Protests prompt temporary halt to mining activities in Chuchen County/ENG

2016. június 23./Phayul.com/TibetPress

eredeti cikk

By Tenzin Dharpo

DHARAMSHALA, June 23: Following repeated protests from local Tibetans over mining activities at a mountain that local Tibetans consider sacred, Chinese authorities have called a temporary halt to its activities in Chuchen County in the Ngaba, Eastern Tibet.

Locals from the Akhore town near the sacred mountain had protested and barricaded a construction site for a road that will connect the mining site to the main roads for connectivity on a larger scale.

A resident Tibetan source told Radio Free Asia said that the “temporary halt” may have been prompted by local resistance and international media coverage. The unnamed source adding, “Appeals by Tibetans in Akhore town to local and central authorities may also have played a role. In any case, authorities have stopped all mining in the area for now.”

The source however cast doubts over the duration of the halt in operations at the mine recounting incidents in March this year when Chinese police beat protestors including an elderly (around 60 yrs) old man and seven Tibetans who were detained for nearly three weeks.

“They know very well that the mining project on the sacred mountain near Akhore is a part of China’s broader mining plans, and that they can resume mining in the area whenever they choose to do so,” the source added implying the resumption of mining activities could well be soon.

Activist group Free Tibet which has conducted case studies on mining operations inside Tibet concludes that, “In recent years China has paid for the infrastructure to greatly expand its level of extraction in Tibet. The construction of the Qinghai-Tibet railway in 2006 connected Tibet to central and eastern ultimately eastern China, allowing its resources to be transported east with a speed and scale that had not been possible before.”

Also, assistive infrastructures in the spheres of connectivity and accessibility have meant that networks of roads and power stations have sprung up across Tibet. “Ten years after the railway was built, Tibet now has close to 100 mining sites spread around the country. The new infrastructure has also allowed the Chinese government to introduce large numbers of Han Chinese workers into Tibet, emphasizing that extraction in Tibet is not solely about resources, but also about creating facts on the ground so that self-determination becomes increasingly difficult,” the alarming report mentions.