Tibetan Movement 2008

For Immediate Release
May 6, 2008

Slaughtering of Tibetans Continue

In a rare show of defiance to the unjust handling of the post March 14 crackdown on the Tibetan people, a Tibetan named Akar Tashi originally from Lhathok Yuchu township under Chamdo (Ch: Qamdo) County in Tibet Automous Region (TAR) was killed by the Chinese armed forces in his own resident in Lhasa on May 4, a reliable source has reported. At around 9 PM on May 4, some seven Chinese Armed police suddenly broke into the house of Akar Tashi and tried to arrest him. Akar Tashi argued back demanding reasons for his intended arrest and refused to go along with them resulting in scuffle between him and the seven soldiers. Akar Tashi was shot dead by the soldiers while one of the soldiers was stabbed by Akar Tashi, the source said. Akar Tashi was between 38 or 39 years old and had been under constant Chinese surveillance for a long time for alleged political activities and particularly was suspected of having participated in the recent Lhasa protest. The armed police had therefore come to arrest him.

On May 2, four students from the Drago (Ch: Luhuo) county middle school staged a protest in Drago county that lasted for about 15 minutes. The students, two boys and two girls, shouted slogans asking for "Tibetan independence" and "to arrange for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet".

Around 4 to 5 days ago, prayer flags with "Tibet independence" slogans written on it in both Tibetan and Chinese languages were discovered from nearby Sripmo Nunnery (also known as Wa Tag Nunnery) in Drago county under Karze (Ch: Ganzi) TAP. The prayer flags have been hanged for about 2 kilometers from the nunnery. Later, the local authorities from the county headquarters summoned the monastic officials of the nunnery and sent in "Work Teams" to impart "patriotic re-education". The nuns, however, left the nunnery in a sign of defiance leaving the work team officials with no one to re-educate. There are normally 300 nuns in this nunnery.

The situation in Tibet is still tense with heavy repression and large para-military presence. The "Patriotic re-education" classes are continuing compounded with the forcible order to fly the Red flag over each household. Even the school children have not been spared from writing criticism of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The restriction on the movements of the Tibetan people is still in place and those Tibetans belonging to places outside of Lhasa are not allowed to stay there anymore. The excruciating part of the current situation in Tibet is the continuous and increasing use of Tibetans origin military and armed police especially during raids to arrest and confront other Tibetans as "criminals" with the sole aim to create division and confrontation within the Tibetan community.

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