DHARAMSHALA, January 10: Chinese police in Luchu County have stopped over a hundred Tibetan students and parents heading for prefectural headquarters of Kanlho Tibet Autonomous Prefecture with a plea to address their concerns over alleged malpractice in government entrance test.
The Tibetans, who sat in front of government office in Luchu County for over two weeks, were promised that the matter would be looked into and turned back to the county.
The Tibetans had earlier approached the County officials but the offices remained shut down following which the Tibetans vowed to take the issue to higher authorities in the Prefecture and Beijing.
The Tibetans did manage to meet the County Governor but, as put by a source who did not want to be named, the authorities including the Governor failed to reach any settlement with the protesters.
“The governor and other officials pretended to listen to their demands,” the source told RFA.
“But no clear decision was made,” he was quoted as saying.
The Tibetans held banners that read, “We home, our rule,” and “outsiders leave” and “Please make fair decisions in the case of illegal exam paper.”
According to sources, some Chinese officials took money in exchange of question papers and swapped names of higher scoring students with that of poorer graded students for an estimated sum of 2,00,000 Yuan (U.S. $32,188).
Tibetan students of the Luchu Middle School discovered that the Chinese officials had registered some students from outside the region in their regional students’ list for the exams that were held last October.
The student protesters believe that this will negatively impact the benefits or opportunities otherwise meant for the local students.
