China detains 81 people in Tibet crackdown

Operation carried out two months before 50th anniversary of failed uprising against Chinese rule

Chinese authorities have launched a security operation in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, running checks on almost 6,000 people and detaining 81, including two with “reactionary music” on their mobile phones, state media reported.

The Tibetan Daily said the “strike hard” campaign was targeting criminals.

However, campaigners for Tibetan autonomy said its timing – just two months before the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising against Chinese rule that resulted in the Dalai Lama’s flight into exile – suggested it was meant to intimidate residents.

The centre of Lhasa has been under heavy paramilitary security since last year’s violent riots, in which at least 18 people were killed.

The violence broke out following a clampdown on peaceful protests to mark the 10 March anniversary of the rebellion.

According to the Tibetan Daily, the public security bureau in Lhasa began its campaign on 18 January with raids on residential areas, hotels, guesthouses, internet cafes and bars.

By Saturday, officers had detained 30 people for robbery, prostitution, theft and having “reactionary music” – probably songs praising the Dalai Lama – on their phones.

Another 51 people were arrested for unspecified activities.

Calls to the Lhasa government office went unanswered and an employee at the public security bureau told the Associated Press the office was not authorised to speak to the media.

Tibet campaign groups quoted an earlier report in the Lhasa Evening News as saying that 5,766 people had been checked in a campaign focusing on high crime areas, those used by a floating population and places of “filth and iniquity”.

It added: “Fugitives in crimes involving guns and explosives, murder, theft and robbery were arrested, with a total of 66 suspects detained on suspicion of theft, burglary, prostitution and having reactionary opinions.”

The newspaper’s website could not be accessed today.

China first introduced “strike hard” campaigns against crime and corruption in 1983, concerned that offences were soaring in the wake of economic reforms.

The authorities have used them periodically since, often in the run-up to major events, and punishments meted out can include lengthy jail sentences and the death penalty.

“With unprecedented levels of security already in place throughout Tibet, this latest campaign appears to be intended to intimidate Tibetans still further in the build-up to the Tibetan new year in late February, the 50th anniversary period of the March ’59 uprising and the Dalai Lama’s flight to India, when the authorities fear further unrest,” the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.

In December, Chinese state media reported that the authorities in Tibet had detained 59 people suspected of disseminating rumours inciting ethnic tension and were cracking down on illegal downloads of “reactionary music”.

source

I know this won’t actually matter as it’s not China against Christans, or China supporting genocide, or China against it’s own people but it’s still worth pointing out that this place, which, in case you had forgotten, recvently hosted a sporting event aimed, in part, at suporting human rights are still carrying out an illegal occupation of another country and seemingly getting away with it.

There was a time when I kept posting articles about the elections in East Timor. And I suspect that people were asking why. The reason is because it deserves knowing about

Will

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