For Immediate Press Release
April 30, 2008
According to a reliable source, on April 28th, a Tibetan escapee was shot dead by the Chinese Armed Police during a raid conducted to arrest local Tibetans from Ponkor Toema (Ch: Hongke township) under Darlag (Ch: Dari) County in Golog TAP (Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture). Local Tibetans, who were hiding in the surrounding hills to escape arrest, were surrounded by China's People's Armed Police and fired upon, the source said.
The incident was also reported by PRC mouthpiece Xinhua, saying a Tibetan origin "officer was killed in the gun battle" following a "gunfire between the police and a suspect".
According to confirmed information, the Tibetan who died following the police incursion was identified as Choetop, a 22 year old whose dead body was denied to his family members. Moreover, authorities even arrested victim's father Sangsang Lele and a brother, who have been transferred to county headquarter in Darlag (Ch: Dari).
As reported in our earlier release, the Ponkor Toema peaceful protests occurred on March 21 and around 500 local Tibetans had then fled to the surrounding hills and forest to evade Chinese repression. We are yet to verify the actual figure of death and injured as well as the number of Tibetans present together with Choetop when Chinese armed police launched the clamp down.
Earlier, on April 14, during a "Patriotic re-education" campaign launched by the local authorities in Yang Nye township under Sog county, a Tibetan named Chambu Gudrup, aged 52, burnt a bundle of animal skins and offered a Khatak (scarf) to a portrait of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, which he had brought along with him, amidst the gathering in protest against the forcible implementation of the campaign. He said it was Communist China who committed massacre and separated Tibetans since 1959 to date. It was absolutely incorrect, he continued, to force Tibetans to denounce His Holiness the Dalai Lama who, he said, is both political and spiritual leader of all Tibetans. He was soon arrested.
China's claim of situation in Tibet as "normal" is strongly contradicted and also, some foreign journalists were restricted to move freely by Chinese authorities during a short and controlled visit to the base camp of Mt. Everest (Ch: Qomolangma), to cover the Olympic torch relay to the world's highest peak. This clearly shows that Tibet is still reeling under heavy repression.
In view of the ongoing critical situation inside Tibet, we urge the United Nations and the International community and organizations to the following urgent needs:
- To immediately send an independent international fact-finding mission into Tibet
- To exert pressure on the PRC government to allow unfettered access to free press in whole of Tibet
- To pressure the PRC to end the brutal killings in the whole of Tibet
- To immediately release all the arrested and imprisoned Tibetans
- To extend immediate medical assistance to those injured Tibetans
- To allow free movement of people and provide access to daily needs
- Tibetan Solidarity Committee