China tightening control in Tibet region, exiles say
Reports of stepped-up patrols and increased troop presence come amid a meeting of Tibetan exiles in India. The Dalai Lama's supporters seek a new approach toward Beijing.
Reporting from Dharmsala, India — China has further tightened control amid an expanded show of force in its ethnic Tibetan region in recent weeks, say exile groups, even as it was supposed to be negotiating in good faith with the Dalai Lama's envoys.
Although it is difficult to say conclusively that the two events are linked, reports of tighter control, stepped-up patrols and increased paramilitary presence in Lhasa, the regional capital, and along major transport arteries coincide with a key strategy meeting attended by exiles in northern India this week.
"We've monitored an even more intense crackdown in the past couple of weeks," Kate Saunders, communication director with the advocacy group International Campaign for Tibet, said today. "The Chinese authorities have clearly been very rattled by the fact they were taken unaware this spring and summer."
The group said an eyewitness report received Wednesday detailed three convoys of up to 15 Chinese military vehicles heading west of the town of Kangding in Sichuan province in recent days, an area of significant unrest, along with roadblocks, new bunker emplacements and armed forces around bridges and government buildings.
Reuters, citing sources, reported today that Bi Hua, a senior communist official handling Tibet policy in the United Front Work Department was recently removed from her office. No reason was given.
Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, recently wrapped up talks, the seventh inconclusive round in six years, following widespread unrest in the nation's ethnically Tibetan region in March. Beijing is bracing for the 50th anniversary of its March 1959 crackdown that saw the Dalai Lama flee to India, fearful or arrest.
More than 500 delegates from around the world have descended on Dharmsala, a mountain village near the Chinese border, home of the self-declared Tibetan government in exile, for six days of meetings ending Saturday.
After supporting the Dalai Lama's "middle way" approach for two decades, which acknowledges Beijing's right to sovereignty amid hope of securing greater autonomy over Tibetan religious and cultural affairs, a growing number of exiles have concluded this strategy is not working.
This week's meetings are designed to explore a new approach amid concern the 73-year- old Dalai Lama may not have too many years of good health left. Last month, he was hospitalized and had an operation to remove gallstones.
