More than 2,500 Tibetan monks face starvation after Chinese security forces cordoned off a monastery in Ngaba County, Sichuan Province, China, following the self-immolation of a young Tibetan monk last month coinciding with the third anniversary of the 2008 uprising in Tibet, the Tibet Post reported yesterday.
The report said the situation at Ngaba Kirti Monastery — with which the young Tibetan monk, Phuntsok, was associated — has worsened since last month as Chinese security forces sent an estimated 800 additional armed security personnel on Saturday after they cordoned off the monastery.
“The movement of the monks is totally restricted, with no one allowed in or out of the monastery,” the report said. “Gaps in barbed wire at the north of the monastery have been closed with concrete walls.”
Monks are facing a shortage of food and depend on voluntary food donations from locals through the monastery administration, but Chinese authorities have recently prohibited the locals from offering food to monks, according to the report.
The report said if the situation continues, more than 2,500 monks in the monastery could face starvation, which would most probably lead to a mass revolt.
“In such an event, security forces will unleash a deadly assault, leading to extra-judicial killings as happened three years ago on March 16, 2008, in Ngaba County,” the report said.
The lamas and monastery officials have been able to maintain peace so far by advising the monks to remain calm despite the ongoing repression, the report said.
Phuntsok died in a hospital the day after his self-immolation. His act was timed to coincide with the third anniversary of the spring uprising in 2008 to protest against Chinese rule in Tibet.
In the aftermath of Phuntsok’s protest and subsequent show of solidarity by monks of Kirti -Monastery, Chinese authorities have taken drastic measures to bring the monks under control, the report said.
The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy has appealed to the international community and UN mandates on human rights to intervene and stop the ongoing security clampdown.
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