Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08BEIJING2682
2008-07-09 10:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Beijing
Cable title:  

TIBET: TENSION, RESENTMENT REMAIN FRESH AFTER

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL KIFR KOLY CH IN 
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VZCZCXRO2665
OO RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHBJ #2682/01 1911005
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 091005Z JUL 08
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8501
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 3845
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 4565
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 002682 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2033
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KIFR KOLY CH IN
SUBJECT: TIBET: TENSION, RESENTMENT REMAIN FRESH AFTER
POST-RIOT CRACKDOWN IN AMDO REGION

REF: A. BEIJING 2679

B. OSC/FBIS CPP20080410715017

C. CHENGDU 135

D. BEIJING 983

E. OSC/FBIS CPP20071019968026

F. 07BEIJING 6498

Classified By: Acting Political Minister Counselor Ben Moeling. Reason
s 1.4 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 002682

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2033
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KIFR KOLY CH IN
SUBJECT: TIBET: TENSION, RESENTMENT REMAIN FRESH AFTER
POST-RIOT CRACKDOWN IN AMDO REGION

REF: A. BEIJING 2679

B. OSC/FBIS CPP20080410715017

C. CHENGDU 135

D. BEIJING 983

E. OSC/FBIS CPP20071019968026

F. 07BEIJING 6498

Classified By: Acting Political Minister Counselor Ben Moeling. Reason
s 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY. In the aftermath of the post-March 14
security crackdown, the military and police presence in
ethnic Tibetan areas of Gansu and Qinghai provinces has
increased and tensions are simmering between Tibetan
inhabitants and government authorities. Several monks
separately told visiting PolOffs that resentment and
discontent remains strong in the wake of the government's
response to ethnic unrest this spring. A monk in Tongren's
Longwu Monastery gave a first-hand account of his own
month-long detention, which included previously reported
"patriotic education;" i.e., forced denunciations of the
Dalai Lama and declarations of support for the CCP that monks
were required to sign and fingerprint. Monks in other
monasteries in Huangnan as well as in Gansu's Labrang
Monastery reported large-scale detentions and a grim outlook
for improving circumstances following the Olympics. Despite
the government's heavy-handed tactics, Tibetans' affection
for the Dalai Lama is unabated. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) PolOffs traveled to Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture of Qinghai Province and Gansu Province's Gannan
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture July 1-3. Ref A describes
on-going travel restrictions on foreigners in ethnic Tibetan
areas in Gansu and Qinghai.

Post-Riot Crackdown in Qinghai and Gansu ...
--------------


3. (C) Monks at Longwu Monastery (protect) in Tongren
(Huangnan Prefecture, in eastern Qinghai Province) told
PolOffs that the rage and trauma from this year's crackdown
in the wake of Tibetan unrest in March remain fresh among
Tibetans. One monk said he had been detained and showed
scars on his arms that he claimed were from handcuffs at the
time of his arrest. He said that the police made two armed
raids on the monastery following the March riots looking for

Dalai Lama pictures, speech texts and CDs. The monk said the
police smashed Dalai Lama-related items and detained over two
hundred monks. Police released most detainees after a month,
but the whereabouts of "four or five" monks remain unknown.
Tibetan monks at Gu'er Monastery (protect) in a village just
outside Jianzha (Huangnan Prefecture, Qinghai Province)
reported similar pressure from the local government and
confirmed that police detained two of the monastery's forty
monks for one month. At Gansu Province's Labrang Monastery,
another site of reported violence and unrest in March and the
place where a group of monks interrupted a government-led
tour by foreign journalists on April 9, a monk expressed
dismay at police treatment of Tibetans in the aftermath of
the March unrest (refs B, C) and said around forty to fifty
monks had been detained.

... Leads to Simmering Tension
--------------


4. (C) The raids and arrests have fanned hatred of the
Government among local Tibetans. The monk at Longwu who had
been detained emphasized the intensity of the raids,
repeatedly pantomiming the actions of soldiers with rifles
raised, police stomping on pictures of the Dalai Lama and
monks having their hands tied behind their backs. He said
that some monks were beaten during the raids as well. A
young, English-speaking monk from the surrounding countryside
who spent three years in Dharamsala, India (a haven for
Tibetan exiles) confirmed reports of clashes between the
police and local Tibetans and repeatedly expressed his
personal indignation over the Chinese Government's treatment
of Tibetans. The monk said he was in Tongren to visit a
friend who had been "wounded" while "fighting with the
police." His small village monastery of about twenty-five
monks fifteen kilometers south of Tongren had largely escaped
the security crackdown following the March riots recounted at
Longwu. Neither the monks in Labrang nor those in Tongren
and Jianzha were optimistic about the situation improving
after the Olympics.


BEIJING 00002682 002 OF 002


Han Resident Confirms Tibetan Accounts
--------------


5. (C) An ethnic Han taxi driver from Jianzha described the
chaos that spread to Qinghai following the outbreak of riots
in Lhasa in March. He said that monks at Longwu Monastery,
the largest in nearby Tongren, rioted for a day, smashing Han
shops surrounding the monastery. The driver reported that in
his hometown of Jianzha many Tibetan villagers and monks
descended into town from the countryside, calling for the
return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. However, the violence
seen elsewhere in the region was avoided in Jianzha, the
driver claimed, because local ethnic Han persuaded the
Tibetans to de-escalate the situation and end their
demonstrations.

"Patriotic Education"
--------------


6. (C) The monk who had been arrested at Longwu recounted how
police had forced him and other detained monks to read, sign
and fingerprint statements denouncing the Dalai Lama and
declaring support for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
After the monk's release from detention, "patriotic
education" continued. Four or five government officials
visit the monastery regularly to lecture monks on the
benevolence of the Party and the evils of the Dalai Lama (ref
D). Following the lectures, authorities again require monks
to sign and fingerprint statements with Dalai Lama
denunciations.

Admiration for Dalai Lama Unabated
--------------


7. (C) Monks at both monasteries expressed their continuing
admiration for the Dalai Lama. Despite intimidation and
strict measures by local governments, monks quietly defy
authorities by continuing to hang pictures of the Dalai Lama
prominently within prayer halls, shops and homes. PolOffs
saw numerous such pictures throughout Amdo, although monks
admitted that if police or government officials are nearby
the pictures are immediately hidden. At Gu'er Monastery in
Jianzha (protect),Dalai Lama pictures set high on the walls
of a small prayer hall had been covered with white cloth to
hide them from party officials who toured the monastery the
previous day. A monk inside Tongren's Longwu Monastery
pulled aside framed shots of state-approved Buddhist leaders
inside his home, opened a cabinet and removed a stack of
books to reveal his own elaborately hidden photograph of the
Dalai Lama.

Gratitude for U.S. Concern
--------------


8. (C) The same monk in Tongren's Longwu Monastery heaped
praise and thanks upon "French and Americans" for supporting
the Dalai Lama and "cursed" the Chinese Government for its
treatment of Tibetans. He was also thankful to see visitors
from abroad, claiming that the "police are afraid of foreign
tourists." The monk expressed great joy over President
Bush's willingness to meet the Dalai Lama and attend the
Dalai Lama's Congressional Gold Medal award ceremony (ref E).
Asked how the monk had access to this kind of news, he
explained that the monks in Tongren use satellite television
dishes and illegal passwords to view foreign stations (ref F).
RANDT