Updates from Kirti Monastery, Ngaba, Tibet
April 25th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Update on the situation around Kirti Monastery in Ngaba Tibet:
Kirti Monastery was raided by police and more than 300 of the 2,500 monks were arrested. Two Tibetans in their sixties who were standing vigil outside of the monastery died after being beaten by security forces on April 21st. (AFP) The monks are being forced into a “patriotic re-education” (BBC) program, the region is closed to foreigners, and yet China’s foreign ministry is stating that the situation there is normal.
Videos and photographs have surfaced showing footage of the situation in Ngaba. The video was broadcasted on Voice of America’s Tibetan-language news, and absolutely refutes the reports of normalcy from Beijing. The video, which was taken clandestinely, shows the charred body of Phuntsok–the monk who self-immolated–as well as the heightened military presence. The video below from Voice of America is in Tibetan, and the BBC has posted a video in English. (The video contains disturbing images)
Photographs have also surfaced, which were released by Free Tibet and portray Phuntsok’s funeral on the 19th of March, which was attended by hundreds of monks and lay people. It also shows groups of police and military, and military checkpoints in the town and around Kirti Monastery. The images are powerful, especially when one takes into consideration the great risk that someone took by capturing the images and sending them abroad.
Take Action! Use your free speech for those who can’t:
Take Action with Students for a Free Tibet
Take Action with Amnesty International
Further Reading:
China denies blockading monastery where monk burnt himself (BBC)
China’s Tibetan problem: More turbulent monks (The Economist blog)
Two die in Tibetan monastery crackdown: rights group (AFP)
[...] In April, permits were re-issued, and fair-skinned foreign tourists toting heavy cameras began trickling in, trailing their tour guides around the city. It had been one month since I had seen any foreigners save the few that I knew lived in Lhasa, and I stared and studied them with the same fascination as the Tibetans, not used to the sight of them. A recent news article stated that areas of Sichuan, most likely Ngaba, were closed to tourists in April, following the self-immolation of a monk and the subsequent protests and crackdown in the region. [...]