SICHUAN OFFICIALS RESPOND TO TIBETAN "LITANG AUGUST 1

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENGDU 000220 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR EAP/CM, G, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/14/2032 TAGS: PGOV PHUM CH SUBJECT: SICHUAN OFFICIALS RESPOND TO TIBETAN "LITANG AUGUST 1 INCIDENT" REF: A) CHENGDU 219 B) CHENGDU 195 CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General, Chengdu. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) CLASSIFIED BY: James A. Boughner, Consul General, U.S. Consulate General, Chengdu. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Officials in China's Sichuan Province hope the experience and reputation for toughness of newly-appointed local Party Secretary Liu Daoping will lead to a "calm" resolution of recent ethnic Tibetan disturbances in Ganzi prefecture. In addition to Runggye Adak, another individual appears to still be in detention following demonstrations that occurred in Litang during early August. Special work teams are being sent from Chengdu to investigate the situation in Litang and conferences and "training courses" have been organized in the prefecture capital of Kangding aimed at criticizing the "Dalai Clique." End Summary. ¶2. (C) During a diplomatic function in Chengdu on August 13, CG discussed with Sichuan Foreign Affairs Office (FAO) Deputy Director Tan Xin demonstrations that occurred in Ganzi (Tib: Kardze) Prefecture's Litang County subsequent to the August 1 arrest of Runggye Adak, an ethnic Tibetan who called for the return to China of the Dalai Lama (ref a and previous). ¶3. (C) Tan said provincial authorities are confident Ganzi Party Secretary Liu Daoping has the situation well in hand. Tan SIPDIS stressed that Liu is well-experienced in working in Tibetan areas, has already served a stint as Ganzi Party Secretary, and is both "tough and smart." According to Tan, Liu will make sure that Litang and other areas of Ganzi are "calm" while not in the process "creating additional problems." ¶4. (C) Tan added, however, that special work teams are also being dispatched from Chengdu to Litang to investigate local conditions. Tan has already been informed he himself will be sent to Litang check on the situation vis-a-vis foreign tourists. He remarked that tourism during the summer is very important to the economy of Litang. ¶5. (C) While unwilling to comment on what is likely to happen to Runggye Adak, Tan (protect) indicated at least one other individual from Litang was also arrested and remains in custody. Tan appeared to have let this information slip out inadvertently and would not be engaged further on the subject. -------------- Comments -------------- ¶6. (C) Per ref b, Liu Daoping, a Han Chinese, was just appointed Ganzi Party Secretary this July and most recently served in the number two slot at the Sichuan Bureau of Justice. His ethnic Tibetan predecessor as Ganzi Party Secretary, Dorje Rabten, was sacked following an outbreak of violence between neighboring Tibetan communities competing for the right to harvest lucrative caterpillar fungus. Liu has also worked in the Chamdo region of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. ¶7. (C) We understand that Liu is making an effort to deal quickly with the political clean up of what local authorities are now referring to as the "Litang August 1 Incident." According to a Ganzi local news report, on August 7, Liu presided over a conference in Kangding (Tib: Dartsedo) on social stability that called upon local cadres to "criticize the Dalai Clique's criminal plot to split the motherland." At a separate event on August 7, Ganzi United Front Work Bureau Director Li Kang oversaw a "training course" for local religious figures at which he noted, "all patriotic religious groups in the prefecture must widely conduct patriotic education and be highly alert to hostile western forces and the Dalai Clique's attempts to split the motherland." Also, according to local media CHENGDU 00000220 002 OF 002 reports, Sichuan Vice Governor Zhang Zuoha recently gave a speech announcing a two-month campaign aimed at removing illegal firearms and explosives in Ganzi, Aba (another Tibetan prefecture in western Sichuan),and Liangshan (home to the Yi minority people in southern Sichuan). Zhang manages internal security as part of his portfolio. BOUGHNER