BEIJING: China has ramped up security in Tibetan areas, rights groups and residents said yesterday, after new self-immolation protests belied boasts of national unity at a key Communist Party congress in Beijing.
Six such incidents since Wednesday -- the eve of the gathering where the ruling party names its new leaders -- capped a recent escalation that marks the worst outbreak of Tibetan discontent since massive anti-China rioting in 2008.
Analysts say the campaign may prompt a further spiral of clampdowns and immolations, deepening the divide between Tibetans and authorities.
Armed police in paramilitary vehicles stepped up patrols in Tongren in the northwestern province of Qinghai after “thousands of protestors” took to the streets on Thursday, the UK-based Free Tibet group said in a statement.
“There are lots of police on the streets. They have increased their patrols and they stay out for 24 hours a day,” a shop owner in the town centre who refused to give her name said.
Police in Tongren refused to comment on the issue.
Tibetan anger at Beijing’s control has simmered for decades but burst out into violent riots against Chinese rule in the Tibet regional capital Lhasa and adjacent areas in March 2008.
The protests left 20 people dead, according to the government, while exiled Tibetans put the figure at 203, and prompted a massive security clampdown across Tibetan areas of southwesternChina that remains to this day.
Tibetans’ continued frustration has since been displayed by the immolations, in which 69 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009, 54 of them dying, according to the India-based Tibetan government in exile.
The situation is now a “vicious cycle” likely to plague China’s stability-driven leaders indefinitely despite Beijing’s efforts to win over Tibetans by pushing economic development, said Tibet expert Tsering Shakya.
“No matter how many Tibetans might protest, how many immolations might happen, the new Chinese leadership will not make any concession to the protestors,” Shakya, of the University of British Columbia in Canada, told the reporters.
“They see that as a central issue of the authority of the Chinese government.”
An 18-year-old man burnt himself to death on Thursday outside a monastery in Huangnan prefecture in Qinghai province, where a 23-year-old woman also died after setting herself alight on Wednesday, the India-based exile government announced.
A trio of young monks also set themselves alight on Wednesday in Aba County in Sichuan province, with one dying of his injuries, while another burning was confirmed in the Tibetan Autonomous Region on the same day.
China’s leaders blame the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama -- who is deeply revered among Tibetans in China -- for fomenting unrest, a charge he denies.
Analysts say they fear that showing any weakness could embolden Tibetan protests and possibly spur other groups such as Muslim Uighurs in the far west region of Xinjiang to step up their demands.
AFP
