(TibetanReview.net, Sep20, 2014) – China is enlarging a paramilitary police detention centre in Driru (Chinese: Biru) County of Nagchu (Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, in anticipation of further unrest in this highly disturbed region where a massive crackdown on protests against forced display of loyalty to China and its communist party rulers has been continuing since Sep 2013, reported Radio Free Asia (Washington) Sep 18.
“The authorities are saying that this will be a major prison for those who conduct activities against the [Chinese] government and its policies,” the report quoted an unnamed local source as saying.
The detention centre is part of a People’s Armed Police station and has been located in the county’s Tsamdo Town for some time. The report said the station itself was also being expanded.
The station’s detention centre had about 400 Tibetan detainees over May-June this year, although the number had now dropped to about 200, the report said. Tibetans are said to be held there for periods ranging from a week to six months.
Driru, along with two neighbouring counties, is considered by Beijing as “politically unstable” and it fears that the political unrest there will spread to other parts of Tibet unless brought under effective check.
The report cite sources as saying about 1,000 Driru-area Tibetans had been detained since Chinese authorities launched a crackdown in Sep 2013 when Tibetans defied a orders to fly the fly the Chinese red flag from their homes in a forced display of loyalty.