(TibetanReview.net, Mar08’24) – While China released a few dozen Tibetans on Feb 27 after the arrest of more than 1,000 in Dege County of Kardze prefecture in Sichuan province some days earlier, the crackdown continues with those who may have sent out video clips of the hydroelectric power dam protest being especially targeted, said the Tibetan service of rfa.org Mar 7. The report said a monastery administrator and a village official had been transferred to a large, prefecture-level detention centre located in the county.
The Tibetans had protested peacefully and submitted petitions against the project, as it was going to submerge the ancestrally inhabited homes of around 2,000 of them, as well as centuries-old monasteries with priceless artefacts, including murals which would be destroyed. China has made it clear that the project will continue.
Tenzin, the senior administrator of the 13th century Wonto Monastery in Wangbuding township and a village official named Tamdrin were transferred to the larger detention centre on Mar 3, the report said. It said the two were among those severely beaten by the Chinese police after their arrest.
The report said around 40 Tibetans were release on Feb 27 with stipulations forbidding them from communicating with outsiders. Besides strict restrictions have been imposed on the entry and exit of people at the monasteries as well as at the villages on both sides of the Drichu (Chinese: Jinsha) river over which the dam will be built.
Meanwhile the authorities are continuing to arrest more people. In particular, the crackdown targets people who posted videos of the arrests and protests that took place in February, the report said.
“The police are regularly checking people’s WeChat and TikTok accounts for any evidence of them having shared the videos and for communication with the outside world,” one anonymous source has said. “There’s severe restrictions on movement on either side of the river and no internet connection.”
Widespread, daily searches and interrogations are reportedly being carried out in attempts to find people who might have posted the widely shared videos of black-uniformed Chinese police restraining petitioning monks, who could be seen kneeling and crying out, the report said.
The police are stated to be monitoring the monks and local Tibetans very closely, with the situation in the county resembling an “open prison as they are exercising extreme control,” the report cited a second source as saying
“The monks and local people are very angry that they were arrested and subjected to beatings and torture for making peaceful appeals,” the source has added. “They say that if the government really forces them to move, there may be violent protests.”
The Gangtuo Dam is part of a plan announced in 2012 by China’s National Development and Reform Commission to build a massive 13-tier hydropower complex on the Drichu. It would be located at Wontok (Gangtuo) in Dege county. The total planned capacity of the 13 hydropower stations is 13,920 megawatts.