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TIBET AT A TURNING POINT: THE SPRING UPRISING AND CHINA’S NEW CRACKDOWN
On March 17 there were several more demonstrations in rural areas of Ngaba county
and adjacent regions. The largest seems to have been in Me’u Ruma township, a pastoral
area, where hundreds gathered under the Tibetan national flag shouting independence
slogans. They were confronted by armed police who fired on the crowd.
Protests were also reported in the pastoral areas of Chojema, Saruma and Jakorma,
where local police stations were attacked and Tibetan flags raised. There were also
demonstrations by the monks of Trotsik and Nangshik monasteries, and the nuns of
Mama nunnery, and by school and college students in Barkham (Chinese: Ma’erkang)
and Mewa (Chinese: Hongyuan) counties.
There was a further protest in Rong Kharsar township on March 19, and large protests
also took place at monasteries under neighbouring Dzoge county, including Tangkor
Soktsang, Jam-me and Tringwa March 17–19. (A protest by the people of Mugu and
Tsokni pastoral areas in Rong-ngen around this time has not been dated). By this time,
Kirti monastery had been blockaded by soldiers, preventing movement in and out, including
food supplies. Extra troops were dispatched into the area, and all schools
closed down and occupied by the army. Many of those who participated in the protests
fled into the mountains in fear of arrest if they returned to their homes.
On March 20, local officials accompanied by armed soldiers conducted a search of
Kirti monastery and began a patriotic education campaign requiring monks to sign
statements of guilt and of loyalty to the Party and state, a campaign which gathered
intensity over the following days. The soldiers guarding the monastery (estimated in
thousands) trained cannon on the building, and military aircraft (from the nearby
airbase) flew low overhead, apparently to intimidate. Security forces began house-tohouse
searches in rural areas including Lota and Me’u Ruma and made numerous arrests.
Official announcements were made that suspects from the March 16 protest
would be shot on sight and that rewards would be given to informers.
On March 28 Tibetan shops and businesses in Ngaba county were closed down and
thousands of soldiers and police began a systematic search of the monastery, arresting
monks and taking them into detention in the county town. Those found with telephones
and other communications equipment, and those with Dalai Lama photos
or other politically suspect materials were the first to be arrested. By the following
day their number had exceeded 500. Many of this first wave of detainees have now
been released after severe maltreatment in custody. The police confiscated Dalai Lama
photos and burned them. They are also accused of vandalising religious objects and
seizing cash from the monasteries.
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