By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Feb. 26: Ahead of the 57th Anniversary of the March 10 uprising, China has blocked off the Tibetan Autonomous Region for all foreign visitors. The deadline for foreign travelers to leave ended yesterday, Feb. 25, and no new travel permits will be issued.
The area will be reopened to overseas visitors by the end of March. The annual practice by the Chinese authorities to cordon off the TAR was intensified since the 2008 uprising during the same time protests i the Tibetan capital escalated and spread outside the TAR.
The anniversary each year has seen bulking up of the forces, more restrictions and crackdowns aimed to bring down any activities by the Tibetans. One source of International Campaign for Tibet said, “It has gone beyond a simple ‘crackdown’ now, and is much more sophisticated, and terrifying. Security is invisible and everywhere. It is no longer only armed police patrolling the streets; often we don’t know who the police are as they blend into society, and officials are in our homes, asking about every part of our lives.”
The ICT pointed out that the yearly practice is overseen from desks in Beijing and implemented with much hardened resolve. “While rigorous and oppressive measures, including an increase in the deployment of Communist Party personnel, have been introduced in the TAR since the 2008 protests, systematic and long-term security measures are now also being rolled out in the eastern Tibetan areas of Kham and Amdo. This expansion of control measures seems to be part of an agenda set at the highest levels in Beijing, in line with an intensified ‘counter-terror’ campaign,” said the ICT.
Reports by international media houses like CNN predict the move is unlikely to have any significant hindrance to the tourism revenue as domestic tourists contribute a bulk of the net revenue in the tourism industry in Tibet. The TAR Tourism Development Committee reported around 17.5 million tourists from Jan-Sept last year with an increase of 36% and a bulk of the number being from China.
