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Protesters detained in Qinghai

Police beat and detained dozens of ethnic Tibetans during the latest protest in a restive region of western China, sparked when monks gathered to demand the release of fellow clergy, residents and an activist group said on Friday.

The authorities clamped down quickly after the protest on Thursday in Qinghai Province’s Tongren County, imposing an overnight curfew while police and armed paramilitary troops checked ID cards and residency permits, a hotel receptionist said.

Despite a massive deployment of security forces, anti-government protests have continued to pop up in Tibetan-inhabited areas of western China in the weeks following riots in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

Crowds gathered in Tongren after Buddhist monks calling for the release of fellow clergy were joined by shoppers at a local market, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy reported.

A senior monk tried to mediate but police moved in, beating participants and detaining more than 100 monks and lay people, said the Dharmsala-based center.

Receptionists reached by phone at Tongren hotels confirmed the protest, saying a crowd had gathered near local county offices.

“Police even came to our hotel to check on people. No one was allowed outside after 12am,” one receptionist said.

The receptionists refused to give their names for fear of retaliation by authorities, who have reportedly offered rewards for information on people who leak news of protests and crackdowns.

A worker at a Tibetan restaurant near the monastery said police attacked protesters indiscriminately.

“They were randomly beating people,” said the woman, who gave her name as Duoma.

The monks had been demanding the release of those detained after a March 16 protest in which about 100 monks climbed a hillside above the monastery, burned incense and set off fireworks, while riot police massed outside.

The Tibetan government-in-exile also on Friday accused China’s government of using police dressed in Tibetan clothing and monks’ robes to instigate violent protests in order to justify its crackdown.

Most of the protesters involved in the violence that broke out in Lhasa on March 14 were unfamiliar to local people, Samdhong Rinpoche, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile, told reporters.

“There are cases where people have seen the Chinese policemen in Tibetan dress and monks’ robes taking the leading role during the protest,” Rinpoche said.

He did not provide details.

It was not clear if Rinpoche was referring to photographs that have been circulating online for weeks showing uniformed Chinese troops holding red monks’ robes. Tibet experts have said those images were taken during movie shoots several years ago, when the soldiers were employed as extras.
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