ALMOST 100 Tibetan monks were arrested or turned themselves in after hundreds of protesters attacked a police station in northwest China, assaulting policemen and government staff, local media reported.
The incident took place in the western province of Qinghai, and Xinhua news agency said people had been “deceived by rumours” about the disappearance of a man, Zhaxi Sangwu, who earlier had been detained on suspicion of engaging in Tibetan independence activities.
A local official was quoted as saying a search for monks who took part in the assault would continue.
It’s just over a year since violent protests in Tibet and Tibetan areas of China took place against what the Tibetans see as colonial rule by Beijing, and tensions are high in the region. The last few days have marked 50 years since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet following a failed military uprising, and March 14th marked the one-year anniversary of anti-government riots in Lhasa, Tibet’s regional capital, after several days of peaceful protests by monks against Chinese rule. About 19 people died during last year’s protests, the government says.
The Dalai Lama recently described modern China as a hell on earth for Tibetans. Security in Tibetan areas was tightened as Beijing tried to head off trouble ahead of the sensitive anniversaries this month.
Tibetan groups issued some stark footage of brutality during the crackdown last year, some of which can be seen in gruesome detail on the internet.
Almost 100 monks from the Ragya Monastery attacked the police station of Ragya, a township in the Tibetan prefecture of Golog, assaulting policemen and government staff on Saturday. Six people were formally arrested and another 89 “surrendered”, most of them monks at the monastery.
So far, it appears that major demonstrations have been prevented, although there have been a number of isolated protests of late, including a monk who set himself on fire at the Kirti monastery in western Sichuan, while a bomb was thrown at a government office, which caused no casualties.
The protest was one of the largest reported this year, with Tibetan activists saying as many as 2,000 people were involved. It was sparked by the apparent suicide of a monk being investigated for unfurling a Tibetan flag, which is banned in China.
Zhaxi Sangwu had “managed to run away from the police station on Saturday on the excuse of using the bathroom”. The man apparently swam across a river to escape and was still missing.