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China says everything "normal" at restive Tibetan temple

19 April, 2011 08:05:00 editor

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The stand-off between security forces and Tibetans at a monastery in southwest China ended and everything is "normal", Chinese officials said on Tuesday April 19

"According to what we understand, over the past few days the life and Buddhist activities of the monks at the Kirti monastery are all normal. Social order there is also normal. Material supplies in the temple are totally sufficient," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing in Beijing.

There is no independent way to verify the claim as of now. Last week hundreds of ethnic Tibetans gathered at the monastery in Aba in Sichuan province last week when the local authorities tried to herd out the monks for government-mandated "re-education", according to exiled Tibetans and activists. Faced with a volatile crowd, the officials did what comes natural to them – locked down the monastery with as many as 2,500 monks inside.

The area has been witnessing protests against the Chinese Communist party. Three years ago, the monastery saw sudden eruption of defiance. At Aba on March 16, a 21-year-old Tibetan monk burned himself to death in protest. Instead of putting out the flames, Chinese police beat the young monk, and it created huge resentment in the monastery.

Going by what the Tibetan exiles and Human Rights Activists say, the Chinese security forces have used excessive force to end the protest at the monastery. People were beaten up and dogs attacked them and chased them.

Now the Kirti monastery has put in place new checks to prevent entry of people of uncertain identity as the authorities like to call the angry monks.

To what extent the Kirti developments are linked to changes in the Tibetan government in exile the Dalai Lama announced are unclear. Last month (March 2011), the Dalai Lama stated his intention to hand over political power to the Tibetan parliament in northern India, though he remains the global face of the Tibetan campaign. He has already begun to implement his plans. Beijing brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous trouble-maker. The Dalai Lama has urged the monks at Kirti to observe restraint.

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