Almost 7,000 Tibetans arrested from March to December in 2008
Dharamsala (AsiaNews) - "This 'Strike Hard' campaign by the Chinese government is a stragetic and systematic policy by the Chinese to eliminate the Tibetan community as a race, and there is every danger that they could succeed in their designs." The accusation of a genocide underway has been made by Urgen Tenzin, executive director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a group for Tibetans in exile.
On January 18, the Chinese police in Tibet launched a major campaign, supposedly in order to fight crime. 600 officers are involved, and 160 vehicles. In Lhasa alone, 5,766 "suspects" have already been stopped and questioned, 2,922 rented homes have been raided, as well as 14 hotels and inns, and a number of bars and internet cafés. Tourists who want to stay in Lhasa for more than 3 days must get a temporary residency permit from the police.
Urgen Tenzin points out that the main targets of the raids and interrogations are the Tibetans who oppose the Chinese government. He says they are also suffering arbitrary arrests, the loss of jobs, and expulsion from religious institutions. "From 10th March 2008 up to December 2008, the TCHRD through credible and reliable sources has documented the arrest of 6,500 Tibetans in the region, and in addition to these arrests, 5,766 Tibetans have been detained. Occasionally the Chinese have released many Tibetans after forcibly extracting ‘confessional statements’ through physical and psychological torture and often some of the Tibetans released have been maimed and scarred for life. Thousands of Tibetans have ‘involuntarily disappeared'. Chinese president Hu Jintao makes public statements of desire to build a ‘harmonious society’, yet the reality is completely different." One of the objectives is to prevent protests over the 50th anniversary of the exile of the Dalai Lama, which falls on March 10.
Urgen says that the same strategy has been in place for decades, creating "abject discrimination between the Han Chinese and Tibetans inside Tibet. Moreover, in their everyday existence there is a constant strategy to harm the sentiments of the Tibetan people and force a response from them, they literally provoke a confrontation from the Tibetans who are rooted in peace and non-violence.
"Even in the schools, Tibetan children are compelled to study Chinese communism and other such subjects, which further alienate Tibetan children from their own identity and culture.
"TCHRD appeals to the international community to make a sincere effort to resolve the Tibetan issue. Every head of government should become an agent for change in global society, and urge for justice and peace to prevail in the world."
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