China Police Clash With Tibetans During Protests, At Least 30 Injured

BEIJING — Deadly clashes between ethnic Tibetans and Chinese security forces have spread to a second area in southwestern China, an overseas Tibetan activist group said Wednesday.

Two Tibetans were killed and several more were wounded Tuesday when security forces opened fire on a crowd of protesters in Seda county in politically sensitive Ganzi prefecture in Sichuan province, the group Free Tibet said. It quoted local sources as saying the area was under a curfew.

The reported violence comes as some 30 Tibetans who were wounded Monday when Chinese police fired into a crowd of protesters were sheltering in a monastery in neighboring Luhuo county, a Tibetan monk said. Military forces have surrounded the building, said the monk, who would not give his name out of fear of government retaliation.

The counties have been tense for some time, and at least 16 Buddhist monks, nuns and other Tibetans have set themselves on fire in protest in the past year. Most have chanted for Tibetan freedom and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

Many Tibetans resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule and the large-scale migration of China's ethnic Han majority to the Himalayan region. While China claims Tibet has been under its rule for centuries, many Tibetans say the region was functionally independent for most of that time.

"Chinese forces are responding with lethal force to Tibetans' ever-growing calls for freedom," Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said in a statement Wednesday.

A man who answered the telephone at the Seda county government office would not confirm or deny the group's account of Tuesday's violence. He would not give his name.

Calls to the county police offices rang unanswered Wednesday.

Chinese authorities have said Monday's unrest in Luhuo was caused by a "mob" and that overseas advocacy groups are twisting the truth about what happened in order to undermine the government. The government says order has been restored after one Tibetan died and four others were injured. It said five police were wounded.

Independent confirmation of the clashes is difficult due to a heavy security presence and lack of access to outsiders.

The United States, which will host Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping at the White House next month, has expressed grave concern at the reported violence.

U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues Maria Otero urged Beijing to address "counterproductive policies" in Tibetan areas that have created tensions and threatened Tibetans' religious, cultural and linguistic identity.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington has always been clear with China about its concerns for the human rights of Tibetans and others. She said the U.S. would be "just as clear" when Xi visits next month.

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Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in Washington contributed to this report.

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Gillian Wong can be reached on http://twitter.com/gillianwong

Comments

[s002wjh]

11:01 AM on 01/25/2012

it was a riot, monk with machete, rampage store and police station. you think any country will allow such behavior? china is unlike tiannmen inncident before, after decade they train enough riot police without use of leath force for protest. if they use lethal force it usually mean either the police or bystander are in danger.

[Charles Queen]

03:58 PM on 01/24/2012

China has nothing to sat about anything that we might do.They need to clean their own backyard before they start saying this and that about what we are doing right now

[YankeeCanuck]

03:01 PM on 01/24/2012

Apparently human rights (and also the environment) play second (and third) fiddle to profit as both Canada and the US cosy up closer to China.

[s002wjh]

11:10 AM on 01/25/2012

money talk.

[LMPE]

01:36 PM on 01/24/2012

Apparently, part of what led to this mess is that when China established its modern borders in 1911, it included Tibet, which the Chinese Empire had long considered part of China. The new government took a mostly hands-off approach to Tibet. Since Tibet never sent a representative to the League of Nations, it had no way of calling itself a country, which made it easier for China to occupy it in 1950.

[Kavoom]

08:47 AM on 01/24/2012

But a skirmish. I see I we can't comment upon the Chinese VP visiting the white house story that is the real story. That ain't news apparently.

In mid-Nov I commented, "Watch something unusual occur diplomatic­ally with China and who knows who.”

In Mid-Dec the Chinese launched their new carrier and I commented on that. It was predictable as is the visit by the Chinese to US as part of the multi-decadal dance. The world goes on and the macro geopolitical forces shape the world while we worry about people's tax returns, one half of our political system (I DO use the term loosely) beats itself up.

What a mess we live in.