Chinese impose blackout over new Tibetan monk deaths

Two monks at a monastery in western China were killed in a clash with paramilitary police last weekend, three Tibetan sources have told The Times.

The monks, at a monastery in western Sichuan province, which borders Tibet, were killed in a clash on July 12. For monks of what are popularly known as the “red hat” sects, the date marks one of the most auspicious festivals of the year.

It is the first report of the lethal use of gunfire against Tibetan protesters demanding the return of the exiled Dalai Lama and independence since the fatal shootings on April 2 at the Tongkor monastery. The reports come despite a news blackout imposed by the Chinese authorities on reports of continuing deadly unrest in Tibetan parts of the country. A month before the Olympics, Beijing is determined to present a trouble-free image to the world.

Tibetan sources said that the trouble erupted when monks at the Gonchen monastery, one of the most prominent in the region and renowned as a centre for printing Buddhist sutras, or scriptures, attempted to mark a festival that fell on the tenth day of the sixth month of the Tibetan calendar.

Information barely trickles out from an area where People’s Liberation Army troops man roadblocks in almost every town and village.

Living in Tibet is like living in a vast concentration camp.

Security authorities have emphasised their anxiety about threats of terrorist attack from the Muslim Uighur ethnic minority living in the westernmost Chinese region of Xinjiang. Only this week they said they had tracked down 12 terrorist groups operating in the region. Earlier, the authorities said they had arrested gangs planning to kidnap athletes and foreign journalists at the Games.

Sure they did. PLAN lies a lot too. Calling these groups terrorist groups is like calling American pilots escaping a German prison camp terrorists because they killed Germans in the attempt. Worse; these people are under the Chinese jackboot in their own lands.

Chinese Regime Implicated in Staging Violence in Lhasa—UPDATED

Agents Provocateur? ["Tibetan supporter" who attacked torch bearer may be Chinese agent]

China salaries overseas Chinese for anti-Tibetan protests (rent-a-mob: $350 per head)

‘Beijing orchestrating Tibet riots’

Attack on an American volunteer by anti-Carrefour mob in Zhuzhou, Hunan
"The cab driver was shouting at him to get out. Then they started hitting the car.
The crowd was shouting "kill him! kill the Frenchman."" (he was actually an American but small difference to a government hired mob)

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