US 'seriously concerned' about Tibetan violence/ENG

2012. január 24./Tibet Sun/TibetPress

The United States said Tuesday it was “seriously concerned” by reports of deadly clashes in Tibetan regions of China, where police are accused of opening fire on peaceful protesters.

“We urge the Chinese government to engage in a constructive dialogue with the Dalai Lama or his representatives as a means to address Tibetan concerns,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters.

China on Tuesday accused “overseas secessionist groups” of trying to discredit the government after the clash in a Tibetan-inhabited area saw injured locals taking refuge in a monastery.

According to the London-based Free Tibet advocacy group and local monks, police opened fire on Tibetans protesting against religious repression in the southwestern province of Sichuan on Monday, killing at least one and injuring more than 30.

But China’s foreign ministry said Tuesday their account of the incident in Drango (Ch: Luhuo) county was hyped, and that a mob stormed stores and a police station, prompting a clash in which one protester died and five officers were injured.

US-based Radio Free Asia and Free Tibet said fresh clashes erupted in Sichuan on Tuesday, with Chinese forces shooting dead as many as five people.

The unrest comes at a sensitive time in Tibetan-inhabited areas, where at least 16 people have set fire to themselves in less than a year — including four this month alone.

Maria Otero, the US special coordinator for Tibetan issues, recalled how Washington has repeatedly “urged the Chinese government to address the counterproductive policies in Tibetan areas,” according to a US statement.

“These policies include dramatically expanded Chinese government controls on religious life and practice; ongoing ‘patriotic education’ campaigns within monasteries that require monks to denounce the Dalai Lama,” she said.

They also cover “the permanent placement of Chinese officials in monasteries; increasingly intensive surveillance, arbitrary detentions and disappearances of Tibetans; and restrictions on and imprisonment of some families and friends of self-immolators,” she said.

“Over the last year, Chinese government security and judicial officials also have detained and imprisoned Tibetan writers, artists, intellectuals, and cultural advocates who criticized Chinese government policies,” Otero said.

“We call on the Chinese government to safeguard the universal human rights of all of China’s citizens,” she added.

“We urge Chinese security forces to exercise restraint, and we renew our call to allow access to Tibetan areas of China for journalists, diplomats and other observers,” she said.