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INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
“These soldiers kicked us to the ground, swearing at us the whole time. [...] We were
taken to the police station. There two policemen came who took our pictures and
recorded our I.D. numbers. When we were interrogated, one Tibetan policeman said
in Tibetan ‘Don’t say too much.’ He sounded very vicious, so the Chinese policeman
must have thought that he was cursing at us. I did not expect at this time there would
be a policeman who would help Tibetans. Perhaps because they could not get anything
out of three drunkards, eventually they released us. […] We heard gun shots all
the way home. I really do not know how many people like that girl were killed.”
“[Later] I heard that all three of my friends who rented rooms at the big compounds
inhabited by many families were all arrested. Though they never shouted a slogan, did
not throw a stone, nor were they even among the onlookers, they were actually arrested
and taken away. What made it very funny is the reason for their arrest is that
one of them has very long hair and looks like an impressive Khampa, the other has
very short hair and looks very much like a monk. As for the reason for the third one,
ha, ha, he has a gold inlaid tooth in his mouth. Many Khampas and Amdo people
love to inlay gold in their teeth, and there were many Khampas and Amdowa people
who participated in this uprising. The reason he was arrested because of his golden
tooth is probably because he was suspected to be a Khampa or an Amdo person.
“[Some days later] I heard that they had begun to sell train tickets, then I directly went
to the train station. On my way to the train station, only two kilometers from my
friend’s house to the railway station, I was checked by soldiers with guns and clubs
seven times. They all spoke Sichuan dialect. They were thin and small, and looked
like mice, but they were more frightening than tigers.
“They repeatedly checked my I.D card and my certificate of temporary residence. If the
person did not look like the photo in the papers, he would be arrested and taken away
right on the spot. They also checked very carefully the text messages and pictures in
people’s cell phones. Fortunately, I cannot take pictures with my cell phone. My luggage
was also leafed through and checked. I had one small album in it, and they
opened the album and looked at the pictures one by one. The strangest thing is that
they actually told me to roll back my sleeves, and stroked my two arms back and forth
several times. Why? Were they looking for rosaries? If a person wears rosaries on
one’s wrist, if one is not a monk, then one is somebody who believes in Buddhism.
Later I heard there were people who were arrested because of rosaries. Eventually, I was
able to buy a standing room ticket [and was able to leave Lhasa].”
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