download the report - International Campaign for Tibet

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
The Tibetan national flag,
banned by the Chinese
authorities, flying atop a
cell-phone mast in Tagong
County in Sichuan province.
According to ICT’s source,
the flag was hung on
Monday March 17, and
eventually taken down by
Chinese police officers on
Wednesday March 19.
(Photo: ICT)
In one case, a young Tibetan woman was beaten so severely in an act of reprisal for taking
a call that she had to be hospitalized. This seems to indicate that the authorities are
most concerned about information leaking to the outside world, rather than the possibility
of Tibetans using communications technology to synchronise further protests.
In some areas, mobile phone users received a text message in mid-March sent by
China Mobile to all users asking the public to send any information on those participating
in the protests.
The protests in Lhasa were against the Chinese government and its policies, but also
against Chinese people, particularly police and police informers — on March 14, Chinese
shops were burnt, and Chinese people were beaten severely and killed. The pattern
elsewhere in Tibetan areas was different; in many areas, demonstrators attacked
symbols of Communist Party power, tearing down the Chinese flag in some areas and
replacing it with the banned Tibetan snow lion flag. While there were attacks on Chinese
shops, by all accounts ordinary Chinese people were not targeted outside Lhasa.
Even the official state media has not reported attacks on Chinese civilians outside Lhasa.
In a moving and bold message received by ICT from a monastery at the heart of the
crackdown, Kirti monastery in Ngaba TAP, Sichuan, monks took pains to explain that
their protests had not been aimed at the Chinese people, but at the government. The
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