Thousands Protest Monastery Crackdown/ENG

2012. ápriliss 25./RFA/TibetPress

The mass protest in troubled Chinese Sichuan province was to highlight police beatings and detentions of monks.

About 3,000 to 4,000 Tibetans led by monks protested Wednesday in front of a township police station and government center in China's Sichuan province, condemning a security crackdown on a local monastery and demanding the release of a nine people who had been detained, sources said.

The protester at the Zogchen township in Dege county in the Tibetan-populated Kardze (Ganzi) prefecture were angry at a series of raids conducted by security forces on the Zogchen Monastery from Sunday to Tuesday, during which monks were severely beaten, interrogated, and taken away, the sources said.
Police searches were also conducted on Tibetan homes around the monastery.

One of the monks, identified as Gyatso, was seriously injured and is in critical condition at the Kardze District People's Hospital.

"Today, around 3,000 Tulkus [high-ranking lamas] and monks from the Zogchen Shri-Seng Ngarig Buddhist Learning Institute and Zogchen Monastery and also laypeople from Zogchen Dogru Village protested outside the local government office and police station demanding an end to the Chinese crackdown in the area and urged the Chinese to release those who were arrested for no proper reason," said a monk from Zogchen living in exile in India.

Wednesday's mass protest was peaceful but protesters demanded that the crackdown should stop and all security forces in the monastery be pulled out.
"They told the officials that if there was no withdrawal, things could turn ugly," one caller from inside Tibet told RFA. "The people were disgusted that the police could enter the monastery and assault the monks, including one 13-year-old monk," said the caller, identified as Tashi.  

Assaulted
The monastery crackdown was launched on April 2 when 60 Chinese police personnel stormed into the Buddhist institute building, searched its premises, and assaulted the monks.

More security personnel arrived at the monastery on subsequent days and beat the monks.

"Gyatso was beaten by the Chinese for simply staring at the face of the Chinese policemen," the exiled monk said.

The monks detained were identified as Ribo, Tenzin, Khyithar, Migyur, Gurnam, and Kalsang while the laypeople taken into custody were Padgyal, Senge, and Phurbu Tsering.

Sichuan has been the scene of most of the 35 Tibetan self-immolation protests against Chinese rule that have taken place since 2009.

These have resulted in a major security crackdown in the province and in other two Tibetan-populated provinces, Qinghai and Gansu, as well as in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

Reported by RFA's Tibetan service. Translated by Rigdhen Dolma and Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.