with contacts in the region, the US-based Radio Free Asia said the students of the Northwest University of the Nationalities in the provincial capital of Lanzhou expressed their solidarity with the Tibetans who died in the crackdown by “mourning”.
Pictures available online show butter lamps in front of a board with ‘March 14 Anniversary’ written on it.
“But when school authorities and concerned officials learned about the commemoration, each student was called in and questioned about the incident.” RFA quoted sources as saying.
“They were specifically asked for the names of the persons who led in the planning of the observance.”
On 14 March 2008, thousands of Tibetan monks and lay people took the streets of Lhasa to carry a peaceful protest against the Chinese oppression. The protest quickly spread to other part of Tibet leading to the biggest anti-China protests in decades.
The exile Tibetan government estimates that over two hundred Tibetans lost their lives under the Chinese crackdown and thousands detained and tortured.
