Police open fire at Tibetans protesting cement factory pollution

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

ICT
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Armed police in riot gear massing outside the cement factory in Madang Township. (Photo:ICT)

Police opened fire on Tibetans at a cement factory in the Tibetan area of Amdo (Labrang in Gansu) on Saturday (May 15) after local villagers, worried about pollution from the factory, started to rebuild a road that had been closed by the expansion of the factory. Fifteen people were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds or injuries from beatings by police, although no one was killed, according to an exile Tibetan source in contact with Tibetans in the area. Pictures sent from Tibet depict armed police in riot gear massing outside the factory, which is in Madang Township, Labrang (Chinese: Xiahe) County in Gansu Province, the Tibetan area of Amdo.

The villagers had attempted to resolve the issue of pollution by the factory peacefully by submitting a petition to the authorities, a copy of which has been obtained and is translated from Chinese into English below. The petition, which also refers to the religious significance of the area where the factory is built, states:

“For over a thousand of us villagers, [the cement factory] has brought with it enormous harm: the cement factory gave no consideration or [illegible] to controlling pollution [illegible] in step with production. Having expanded production, the amount of dust being discharged was an unknown number of times greater than before reconstruction. At times when the more serious pollutants are being emitted, even opening one’s eyes can be very difficult. […] Today, when all the world is advocating harmonious development and our country is fully implementing a scientific viewpoint of development, the defendants at the same time as expanding production ignored state environment protection laws by seriously contravening effluent and dust and pollutant outputs, creating serious harm to our normal lives. Therefore, having attained no outcome in discussions with the cement factory leaders the only option was to petition relevant departments and earnestly request a high degree of attention, leading to an amicable resolution that will avoid the occurrence of drastic actions.”

Fifteen people were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds or injuries from beatings by police after local Tibetans in Labrang county protested outside of a cement factory.

Armed police in riot gear massing outside the cement factory in Madang Township. (Photo:ICT)

The language used by the drafters of the petition indicates an awareness not only of national law and policy on environmental protection, but also an understanding of current Communist Party sogans including “harmonious development” and a “scientific viewpoint.” It is not yet known how many people signed the petition, nor which government and Party offices it was sent to. Despite being a perfectly legitimate form of lodging a protest with the Chinese authorities, the petition’s strength of language and the determination of its tone may have been a factor in the decision to deploy armed force against local people protesting at the factory.

The incident follows protests by Tibetan villagers in Markham in the Tibetan area of Kham against mining operations earlier this month, according to the Tibetan language service of Radio Free Asia. Thirteen Tibetans were detained and five injured on May 4, the day a mining company was given the go ahead, despite earlier protests, to resume mining at three major sites in Markham (Chinese: Mangkang) county in Chamdo (Chinese: Qamdo) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Protest at cement factory in Madang

Armed police confronted Tibetans this weekend outside the cement factory in Madang after Tibetans had gathered in order to start rebuilding the road in the area. According to local sources in contact with exile Tibetans, Tibetans in Madang resent the cement factory because of its pollution to the local area and adverse impact on the grasslands and livestock. The factory has been developed by the authorities in recent years and now blocks the main road to Yarshul (Chinese: Yaxiu) village. Tibetans started to rebuild this road, and in doing so, blocked vehicles from the cement factory.

The same Tibetan source reported: “Local Tibetans carried on with their road construction work even though the staff from cement factory, cadres from Madang Township as well as County police officers arrived and warned them to stop. Finally the deputy governor of the county arrived and told them that if they did not pull back from blocking the road to the cement factory’s vehicles, the authorities would take action. He gave them a 15-minute warning, and the villagers did start to move back from the road. But even so armed police moved forward and started to shoot.” No one was killed, but according to the same source at least two Tibetans were taken to hospital with gunshot wounds, one apparently injured in the leg. Others were beaten up by police, and ICT has an image of a Tibetan with blood over his face apparently following a beating. 

The cement factory is known to locals as the ‘Amdo Cement Factory’ and there are around 600 employees, according to the same Tibetan source, who says: “The factory causes many problems for local Tibetans because it pollutes the area, producing chemical residues which have badly affected grasslands and forests, as well as livestock. There have been incidents before between local people and factory works, with a serious clash in 2008.”

A copy of the petition, obtained by an exiled Tibetan, has been translated from Chinese into English by ICT below. In addition to the expressed concerns about pollution, local Tibetan signatories say that the factory was built on a site of religious significance in the area.