By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, August 19: Two separate incidents involving an arrest of a lone protester in Lithang County in Kham and another of Chinese police beating group of Tibetans in Yadzi County in the Tibetan Autonomous Area have emerged from inside Tibet.
A Tibetan man was arrested on Tuesday night following his solo protest on Trung trung Karmo (white crane) square in Lithang County, sources told Phayul. The Tibetan man who has not been identified as of now was seen carrying a large portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama while shouting slogans such as ‘free Tibet’ and ‘welcome Dalai Lama to Tibet’, said sources.
Chinese police on patrol immediately arrived at the scene and took him away.
Statistics released by Tibetan rights group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy confirm 17 cases of ‘solo protests’ since 2013. The arrest of Woekar Kyi last Sunday and the Lithang lone protester in the space of few days highlight the emergence of more cases with people protesting spontaneously and more openly by themselves.
Tenzin Nyinjey, a researcher at TCHRD, points to the tone of desperation and impulsive nature of such cases. “The people in Tibet are resorting to protesting on their own, risking their personal lives, as it is the only way through which they can act. Unlike the right to peaceful protests in democracies, in China, especially in occupied Tibet, the right to assembly and freedom of expression doesn’t exist at all. Moreover, due to the overwhelming surveillance systems, and massive deployment of security forces, including secret police and spies, a systematic, mass-organized protest becomes very difficult. Hence, the solo protests that we see every now and then.”
In another case, Radio Free Asia has reported that a group of elderly Tibetan people including women who were protesting against the construction of a dam near Seching village in Yadzi County were severely beaten up by the police on August 10. A few were also believed to have been detained.
Chinese security forces had deployed around a 100 men at the construction site on the day. The protesters were taken to an isolated place and beaten up leading to injury of several Tibetans. The conditions and whereabouts of the Tibetans could not be ascertained due to communication blackout in the region in the aftermath of the incident.
