Reports of Two Tibetans Killed in Chinese Raid at Kirti Monastery; Tibetan Government-in-Exile “Deeply Concerned” about Situation
"Tibetan students pray outside Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi, during a march demanding immediate withdrawal of Chinese troops from Kirti Monastery in Tibet, in New Delhi, India, April 19, 2011." Image via Voice of America.
This from The New York Times:
A Tibet advocacy group based outside China said in a report released Friday that two Tibetans were killed Thursday night by Chinese paramilitary officers who were raiding a monastery in Sichuan Province to detain rebellious monks.
The group, the International Campaign for Tibet, said security officers beat to death a man, Dongko, 60, and a woman, Sherkyi, 65, as they gathered with other people outside Kirti Monastery to try to prevent 300 monks from being taken away.
Officers from the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force usually deployed to quell riots, had put the monks in 10 trucks, the group said, citing as its source a monk from Kirti living in exile who remained in contact with the monastery. The officers then clashed with a large number of laypeople, many of them elderly, who tried to prevent the trucks from driving out the main entrance gate, the group said.
The report could not be independently confirmed, though information from the International Campaign for Tibet has generally been accurate. Several human rights groups said this week that Chinese officials had begun barring foreigners from the area.
In addition, Voice of America reports:
The cabinet of the Tibetan government in exile says it is “deeply concerned” about China’s security clampdown at a large Tibetan Buddhist monastery, expressing fears the situation could grow into “genocide.”
In a statement Saturday, the Kashag of the Central Tibetan Administration said Chinese police “severely” beat Tibetans gathered at the Kirti monastery in an ethnically Tibetan area of Sichuan province on Thursday night. The statement says the group had been trying to prevent police from taking away about 300 monks in military trucks.
The cabinet says most of the Tibetans gathered were elderly people, and that two of them died after being beaten.
The statement called on the international community to persuade China not to use force at the monastery and to release the monks it has detained.
The Tibetan government also asked for the issue to be raised during the United States’ and China’s annual meeting on human rights next week.
The U.S. State Department said last week that China’s use of force at the monastery to block demonstrations by monks was inconsistent with freedom of religion and human rights. China’s Foreign Ministry has said conditions at the facility are normal and called the U.S. remarks “irresponsible.”
The monastery has been under guard since last month, when a young monk set himself on fire to protest China’s policies on Tibet.
