Police in western China fatally shot a Tibetan man and wounded two others amid protests against Chinese rule, an activist group and a US broadcaster said yesterday.
The three men were shot on Tuesday by police who were looking for or had detained another man in connection with a Jan. 25 incident in which protesters tore down a Chinese flag at a police station in a Tibetan area of Qinghai Province, according to London-based Free Tibet and Radio Free Asia. Both cited unidentified sources in the area.
Employees who answered the phone at local government and police offices in Pema County and the prefecture where it is located, Golog, said they had not heard of the shootings.
Photo: EPA
The Tibetan government-in-exile yesterday branded Beijing’s “hardline policy” towards the troubled region a failure and urged China’s next leaders to hand greater autonomy to Tibetans.
China begins the country’s biggest leadership transition in nearly a decade later this year, that will send its premier and president into retirement, stirring hopes it may soften its stance toward Tibet.
“We hope that China’s upcoming leaders will initiate genuine change and they find the wisdom to admit the government’s hardline policy in Tibet has failed,” said Lobsang Sangay, the head of the exiled government.
Sangay’s statement come as Tibetans the world over mark “uprising day” to commemorate the Dalai Lama’s flight to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
He issued his statement from the northern Indian town of Dharamshala, headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
“The Tibetan struggle is not against the Chinese people or China as a nation. It is against the People’s Republic of China’s policies,” Sangay said.
“China must acknowledge the depth of the problems in Tibet and understand they cannot be solved through violence,” he said.
Sangay appealed to Beijing to accept the Tibetan’s “Middle Way Policy,” which seeks “genuine” autonomy for Tibetans within the framework of the Chinese constitution.
More than two dozen Tibetans have set themselves on fire over the past year to protest what activists say is Beijing’s suppression of Tibetan religion and culture. The communist government has blamed supporters of the Dalai Lama for encouraging the self-immolations.
Free Tibet said the man who was killed this week, identified as Choeri, and the two who were wounded were shot after they went to a police station to object to the arrest of another man. It said that man, Thubwang, was believed to be a leader of the protest.
Radio Free Asia said the men were shot while trying to protect Thubwang from police.
The two wounded men are brothers, identified as Karkho and Jampel Lodroe, Free Tibet said. One was wounded in the arm and the other in the leg, it said.
Tibetans, including a prominent writer in Beijing, have pleaded for an end to the self-immolations, saying they are not helping the cause of Tibetan rights.
On Friday, Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) met in Beijing with Tibetan delegates to the legislature and urged them to maintain stability, spread the message of ethnic unity and safeguard the unity of the motherland, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The Dalai Lama has praised the courage of those who engage in self-immolation and has attributed the protests to what he calls China’s “cultural genocide” in Tibet. He also says he does not encourage the protests.
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