TIBET: MARCH 17 UPDATE ON PROTESTS

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 000999

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/16/2038
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KIRF ASEC CH
SUBJECT: TIBET: MARCH 17 UPDATE ON PROTESTS

REF: A. BEIJING 998


B. BEIJING 983

C. BEIJING 982

D. BEIJING 981

E. BEIJING 980

F. BEIJING 979

G. BEIJING 976

H. BEIJING 975

I. BEIJING 973

Classified By: Deputy Political Section Chief Ben Moeling. Reasons 1.4
(b) and (d)


1. (C) This cable draws heavily on sources and information
obtained by officers and staff at Consulate General Chengdu,
and has been coordinated with the Consul General in Chengdu.

Summary
--------------


2. (S) Summary: Contacts of Embassy Beijing and ConGen
Chengdu report that the situation in Lhasa on March 17 is
calmer but still tense, with a heavy military presence but
halting signs of a return to normal life. The Tibet
Autonomous Region (TAR) authorities have given a deadline of
midnight on March 17 for those involved in the protests to
surrender in exchange for leniency. Protests and violence
have spread outside of Tibet, particularly to Tibetan areas
of Sichuan and Gansu provinces. Security is heavy in
Chengdu, with large numbers of extra People's Armed Police
(PAP) at the Consulate General and a security cordon around
Tibet Town in Chengdu. Embassy officers are trying to make
their way into Tibetan areas of Gansu or Qinghai but have
been stopped by police roadblocks. Chinese officials,
meanwhile, have told visiting Senator Cantwell and
Professional Staff Members from the Senate Foreign Relations
and Armed Services Committees that the Chinese Government is
acting with restraint and that the violence is the fault of
the Dalai Lama. End Summary.

Situation in Lhasa
--------------


3. (S) ConGen Chengdu staff spoke by cell phone at 0815 March
17 to an Amcit NGO employee staying at the Flora Hotel behind
the Lhasa Mosque near the Barkhor area. She was told by
hotel staff that she would be arrested if she went out
without a police escort. She said she heard sporadic gunfire
during the night, but further away than before, more toward
the "outskirts of town." At around 0700 March 17 she saw
smoke and heard "some kind of activity" near the Jokhang
Temple. She reported "lots of broken windows" on adjacent
buildings, as well as a burned car and lots of debris in the
street. She counted about 100 "soldiers" standing in front
of the hotel. One end of the street was blocked by the
military, and all shops were closed, with no civilians
present on the street. At 0920, Chengdu staff spoke to
another Amcit employee of a coffee shop near the Barkhor.
She said things seemed quiet, but that there had been "a lot
of tension in the air last night." She reported having seen
Tibetans on rooftops with stones and other objects,
apparently ready to throw down on people below. (Note: A
reporter for the Economist described the same phenomenon, but
he added the detail that those with rocks were responding to
rumors that angry Hui Muslims were coming to seek revenge for
attacks on Huis by Tibetans.)


4. (C) At 1020, ConGen Chengdu staff spoke with a different
Amcit coffee shop owner, who said that, after a calm morning,
"things have changed." A detachment of 25-30 "military guys"
had fired "three or four shots" nearby. He said the shots
were fired horizontally and noted that the sound of their
guns was unusually low, "like pop guns." He speculated that
they had been using rubber bullets.


5. (S/NF) Another contact, communicating via cell phone text
message, advised that "military vehicles and armored cars are
everywhere in Lhasa and Linzhi" (seat of Linzhi Prefecture,
in the southeast TAR, and site of a large military base not
far from the Indian border). The message claimed 120 people
had been arrested and 20 vehicles burned but did not specify
a location. The same source reported later in the afternoon
that the soldiers from Lanzhou and Linzhi were going
house-to-house in Tibetan areas of Lhasa, questioning
residents, confiscating cameras and cell phones and cutting
land telephone lines inside residences.


6. (C) Late in the afternoon of March 17, the coffee shop
owner called again. He said that main roads are open in
Lhasa, at least intermittently, but "checkpoints are
everywhere, and lots of military are out on the roads."
However, many things were returning to normal; he mentioned

BEIJING 00000999 002 OF 003


that he was passing municipal workers who were out watering
flowers.


7. (C) His second shop, located on Lingkor North Road, had
been slightly damaged. One window had been smashed in, and
money stolen from the register, but there was no other
interior damage. One window had three or four bullet holes
through it. He said he was able to collect the bullet
fragments on the floor of his shop. The police were in the
area investigating the damage to his and other businesses,
and when he told them that there were bullet holes in the
glass, they denied that there had been any gunfire (even
after seeing the bullet fragments),saying "you don't know
what you're talking about." He reported widespread damage to
buildings and business stretching all the way from the
Barkhor to Jiangsu Road and the Second Ring Road.

Situation Outside Tibet
--------------


8. (C) The unrest spread outside of Lhasa soon after it began
there, contacts told Embassy Beijing. A reporter and
photographer in Lanzhou, Gansu, told Beijing PolOff that the
police responded to unrest in Xiahe, Gansu on Saturday, March

15. Police checkpoints on the road to Xiahe were in place by
Saturday the 15th, drivers and western reporters in Lanzhou
told other Beijing Embassy officers. By Monday, March 17,
when Embassy staff reached Gansu, police had placed
checkpoints and roadblocks on the highways and had closed the
entire Tibetan area of Gansu to foreigners. A Gansu Foreign
Affairs Office staffer who was on duty at a police checkpoint
on the highway to Xiahe told the Embassy Officers that the
area was "closed to foreigners due to police activity." She
would not elaborate beyond that explanation.


9. (S/NF) Violence was reported in Aba Prefecture, Sichuan
Province on March 16 and 17. ConGen Chengdu's FSN reported
that on the afternoon of March 16 a contact reported that "a
few monks" had been killed at Gerthe Monastery in the county
seat of Aba County, in northern Sichuan's Aba Prefecture.
(Gerthe Monastery is a large monastery affiliated with the
Dalai Lama's Gelugpa school of Tibetan Buddhism. Its abbot
is in exile in India. A large PSB facility is located
immediately adjacent to the Monastery and a military base is
about a half-mile away.) In the town of Aba a mob had
attacked and damaged stores. The contact who sent the text
about military vehicles in Lhasa in para 5 above also wrote
that nine people have died in Aba, and that a demonstration
around mid-day had already been suppressed.


10. (S/NF) At 1330 ConGen Chengdu's Tibetan FSN heard from a
contact that a new protest by monks and lay people was
beginning in Aba Prefecture, in Tangkor Township of Dzorge
County (possibly same as the town of Kangtang in Mandarin).
Students also started protesting March 16 in Barkham County
(Mandarin: Ma'erkang),the seat of Aba Prefecture, and in Aba
Prefecture's Hongyuan County, and those protests are
continuing. No reports concerning injuries or fatalities
have been received yet.


11. (C) Embassy Beijing officers traveling in Gansu heard a
rumor of a protest at a Tibetan monastery outside of Xining
City, the capital of Qinghai Province, but could not confirm
it. Several other sources said Qinghai is calm.


12. (C) ConGen Chengdu's FSN spoke by phone with a monk in
Yunnan's Zhongdian (Tibetan Gyalthang, aka Shangri-la) County
in Deqing Prefecture. The monk reported that many of his
counterparts are "angry" and wanted to stage a protest, but
that a heavy security presence prevented them from doing so.


13. (C) An Amcit law student and Anthropology Ph.D. candidate
in Beijing, who is studying Tibetan and who has traveled
through Tibet and Tibetan areas of Gansu and Yunnan, said he
is surprised the riots have spread outside Tibet, especially
to Xiahe. He described the spread of protests and violence
as "very, very significant" and said it indicates "widespread
tension and discontent among ethnic Tibetans."


14. (C) ConGen Chengdu also reported a much more substantial
security presence in Chengdu on March 17. "Tibet Town," an
area of the city with a large concentration of Tibetans, was
sealed off by police the morning of March 17. ConGen Chengdu
also heard about a planned demonstration of Tibetan students
at Southwest Nationalities University in Chengdu (in Tibet
town) as well as Tibetans in Tibet town. The security
presence at the Consulate General was also increased
significantly. An additional six uniformed PSB guards with
side arms were put out front late on March 14, and by March
17 they added an additional 100 PAP in camouflage uniforms
(vice the usual formal green dress uniforms). A rover PAP
squad of six in camouflage uniforms began doing regular

BEIJING 00000999 003 OF 003


rounds along the Consulate perimeter. Four to six uniformed
PAP in helmets set up behind the Consulate.


15. (C) ConGen Chengdu received no official information about
these security changes, or of any threat to the Consulate.
The RSO LES staff was told by one of the PAP that the
security is just a precaution and that no demonstrations were
expected at the U.S. Consulate General. ConGen Chengdu also
observed extra police presence along the expressways in
Chengdu.


16. (C) Beijing PolOffs noted the absence from today's
National People's Congress (NPC) plenary session of the
Gansu, Sichuan and Qinghai Province Party Secretaries. The
Tibet Party Secretary has been absent from the NPC since
March 16; his return to Tibet was greeted in the press with
great fanfare as he inspected the police and noted the
supposed risk he had decided to run to his own health by
flying straight back to Lhasa without acclimatizing.

Chinese Officials: We are Acting with Restraint, but the
Dalai Lama was Responsible for This
-------------- --------------


17. (C) Meeting with Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Professional Staff Member Frank Januzzi and Senate Armed
Services Committee Professional Staff Member Evelyn Farkas
March 17, Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei stated that
"the situation in Tibet is out of control" and declared that
no country, including the United States, would tolerate such
riots. "Innocent policemen" were among the ten people who
have been killed, AFM He said. (Note: even official Chinese
media have allowed their acknowledgment of the death toll to
climb to 13.) China has the responsibility to restore order,
he said. There are "clear indications" that the Dalai Lama
is behind the riots, AFM He said, and expressed hope that
"Washington would exercise restraint in public statements on
the matter."


18. (SBU) Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) raised Tibet with NPC
Vice Chairman Sheng Huaren on Sunday evening, March 16.
Sheng said Tibet is a very sensitive issue and the Dalai Lama
is a political leader, not just a religious leader. The
Dalai Lama "talks of harmony but is pushing separatism,"
Sheng said. Sheng recited the list of atrocities that the
Chinese Government has been providing to reporters and the
diplomatic community, including arson, looting, beating,
killing of innocent people and injuring of police. He said
the police "tried not to fight back, and the result was great
damage." Sheng also said "about 10" people were killed.
"The perpetrators are not for human rights," he said. If the
Chinese Government tolerates this behavior, it would be
"totally neglecting" the life and property of innocent
people. The "Dalai Lama clique," he concluded, "chose this
time to coincide with the NPC and Chinese People's Political
Consultative Congress and because it is the Olympic year."
Senator Cantwell reiterated that Americans want to see a
non-violent resolution and are looking for the Chinese
Government to show restraint. Sheng said that the Chinese
Government wants to protect people but it will punish law
violators in accordance with the law.

U.S. Embassy Officers in the Field
--------------


19. (C) U.S. Embassy Beijing officers left Beijing for
Lanzhou, Gansu Province March 16 to try to get to the town of
Xiahe, the reported site of protests, in an ethnic Tibetan
area of Gansu to start obtaining firsthand information. They
arrived in Lanzhou the evening of March 16 and went to
Northwest Ethnic Minority University in Lanzhou the morning
of March 17. The Consulate General in Chengdu had received
information that Tibetan students there were planning a
protest, which would be the first expansion of protests to a
provincial capital outside Tibet. EmbOffs found a very heavy
uniformed and plainclothes police presence at the university
but saw no protest while they were there.


20. (C) EmbOffs hired a vehicle to take them south of Lanzhou
to the Tibetan town of Xiahe. The driver said it would be
impossible to go there, so they asked to be taken to a nearby
town. The driver agreed to try. Approximately 60 kilometers
south of Lanzhou, they were stopped at a police roadblock
near a toll booth as discussed in para 8. EmbOffs have moved
on to Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province. As of 2100
March 17, they were on a bus on the road between Lanzhou and
Xining moving very slowly behind a long convoy of PLA trucks.
RANDT