DHARAMSHALA,October 11 : Chinese authorities in Zatoe County in Yulshul misled a group of researchers and reporters sent by the Central Government to investigate into the recent reports of illegal mining in the area, the US Congress funded Radio Free Asia reported.
The Central Government had assigned the group to probe the reported damage to the local environment due to mining in Zatoe county, where armed Chinese security forces cracked down heavily on Tibetans protesting mining operations in August.
“Some groups of reporters tried to visit the mines, but they were not taken to places where Chinese miners are actually extracting minerals,” Kunchok Dhondub, a Tibetan exile, had told the RFA.
“Instead, they were taken to other sites in an attempt to convince them that mining is not harming the local environment,” he was quoted as saying.
The County officials had arranged for respondents handpicked by them to answer questions of the investigators. The group did not get to speak to the Tibetan residents of the area, added the source.
“Reporters never met the local Tibetans who had protested Chinese mining in their area,” he said.
Chinese authorities in Tibet’s Zatoe County have removed three Tibetan officials, Khetsa Soetop, Gyaltsen and Budhag from their jobs for their involvement in anti-mining protests.
Several Tibetans were injured in clashes with the Chinese security forces in August after over 4000 Tibetans tried to stop the Chinese mining companies from operating in the area.
Around 500 Chinese miners arrived in the Zatoe County’s various townships in August for mining works which the locals allege was “illegal”.
