(TibetanReview.net, Oct20, 2018) – While China’s central government speaks of achieving big strides in eliminating poverty, with a record number of 85 counties taken of the list most recently, its local governments in Tibet appear to be busy creating poverty. Dozens of Tibetans living in what is now part of China’s Gansu Province have been protesting in front of government offices in Chone (Chinese: Zhuoni) County to demand compensation they were promised for livestock culled three years ago under a government order, reported the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Oct 18.
The report said the protest in the county’s Nyipa Township was launched on Oct 13, calling on authorities to provide the promised government subsidies and other benefits for about 100 families who had been ordered to reduce their herds to prescribed numbers. Concerns about overgrazing on vulnerable grasslands were cited as the reason for the culling order.
The report cited a local villager as saying promises of assistance made by officials in 2015 as consideration for culling the livestock had not yet been honoured.
Elderly villagers were stated to have been sleeping on pavements for days as a part of their protest, with officials paying no heed to their complaints.
The report cited Golog Jigme, a former political prisoner in Chinese ruled Tibet now living in Switzerland, as saying only 60 to 70 out of 100 Nyipa Township families now had any livestock left with them. The rest were stated to have long sold all their animals, including cows, yaks, and sheep.
