Party and State: Tibetan people

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Chinese Police Open Fire on Tibetan Protestors

There's some confusion over reports that Chinese police opened fire on a group of Tibetan protestors in Biru county. While human rights organisation say that 60 people were injured in, Chinese authorities have denied that there was any protest, and that anyone was injured.

"Security forces started beating the Tibetans, causing severe injuries, deployed tear gas and fired indiscriminately into the crowd," it said.

The shooting in Biru county left two protestors in critical condition, it added. One named Tagyal had a broken femur while another called Tsewang was hit in the jaw.

Both human rights organisations report the same, but a curt "no protest, no one injured" statement from the authorities in the region say otherwise. The confrontation came about following requests from the Chinese that Tibetan households fly the Chinese flag to mark the October 1st National Day.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Frances Adamson, the Australian Ambassador to China has concluded a four day visit of Tibet.

Adamson had wanted to visit the region to investigate why so many Tibetans where self-immolating in Tibet and Qinghai.

Bob Carr, the Australian Foreign Minister had asked Ms. Adamson to speak to locals and "look into" why there had been 98 incidences of monks and ordinary Tibets setting themselves on fire. A month after her application had been submitted, she was subsequently denied a Tibetan permit by Chinese authorities.

Reports on the visit, however, don't seem to suggest that Ambassador Adamson raised any human rights issues on the trip that she had waited so long for permission to take.

The Australian Embassy posted a few pictures on it's website of Ms. Adamson meeting officials and local people, but suggests that nothing was looked into as far as self-immolation was concerned.