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Beijing steps up Tibet crackdown
AFP, BEIJING
Friday, Mar 12, 2010, Page 5
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A Tibetan Youth Congress activist with a
slogan painted on his face participates in a protest against the Chinese
government in New Delhi, India, on Wednesday.
PHOTO: EPA
Chinese security forces have stepped up a crackdown in Tibet¡¦s capital, Lhasa,
two years after protests marking a failed 1959 uprising erupted in deadly
violence, the police and reports said yesterday.
The ¡§strike hard storm¡¨ began earlier this month and is aimed at cracking down
on Tibetan independence activities and ordinary crime, a policeman at the city¡¦s
Niangre precinct said by phone.
¡§I don¡¦t know when we will end this campaign, but it could be at the end of
March when this matter is over,¡¨ said the policeman, who refused to identify
himself, referring to the sensitive anniversaries.
As of March 3, more than 1,500 extra police and security personnel had been
deployed, with more than 4,100 rented apartments or homes inspected, the Lhasa
Evening News reported. More than 400 people have been rounded up, but only 14 of
them have been formally arrested on unspecified charges, the report said.
¡§We must clear our eyes, clench our fists, grip our weapons and firmly prevent
and severely strike at every separatist or destructive activity that harms
national security and social stability,¡¨ the Tibet Daily quoted Zhang Yixiong,
the region¡¦s deputy Communist Party secretary, as saying this week. ¡§Officers
and soldiers are working hard to uphold social stability, safeguard socialist
law, the basic interests of the people and the unity of the motherland.¡¨
Police are carrying out identification checks of the city¡¦s migrant population,
as well as increasing routine traffic stops, it said.
Residents said on Wednesday that the number of police patrols had been increased
in recent days.
An uprising against Chinese rule of the Buddhist Himalayan region erupted on
March 10, 1959, but was crushed by China within weeks, forcing the Dalai Lama,
Tibet¡¦s spiritual leader, to flee into exile.
Protests took place on the anniversary of the uprising in 2008, escalating in
subsequent days into violent riots across Tibet and neighboring regions with
significant populations of ethnic Tibetans.
China has said 21 people were killed by ¡§rioters,¡¨ while security forces killed
only one ¡§insurgent,¡¨ but the Tibetan government-in-exile says more than 200
people were killed and 1,000 hurt in the unrest and subsequent crackdown in the
remote region.
Residents said yesterday that Lhasa remained tense because of the heavy police
and military presence.
¡§There are armored vehicles patrolling the streets ... the television is always
talking about the need to ¡¥maintain stability,¡¦¡¨ said a retired woman in
downtown Lhasa who identified herself as Ceyang.
¡§We don¡¦t dare go out at night,¡¨ she said.
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