By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

NEW DELHI, India – More than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested in India before embarking on a 6-month march to Tibet. Atul Fulzele, the police superintendent for the Kangra district of Hamachal Pradesh, which is where Dharamasala is located, told reporters that about 100 persons were arrested under criminal codes that allow preventative arrests.

Days earlier the police had issued a restraining order to prevent the marchers from leaving Kangra. Atul Fulzele said, “Today they were planning to move outside the Kangra district. That would have been a crime.” He also added that the marchers did not resist arrest, and there was “no law and order problem.” A government official speaking anonymously commented that “India has other obligations as a country,” which include its commitment to participate in the Beijing Olympics, which prevents India from supporting the march.

Indian police are asking protesters to sign statements that say they will not participate in more protests against China or other political activities. Most are refusing to sign and plan on going on a hunger strike until they are released.

The group intended to begin their march from Dharamasala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The march was intended to begin on the anniversary of the failed uprising of Tibet in 1959 and end in Lhasa as the Summer Olympics Games opened.

A group of 50 Tibetan exiles in New Delhi were also arrested after they attempted to storm the Chinese embassy. They ran through a security cordon and tried to scale the high walls, but were prevented by security forces. The protesters, who were also mostly nuns and monks, were put in waiting vans and driven to a police station.

Human rights activists are concerned that India’s stance against the protests signals an escalating attitude of repression. Arresting peaceful marchers who were carrying photos of Mahatma Gandhi “signifies a toughness that does not seem legitimate,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – 100 Tibetan Exiles Arrested in India – 13 March 2008

International Herald Tribune – Tibetans Defy India in March to Homeland – 11 March 2008

The Inquirer – Tibetans Held in India after Fresh Chinese Embassy Assault – 15 March 2008

By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

BEIJING, China – The largest demonstrations against the Chinese government in nearly 20 years erupted as Chinese security forces used tear-gas and gunfire to suppress protesters on Friday. Witnesses said angry Tibetan crowds burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus.  Protesters appeared to be targeting shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.  A main market in the capital was set on fire, and some Tibetans were hospitalized with serious injuries, according to Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet.

Violence started when police tried to block a peaceful protest by monks at the Ramoche Temple on Friday, Tashi Choephel of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights told CNN. Witnesses said tanks were in the streets of the Tibetan capital Lhasa as part of a heavy security clampdown after violent riots erupted.  Several people lost their lives and many others were injured in Lhasa, an official at the city’s medical emergency centre told AFP, with Radio Free Asia reporting at least two people had been killed.

China warned Saturday it would use a firm hand to quell protests in Tibet, acknowledging seven people had been killed in unrest. It said seven people were killed in the rioting.  Most of them were business people and none were foreigners.  Independent verification of the news from the region has been difficult to verify because Chinese censors blacked out Western media reports about the developments in Tibet on Chinese television.

Chinese government also accused the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, of acting as the “mastermind” behind protests.  “The government of Tibet Autonomous Region said there had been enough evidence to prove that the recent sabotage in Lhasa was ‘organized, premeditated and masterminded’ by the Dalai clique,” Xinhua news agency said. “The violence, involving beating, smashing, looting and burning, has disrupted the public order, jeopardized people’s lives and property,” an official with the government said.

The United States, Britain and other European states expressed concern over the violence and urged both sides to show restraint.  The Dalai Lama, who heads Tibet’s government-in-exile in India, called on the Chinese leadership to “stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue with the Tibetan people.”  He also urges the fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence and rejected allegations that he and his government-in-exile in India were behind the uprising in Lhasa.

For more information, please see:

APF – China says seven killed in Tibet – 14 March 2008

BBC – Deaths reported in Tibet protests – 14 March 2008

BBC – In pictures: Protests in Tibet – 14 March 2008

CNN – A timeline of Tibetan protests – 14 March 2008

CNN – Tibet in turmoil as riots grip capital – 14 March 2008

Press Association – Violence erupts at Tibetan protests – 14 March 2008

By Kristy Tridhavee
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Asia

NEW DELHI, India – More than 100 Tibetan exiles were arrested in India before embarking on a 6-month march to Tibet. Atul Fulzele, the police superintendent for the Kangra district of Hamachal Pradesh, which is where Dharamasala is located, told reporters that about 100 persons were arrested under criminal codes that allow preventative arrests.

Days earlier the police had issued a restraining order to prevent the marchers from leaving Kangra. Atul Fulzele said, “Today they were planning to move outside the Kangra district. That would have been a crime.” He also added that the marchers did not resist arrest, and there was “no law and order problem.” A government official speaking anonymously commented that “India has other obligations as a country,” which include its commitment to participate in the Beijing Olympics, which prevents India from supporting the march.

Indian police are asking protesters to sign statements that say they will not participate in more protests against China or other political activities. Most are refusing to sign and plan on going on a hunger strike until they are released.

The group intended to begin their march from Dharamasala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile, to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. The march was intended to begin on the anniversary of the failed uprising of Tibet in 1959 and end in Lhasa as the Summer Olympics Games opened.

A group of 50 Tibetan exiles in New Delhi were also arrested after they attempted to storm the Chinese embassy. They ran through a security cordon and tried to scale the high walls, but were prevented by security forces. The protesters, who were also mostly nuns and monks, were put in waiting vans and driven to a police station.

Human rights activists are concerned that India’s stance against the protests signals an escalating attitude of repression. Arresting peaceful marchers who were carrying photos of Mahatma Gandhi “signifies a toughness that does not seem legitimate,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

For more information, please see:

International Herald Tribune – 100 Tibetan Exiles Arrested in India – 13 March 2008

International Herald Tribune – Tibetans Defy India in March to Homeland – 11 March 2008

The Inquirer – Tibetans Held in India after Fresh Chinese Embassy Assault – 15 March 2008