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INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
“[When I arrived in Lhasa on March 14] in the streets near the east there were shops
and cars being smashed or burned. I ran to the area near the Post and Telecommunications
Building, where there were many people standing on the streetside watching
Tibetans protesting. We can say that, for a few hours, Tibet seemed to be independent.
Not long after, I saw quite a few armoured cars drive over there, shooting tear-gas with
the noise thum-thum-thum. The crowd dispersed right away. Those who had experience
were cleaning their eyes with the water in shops. I only felt that my throat hurt greatly,
and I could not hold back my tears...
“I didn’t [see firing into the crowd], but my friend saw that a man was killed in the
area near Lhasa Middle School, and he was a Tibetan […] I quickly ran back to my
place. I was tired and frightened, so I fell asleep as soon as I lay down. [The next morning]
as soon as I stepped out of my house, I became stunned. In front of me there were
soldiers everywhere, some holding sticks and clubs and others holding guns in their
hands. I wanted to go back, but the soldiers called out loud to me ‘Come over!’ I had
to force myself to go over there.
“Two soldiers told me to hold up my two hands just like when one surrendered himself,
then they searched my body. I was terribly frightened. I had my amulets in the
pocket of my jacket. One of the amulets was a sacred object especially blessed by the
Dalai Lama, symbolizing the removal of ill-fortune and avoidance of calamities. I also
had a badge of Kundun [one of the honorific titles for the Dalai Lama, literally meaning
‘presence’]. If the badge had been found by the soldiers, then I would definitely
have died. I was quietly praying to Kundun. Indeed Kundun was protecting me.
Though the soldier frisked my pocket several times, he did not find it. Then he howled
at me, ‘Beat it!’ [The account then refers to soldiers pulling images of the Dalai Lama
from around the necks of Tibetans.] After throwing them on the ground, they also
had Tibetans step on them. If anyone refused to trample them, they would be arrested
and taken away. Some young people wore rosaries on their wrists, and when they
were found by the soldiers, they were also arrested and taken away.
“As long as you are Tibetan, no matter whether you are a man or a woman, old or
young, just like me, you would be searched by raising your hands like you were surrendering.
Do you know that I had never experienced such an insult before? I saw
we Tibetans raising our hands as if we were surrendering and being searched by soldiers
with guns in their hands. Even the old people were not spared, neither were
girls. I remembered the movies I had watched. Those movies about Japanese ‘devils’
invading China or about the nationalists fighting against the communists were just
like what were happening in front of my eyes.
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