DHARAMSHALA, March 8: Even as senior Chinese leaders hogged the media in Beijing, on the sidelines of the rubber stamp parliamentary session, describing self-immolations in Tibet as “terrorism in disguise,” Tibetans at the centre of the protests have a completely different story to tell.
Risking his own safety and security, a young man in the beleaguered region of Ngaba, eastern Tibet, told an British media crew, who were able to sneak into the cut off region, that governments in the west have forgotten the Tibetan people.
“I feel very sad because of the situation,” the man tells a Sky News reporter in his limited English. “Lot of people died. So just Tibetan people alone. Nobody tries to help.”
Ngaba has been at the centre of the fiery protests inside Tibet with 17 of the reported 26 self-immolations taking place in the region. Rinchen, a mother of four was the latest to set herself on fire demanding the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and freedom in Tibet.
“We are not terrorist,” the young man says. “We are Buddhists. We are not going to harm other people.”
The short video clip shows, what the reporter describes, as “rare pictures of the tense relationship” between Chinese authorities and the local Tibetan people. Despite China’s claims of the self-immolation protests being one-off incidents lacking popular support, the images from Ngaba tell of China’s preparations for a “war against saboteurs” in a town under “virtual lock down.”
Chinese paramilitary police have now swamped Ngaba, the reporter says, with an “intimidating presence of Chinese state security police.”
“Ranks of men in anti-riot gear crouch behind the steel barricades that line the town's main street, while camouflaged troops use a field less than 200 yards from the Kirti monastery's golden stupa to practice martial arts drills.”
Chinese security personnel have detained several foreign journalists attempting to enter the area, including reporters from the BBC and CNN.
However, journalists who have been able to slip through the tight security cordon have described the town as a “conflict zone” under “stifling lockdown.”
An Associated Press journalist reported that soldiers with helmets, rifles, sticks and shields marching in rows were not only patrolling the streets, but also “policing the minds” of the community.
"The locals are definitely feeling very heavy-hearted, very frustrated, all day. The soldiers are everywhere," the report quoted a teacher as saying. "At every moment, people wonder what will happen to the person next to them, what the soldiers will do to them."
One of the first to gain access to the Ngaba region, a Guardian reporter, revealed that Chinese paramilitaries were trying to “snuff out Tibetan resistance to Beijing's rule with spiked batons, semi-automatic weapons and fire extinguishers.”
"Essentially you've got a town that's on edge - a town that's divided between the potential immolators and those standing by to extinguish," the Guardian reported.
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China (FCCC) in a statement last month had taken strong exception to the restrictions imposed on entering Tibet by the Chinese government and called for "unfettered access" to the Tibetan areas.
“The Chinese authorities have set up a massive security cordon in an attempt to prevent journalists from entering Tibetan areas where major unrest – including killings and self-immolations – has been reported,” the release said.
“The FCCC considers this a clear violation of China’s regulations governing foreign reporters, which allow them to travel freely and to interview anyone prepared to be interviewed”.
Source: Phayul.com
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