“Beat a Tibetan, get extra credit,” shout Chinese students/ENG

2011. december 16./Phayul.com/TibetPress

DHARAMSHALA, December 16: Over 3000 Chinese students went on a rampage Wednesday night, beating Tibetan students and breaking into their dormitories and class rooms in a Chinese vocational institute in Chengdu.

According to the Beijing based award-winning Tibetan writer Woeser, the incident took place at a Chinese railway engineering vocational institute in the provincial capital city of Chengdu. Around 200 Tibetan students were held hostage as 3000 Chinese students attacked their dormitory, trashing the Tibetan students and breaking the doors, windows, and furniture.

"The Chinese students shouted 'Beat a Tibetan, Get an extra credit,’ and broke the doors of the Tibetan dormitories in the institute," wrote Woeser on her blog.

Many Tibetan students have been reportedly hospitalised carrying severe injuries.

After the school authorities failed to quell the clashes, police had to be called to control the situation. More than 1000 People’s Armed Police personnel arrived at the scene and reportedly hurled tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Several police and school vehicles were also damaged in the clashes.

Woeser writes in her blog that the following day, on December 15, when Tibetans students came to have lunch at the school mess, Chinese students, upon seeing the Tibetans, created a furore saying, ‘Han Chinese have been victorious over the proud Tibetans’.

The reasons for the clashes are not yet clearly known as the situation continues to remain tense.

According to Bawa Kalsang Gyaltsen, a member of Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, messages saying ‘Don’t mind the injuries, be proud of standing up for your nation’ had appeared on social network sites following the clashes.

News on the clashes briefly appeared on a few local news portals but were quickly removed.