Tibetans beaten, arrested for protesting official corruption
About 100 Tibetans were injured after they were beaten by security personnel from People’s Armed Police (PAP) for protesting against the local government’s move to reward and honor two corrupt officials in Adhue village in the upper part of Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County in Ngaba and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province.
The incident occurred at around 2 pm on 14 April 2012 in which some Tibetans like Lopon Kyab were seriously injured and had to be hospitalized in the Ngaba County hospital.
On 14 April 2012, a group of officials from Ngaba County came and spoke in praise of the two officials who were in fact suspected by local Tibetans of embezzling funds meant for building houses for the local people. The officials also announced that the two officials would be rewarded for their ‘good work’.
At this, the local Tibetans expressed their strong disapproval. Immediately, about 10 truckloads of armed police, who were accompanying the officials, started beating the crowd. The truckloads of armed police had accompanied the officials to Adhue village perhaps in anticipation of protests from the local Tibetans. The armed police were not visible at the beginning of the talk by the officials, but they materialized as soon as the protests started.
Sources say around 15 to 20 people were arrested, out of which three has been identified as Tenzin Tsering, Tsenor and Tsamchen of Tsosum village. There is no information on their whereabouts and their medical condition.
After 2008, a site known as “Omaylue” collectively owned by all sections of Adhue community was appropriated by the government in the name of building an old age home. Omaylue was usually used for communal prayer meetings, to stage public Buddhist teachings by visiting Lamas, and for annual community festivals and picnics. There was resistance among local Tibetans against the appropriation of Omaylue for government projects.
Later, a huge army camp instead of the old people’s home was built at the site and it is currently occupied by soldiers and armed police.
In the vicinity of Omaylue, the government built rows of small houses like those being built all over Tibet, ostensibly to aid the people in the name of state assistance. However, at the end of 2011, the government announced that the houses had cost Yuan 80,000, and that the state would pay Yuan 70,000. Each household were required to pay the remaining Yuan 10,000 plus interest. But the local Tibetans responded that they had been given the housing as an aid and no demand for money had been made in the beginning, so they were unable to meet one now. Since then many Tibetans have been prosecuted, by the county and township authorities, said sources. When these houses were built, the two officers were suspected of embezzling funds.
Tibetan Protester Caught on Camera Sentenced
The Chinese authorities have sentenced a Tibetan man to a prison term of three years and 6 months after he was caught on camera protesting in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County in Ngaba and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture.
Tsering Tashi, aged 33, hailing from Rongba household in Adhue Thawa village was sentenced in January 2012.
Tsering Tashi took part in peaceful protests that rocked Ngaba following the 16 March 2011 self-immolation of Phunstok Jarutsang. It appears that he was caught on camera by the security officials who routinely film Tibetan protests.
