Iron grip on Tibet ahead of touchy milestones

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Reuters
By Emma Graham-Harrison
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

File Photo: Riot police march on the street in Xiahe, Gansu Province, in this March 16, 2008 video grab. Protests hit ethnic Tibetan areas in the neighbouring Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Gansu on Sunday, reducing the chances of an early end to the instability that is a major challenge to China's leaders just months before it hosts the Olympic Games. Video taken March 16, 2008. REUTERS/Reuters TV (CHINA)

LHASA, China (Reuters) - The security clampdown begins far away from Tibet, at the airport in China's capital, where passengers flying to Lhasa are cordoned off for extra checks before they board their plane.

At the other end of the country is a city that seems to be holding its breath, just weeks ahead of two potentially explosive anniversaries and a new holiday created by Beijing which pro-Tibet activists warn is "provocative".

On March 14 last year, Lhasa erupted into riots that spilled over into ethnically Tibetan areas across the Himalayan plateau. A Tibetan crowd burned shops belonging to Han Chinese and Hui Muslims, killing 19 people.

The violence caught the government by surprise, but the crackdown was quick. Officials make no bones about their main objective now.

"The biggest lesson we learnt from the incident last year is that stability is the overriding priority here in Tibet. It is a big blessing while chaos is a big disaster," said Tsering, vice-chairman of the regional government who goes by only one name.

Dressed in a resplendently modern take on traditional Tibetan garb, with a brown robe draped over a crisply ironed shirt and tie, he blamed the unrest on Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, but said the government was now on guard.

"The Tibet issue is not about religion, ethnicity or human rights. We will continue to stay forceful against the Dalai (Lama)'s plots," Tsering told a news conference for visiting foreign journalists on a rare and tightly controlled government trip to Lhasa.

But the ageing monk is still revered by many of his former subjects. The 50th anniversary of his March 10 flight to India after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule will be a sensitive marker just before the anniversary of the riots.

Barely two weeks later, on March 28, the region celebrates "Serf Liberation Day" for the first time. It commemorates the elimination of centuries of serfdom after the Dalai Lama's departure -- meaning it may also be unpopular among those who still support him.

NO MORE RIOTS, NO NEW YEAR

Cao Bianjiang, deputy mayor of the Himalayan city, said fresh unrest could not be ruled out. But experts outside Tibet say an extensive crackdown, including arrests and a heavy security presence, make a repeat of last year's events extremely unlikely, although there may be isolated protests.

Last year's crackdown triggered anti-Chinese protests which disrupted the international leg of the torch relay ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Some monks, one of the most respected and outspoken groups in Tibetan society, have been receiving training on the "Chinese law and constitution" said Norgyal, a young disciple at the city's Jokhang temple.

He was part of a group that burst in on visiting journalists last year to complain about treatment in the wake of the riots but he said he no longer felt there was cause for complaint.

"The security set-up and the preparedness of the security is on very high alert, so there is no element of surprise that the protesters could use," said Tsering Shakya, from the Institute for Asian Research at the University of British Colombia.

"It is really very very unlikely that there could be any protests like there were last year."

Locals are quick to confirm the heavy security presence, although as journalists were driven through town on Tuesday there was a heavy traffic police presence and officers clustered outside a key temple but no obviously armed ones.

"It feels very secure, there are military police on almost every street, with guns and batons," said one long-term Lhasa resident, who barricaded himself into his office to survive the March riots and had only left the city to return home for the Chinese New Year in late January.

But officials may face silent protests from unhappy segments of the population, who are planning to avoid any festivities for the Tibetan New Year in memory of the dead and arrested.

The plan draws on a tradition for Tibetans in mourning but has angered the government.

"I heard there are a small number of people saying that they will not celebrate the New Year ... I think they hope to take that as an opportunity to make the Tibet issue an international issue, to use it to achieve their ill-intentioned goals," said Nyima Tsering, deputy head of the regional parliament.

"The majority of Tibetans will always take this opportunity to celebrate the harvests and good times they are having and there is no reason for them not to."