China tightens control of Tibet monasteries, roads

Jan 31, 2012, 11:46 GMT

Beijing - A Chinese official has ordered key monasteries near Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, to tighten security and urged roadside checkpoints to guard against 'separatists,' state media said on Tuesday.

Qi Zhala, the city's Communist Party chief, said officials at monasteries and temples should 'recognize the importance of maintaining stability' and aim to avoid 'even a small incident' occurring.

The official Tibet Daily said Qi visited two monasteries on the main road to Lhasa from Sichuan province, where at least three Tibetan protesters were shot dead this month in separate clashes with police.

He also visited police checkpoints over the weekend, urging officers to 'strike hard against all the destructive and criminal activities of the Dalai (Lama) separatist group,' the newspaper said in a separate report.

Lhasa police and other officials should increase inspections along main roads and at key monasteries, Qi was quoted as saying.

His remarks came amid a widening crackdown in many Tibetan areas of China following a spate of anti-government protests and three self-immolations by Tibetans this month.

In another development, the Tibetan government in exile said hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims were taken away from Lhasa by train on Tuesday after they were arrested at Chinese border checkpoints when they returned from Nepal.

'Chinese security forces surrounded those Tibetans at the railway station in Tibet's capital Lhasa and then put them in a train bound for [inland] China,' the exile government reported on its website.

Police planned to interrogate the returned Tibetans to see if they were 'planning any political activities,' it quoted sources as saying.

Tibetan rights groups said a Tibetan from Qinghai province was arrested in Lhasa last week after he distributed leaflets supporting the Dalai Lama and political freedom for Tibet.

London-based Free Tibet quoted residents as saying Lhasa had become 'very tense' last week, with security patrols and searches of homes.

'Chinese authorities are using the intimidation and surveillance of ordinary Tibetans to instil a culture of fear and stop people from speaking out,' Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden said on Friday.

The government said violent protests and ethnic clashes in Lhasa left 21 people dead and hundreds injured in March 2008, but Tibetan exiles gave a much higher death toll.

Many Tibetans have boycotted Tibetan new year celebrations since 2008, when widespread anti-Chinese protests spread from Lhasa to many other Tibetan areas.

Since the 2008 protests, the government has tightened controls in all Tibetan areas, turning away journalists, limiting the access of foreign tourists and cutting off communications in some places.

The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism's highest spiritual leader, has lived in exile since he fled to India in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule of Tibet.

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