(TibetanReview.net, Mar 09, 2009) — Tibetans in Karze county not only boycotted government-ordered New Year performances, they also put up posters calling for Tibet’s independence and threatening retaliation for crackdowns in the area, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington, DC) Mar 5. It also said two young Tibetan women, including a nun, were detained after they staged brief separate protests in front of the county’s Public Security Bureau (PSB) headquarters.
The report said groups of performers were ordered to tour towns and villagers in the county on Mar 2 and 3, escorted by teams of People’s Armed Police officers and official reporters travelling in three vehicles, the report said. However, despite official orders and threats, very few people attended the shows, the report added, denying the government the propaganda footages it sought.
The report said that in one case, before the performers arrived at Rongpa Tsal sub-district, near Thargyal monastery, the county’s second largest, hundreds of posters were seen put up, urging Tibetans not to attend the shows. The incident was repeated when the group next visited Lopa sub-district.
“In some of the posters, the Chinese authorities were threatened with violent retaliation for their crackdowns on peaceful Tibetans,” the report quoted a local source as saying. “Even government employees at the sub-district and township levels were warned not to attend the shows. They were told that if they did, they would pay with their lives.”
Village and small town performers were cancelled after the above two incidents, and the teams only visited larger towns, the report said.
In separate developments on Mar 5, a nun named Pema Yangdzom, 22, and a girl of unknown name and age were held after they staged separate protests — one around 10:20am and the other around 1pm — in front of the county police headquarters, said the RFA report, citing the nun’s Australia-based uncle Yeshe Dorje.