DHARAMSHALA December 4: Photos depicting China’s brutality in Tibet and the Chinese security official’s high-handed and vulgar display of power over Tibetan monks and commoners have been leaked out of Tibet.
A Chinese website based in US - boxun.com, on Friday released eight photographs of Tibetans with their hands tied at their backs, being paraded publicly in military vehicles, escorted by security officials, and kneeling on the ground. Placards with their names and their “crimes” such as “separatist” are seen hung from their necks.
Other photos also show large contingents of People's Armed Police and Special Branch of People's Armed Police carrying automatic rifles, manning the streets.
While the website didn’t provide exact locations and date of the pictures, individuals and organisations in exile have identified few of the photographs.
Speaking to Phayul, a monk at the exile base of the Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, Kanyag Tsering identified that four of the photos were from Ngaba in eastern Tibet.
“The ground where hundreds of Chinese armed security personnel are sitting is a public basketball ground in Ngaba Kriti town” Tsering told Phayul.
“The photo taken from inside a car is also in Kriti as you can visibly see the Kriti monastery stupa at the back with Chinese security officials manning the intersection with automatic rifles right at the front,” added Tsering.
Although Tsering wasn’t sure of the dates when the photographs were taken, the exiled monk recognised the houses and the streets in two other photos with armed Chinese security personnel marching in a show of power.
“The photograph showing Chinese security forces in green and blue uniform is taken near the Ngaba town court,” said Tsering.
The Kirti monastery in Ngaba and its surrounding regions have been facing growing restrictions since March this year after Phuntsog, a young Kirti monk self immolated protesting China’s occupation of Tibet and calling for the Dalai Lama’s return from exile.
Since then, eleven more Tibetans, including monks, nuns, and lay people have set their bodies on fire, the latest being Tenzin Phuntsok who set himself ablaze in Chamdo on December 1.
In the only on-ground report from Ngaba since March this year by foreign journalists, Robert Saiget, an AFP reporter in October said that “police, many carrying riot shields and armed with clubs and iron, lined the streets of the town”.
“Large groups of soldiers in camouflage carried automatic rifles, metal rods with spiked tips and fire extinguishers, while police buses, trucks and armoured personnel carriers blocked the streets,” AFP had reported in accord with the recently leaked photographs.
Writing on Facebook, the Beijing based award-winning Tibetan blogger and activist Woeser said that she was shocked to see the pictures.
“These photos clearly show the suppression of the truth of the Tibetans,” Woeser said.
Source: Phayul.com
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