Over 40 Tibetans held following clash with police over move to divert their river to Chinese Muslim village

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Tibetan villagers clash with police in Qinghai's Bayen (Hualong) Hui Autonomous county, June 1, 2017. (Photo courtesy: RFA)
Tibetan villagers clash with police in Qinghai’s Bayen (Hualong) Hui Autonomous county, June 1, 2017. (Photo courtesy: RFA)

(TibetanReview.net, Jun04, 2017) – More than 40 Tibetan villagers in Qinghai Province had been detained after a clash Jun 1 with Chinese police after authorities moved to divert a river naturally flowing through their village to a Muslim Chinese village, reported the Tibetan Service of Radio Free Asia (Washington) Jun 2.

The report cited an exile Tibetan with local contacts as saying Tibetans from Shitsa village in Bayen (Chinese: Hualong) County of Tsoshar (Haidong) prefecture confronted authorities after they learnt of the plans to divert a waterway supplying their village to the nearby Tharga Village of mostly Hui Chinese Muslims.

“The dispute escalated into a serious crisis, so armed police arrived at the scene and attempted to quell the situation. In the midst of the tension, the police sided more with Tharga village, and that led the Tibetan protestors to clash with police, leaving 20 Tibetans and 10 police injured,” Dorjee Bum, an exile Tibetan requesting non-disclosure  of his exile location, was quoted as saying.

The report cited an unnamed source in Tibet as saying Chinese police used teargas to break up the mob of angry Tibetans and detained two Shitsa village heads. Many of those injured in the Jun 1 clashes were reported to have ended up in hospital.

Dorjee Bum has said more than 40 residents of the Tibetan village of Shitsa had been held over Jun 1-2, apparently for causing the police injuries.

The dispute was reported to have continued with more residents from both the villages arriving on the scene on Jun 2.

Huis constitute a major section of Chinese Muslims and live in compact communities mostly in Gansu, Qinghai and Yunnan provinces, in addition to the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

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