China is launching a security sweep in Tibet ahead of one of the region’s most sensitive anniversaries in years, with state media saying at least 81 people have been detained.
Tibet independence advocates said on Wednesday the anti-crime crackdown in the Himalayan region appeared aimed at intimidating Tibetans ahead of the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that saw the Dalai Lama flee into exile.
China has been preparing for the possibility of more unrest in Tibet since deadly rioting in the capital Lhasa on March 14 sparked the biggest anti-government protests among Tibetans in decades — and a major military crackdown.
China claims Tibet has always been part of its territory, while many Tibetans assert their Himalayan region was virtually independent for centuries.
The public security bureau of Lhasa launched a “strike hard” campaign against crime on Jan. 18, with raids on residential areas, Internet cafes, bars, rented rooms, hotels and guest houses, the state-run Tibetan Daily said in a report posted on China Tibet News, a state-run Web news portal.
The report did not specify whether the people detained were Tibetan, Han Chinese or other ethnicities.
The “strike hard” campaigns are crime crackdowns in which normal arrest and prosecution procedures are usually waived to maximize the number of people detained.
Though they normally focus on criminals, people suspected of anti-government activities in places such as Tibet and the restive, largely Muslim region of Xinjiang, also are targeted.
By last Saturday, authorities had detained 51 people for unspecified criminal activities and taken in 30 others for robbery, prostitution and theft, the Tibetan Daily report said.
Among them were two people who had “reactionary music” on their mobile phones, the report said.
A woman who answered the phone at the Lhasa public security bureau hung up after saying the office was not authorized to speak with the media. Calls to the Lhasa government office rang unanswered on Wednesday, amid the week-long national holiday for the Lunar New Year.
The International Campaign for Tibet said the latest “strike hard” campaign “appears to be intended to intimidate Tibetans still further” ahead of the period in March that marks the 1959 independence uprising as well as the Tibetan New Year.
Tibetans launched the rebellion on March 10, 1959, to try to oust the Chinese, but the uprising was soon crushed, while the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India.
The first day of the new year according to the Tibetan calendar falls on Feb. 25, about a month after the Chinese celebrate their Lunar New Year.
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