(TibetanReview.net, Jul01’23) – Chinese authorities in Tibet’s capital Lhasa have intensified their monitoring of local Tibetans, including by carrying out random search of their mobile phones, to make them refrain from having any outside contacts, especially with researchers and journalists, said the Tibetan Service of rfa.org Jun 3.
The move was launched in March this year ahead of two sensitive anniversaries – the 1959 Tibetan uprising and the 2008 large-scale protests across the Tibetan Plateau – and continues to this day, the report said, citing unnamed victims.
“Tibetans are warned not to contact people outside and those who have, have been summoned and interrogated,” the report quoted one source as saying.
“Their cell phones are confiscated and they are under constant scrutiny.”
The source was stated to have been among Tibetans who had contacted people outside of Tibet and was summoned for interrogation, along with some friends.
“They gave us warning to not ever contact people on the outside, especially researchers on Tibet and journalists,” the source has said.
“I also know that so many other Tibetans who contacted people outside Tibet were interrogated by the Chinese authorities too.”
The report cited another resident as saying Tibetans could be summoned even for having casual conversations with outsiders.
“I was summoned two times already this year for interrogation and one of my friends had to bribe the authorities to release me the second time around,” the second resident has said. “My name is now listed amongst those interrogated, therefore I have to get permission from the local police if I need to travel outside Lhasa.”