[27. January 2012] The New York Times

The police in the western Chinese province of Sichuan fired on Tibetan protesters for the third time this week, killing at least one and injuring several, overseas Tibetan activist groups said on Friday. The shootings, which appear to be the worst outbreak of violence in the heavily Tibetan-populated region of Sichuan in nearly four years, came as the Chinese authorities tightened security in the region as well as in neighbouring Tibet to suppress any further unrest.

Foreign journalists in Sichuan who tried to drive to the affected region were turned back at security checkpoints that had been erected more than 60 miles from where the shootings took place. One overseas activist group, Free Tibet, said its informants in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, had reported a heavy increase in Chinese security forces there as well. Read more

[26. January 2012] Radio Free Asia

Chinese police shot dead another Tibetan on Thursday as they fired on protesters in southwest Sichuan province in a third day of bloodshed in Tibetan-populated areas this week.

Tibetan sources in exile said at least one man was reported killed and many more were injured when police opened fire on Tibetan protesters who tried to stop them from detaining a person who had put up a poster challenging Chinese rule. “Today, Jan. 26, at around 12:00 noon [local time], a Tibetan named Tharpa put up a signed poster in Dzitoe Barma town,” located in Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture’s Zamtang (in Chinese, Rangtang) county, India-based monks Kanyag Tsering and Lobsang Yeshe said in a written statement, citing sources in the region. Read more

[24. January 2012] RFA

Chinese authorities shot dead as many as five Tibetans and seriously wounded 40 others on Tuesday in the second day of bloodshed as protests escalated in the troubled Kardze (in Chinese, Ganzi) prefecture in Sichuan province, local sources said. A crackdown has been launched in Serthar (in Chinese, Seda) county where the incident occurred, with about 40 protesters arrested and all public movements limited, the sources said.

“A kind of martial law has been imposed,” a local resident, calling himself Ganta, told RFA. “Tibetans are confined to their homes as the Chinese police fire on anyone who ventures outside in the streets,” another local source said. Read more

[20. January 2012] AP

For a fifth straight year, China plans to close Tibet to foreign travelers during a sensitive period starting in mid-February, travel agents said Thursday. Agent Yu Zhi of the Lhasa Youth Tourist Agency said Thursday the government’s tourist administration in Tibet’s capital had informed agents that foreign travelers would be banned from Feb. 20 to March 30.
Another agent with the China International Travel Agency in Lhasa, who wouldn’t give her name, said she’d been told the ban would end March 20. Read more

[17. January 2012] Radio Free Asia

Protests have spread across Tibetan-populated regions of western China amid calls for freedom from Chinese rule and to refrain from celebrating Losar, the traditional Tibetan New Year, next month, according to sources in the region and in exile.

On Tuesday, a group of about 10 Tibetans gathered in the Drasar township of Chigdril county in Qinghai’s Golog (in Chinese, Guoluo) prefecture to protest rule by Beijing, a local Tibetan said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

A protest also erupted on Sunday, when a group of “about 30 to 40” Tibetans gathered in the Pema county seat in Golog to call for the return of the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan living in Belgium said, citing contacts in Pema town. Read more

[17. January 2012] The Atlantic

The rising practice of self-immolation follows severe government restrictions, an ebbing Tibetan identity, and reports of torture.

As international media begins to cover the burnings, the antecedents to this horrifying trend offer insight into a question that seems difficult to avoid: why would anyone chose to drink gasoline and then light him or herself on fire?

While China has had a presence in the region for the past 60 years, its codification of restrictions against traditional Tibetan practices are relatively new. Since a wave of demonstrations embarrassed the Chinese leadership around the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008, when hundreds of Tibetans protested Chinese rule, prefecture-level regulations have been rolled out in breath-taking detail.

While many of these regulations appear harmless or even positive, in aggregate they make for something darker. New “social security measures,” for example, ostensibly provide small cash stipends to monks as an old age benefit. But the pay-outs are contingent on meeting a state-regulated standard of patriotism. As part of this new “good behavior” allowance, the Chinese government has informed Tibet’s monks they will have no need to perform the religious services they used to be paid for. The price of being “supported” by the state, in this instance, is the effective prohibition of their religion. Read more

[8. January 2011] Radio Free Asia

Hundreds of angry Tibetans forced Chinese authorities on Sunday to return the body of a monk who self-immolated, parading the corpse in the streets in China’s western Qinghai province, witnesses said.

Sopa, a respected 42-year-old monk, set himself on fire and died in the town center of Darlag (in Chinese, Dari) county in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture after shouting slogans calling for Tibet’s freedom and the long life of Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, they said. Read more

[06. January 2012] Radio Free Asia

Two Tibetans set themselves on fire on Friday [6 January] in restive Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) prefecture in China’s Sichuan province, protesting against Chinese rule and calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, according to sources and an advocacy group. One of them, a monk, is believed to have died, they said.

They were the first self-immolations this year after a dozen such incidents in 2011 stemming from, according to rights groups, the “desperate” situation facing Tibetans as Chinese authorities pursued a security clampdown.

“One layperson and a monk did set their bodies on fire at Ngaba town,” a Tibetan who witnessed the incidents told RFA.

“The layperson [performed the self-immolation] at the upper part of Ngaba town and the monk did at the middle of the town,” the eyewitness said. “The Chinese security forces rushed to the scene and dispersed the crowd that had gathered. The monk could have died.” Read more

[05. January 2012] Phayul.com

A well known Tibetan writer has been sentenced to four years in jail by a Chinese court in eastern Tibet. Kalsang Tsultim, also known as Gyitsang Takmik was given the sentence on December 30, 2011 by the Kanlho Intermediate People’s Court, according to media reports.

In the hour-long video, Gyitsang urges the international community to “act swiftly on behalf of the Tibetan people” to end repression in Tibet while calling for the return of the Dalai Lama from exile.

He provides a detailed account of the suffering of the Tibetan people under Chinese rule and expresses his fears for the survival of Tibetan religion and culture and the general human rights abuses perpetrated by the Chinese authorities. Read more

[13. December 2011] The Wall Street Journal

Exiled Tibetan leaders, alarmed by a wave of suicide protests and what they view as deteriorating human-rights conditions for Tibetans inside China, want to restart negotiations with the Chinese government, a senior Tibetan official said.

Tibet’s India-based government-in-exile floated its proposal for talks at the end of November, the official, Kelsang Gyaltsen, said Monday during a visit here by the Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhists’ spiritual leader. He said there has been no response from Beijing.

“It’s important to meet and find ways and means to defuse the very tense situation inside Tibet,” Mr. Gyaltsen, a Tibetan diplomat involved in past negotiations with China, said in an interview. “We are ready anytime, anywhere.” Tibetan leaders say they seek to resolve grievances against Beijing’s policies on religious, cultural and other issues. Read more