TIBETAN QINGHAI: FOREIGNERS BANNED, ARMED POLICE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 000648

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/12/2034
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KIFR CH
SUBJECT: TIBETAN QINGHAI: FOREIGNERS BANNED, ARMED POLICE
DEPLOYED, EVEN ACCESSIBLE AREAS TENSE

REF: A. OSC JPP20090227969067

B. 2008 BEIJING 3966

C. 2008 BEIJING 2679

D. 2008 BEIJING 1351

Classified By: Classified by Political Minister Counselor
Aubrey Carlson. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: All Tibetan areas in Qinghai are
closed to foreigners, PolOffs were told by local
security officials during a March 10-11 trip to the
province, even as enforcement was uneven and
confusion reigned over exactly which locations were
off-limits. Journalists and other foreigners were
turned away from Tongren, a center for Tibetan art
and tourist destination, while in Guinan, Hainan
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, a heavy People's
Armed Police (PAP) presence seemed prepared for
trouble. Travel restrictions were stricter than
during the last half of 2008, resembling those
implemented immediately after the March 2008 riots.
Local security officials funneled foreigners wishing
to visit Qinghai's Tibetan areas to Kumbum Monastery
(Ta'er Si),a monastery near the capital Xining that
has not experienced major unrest, but even there the
atmosphere was tense, with one monk reporting that
armed police had been deployed around the monastery.
Dalai Lama portraits were nevertheless on display in
several parts of the monastery, even in close
proximity to security surveillance cameras. END
SUMMARY.


2. (C) PolOffs traveled to Qinghai Province March
10-11 in an attempt to visit majority Tibetan areas
but were mostly unable to do so due to a ban on
travel by foreigners to all Tibetan areas in
Qinghai. PolOffs briefly visited the Tibetan town
of Guinan (Mangra) before being ordered back to the
capital city Xining. There, PolOffs visited Kumbum
Monastery (Ta'er Si),a large Tibetan Buddhist
monastery and prominent tourist site.

QINGHAI'S TIBETAN AREAS CLOSED, ENFORCEMENT UNEVEN
-------------- --------------


3. (C) All ethnic Tibetan areas in Qinghai Province
are currently closed to foreigners, according to
local and provincial police in Xining and Guinan.
PolOffs nevertheless observed inconsistent
implementation of this rule by confused local
officials, allowing foreigners (including PolOffs)
to travel unimpeded into Tibetan areas, only to be
told on arrival they were in violation of the travel
restrictions. Bus tickets were still being sold to
foreigners at Xining's major bus station for
destinations in Tibetan areas, and a uniformed
Public Security Bureau (PSB) officer claimed to
PolOffs that foreigner travel to Tibetan areas was
not restricted. Asked for clarification as to which
areas were currently restricted, provincial PSB
officials provided a list to PolOffs of areas
purportedly open and closed to foreigners as of
April 2005. The document listed several Tibetan
areas as "open," including Tongren, Tongde, Guide,
Maduo and all of Yushu County, even as those same
officials informed PolOffs of the blanket
restriction on all Tibetan areas. PSB officials
were seeking to direct all foreigners interested in
visiting Tibetan areas to visit Kumbum Monastery, a
large monastery that has not had major
demonstrations, near Xining.

TONGREN OFF-LIMITS, DESPITE BEING ON "OPEN" LIST
-------------- ---


4. (C) PolOffs attempted to travel from Xining to
Tongren (Rebgong in Tibetan),Huangnan Tibetan
Autonomous Prefecture, which is home to Longwu
Monastery, a major center for Tibetan art and a
common tourist destination. PolOffs were told by
numerous drivers that the area had been recently
closed to foreigners, and the drivers refused to
take PolOffs to the area. Foreign journalists in
Xining who had attempted to travel to the area
reported that the area was closed and that they had
been told to return immediately to Xining.

BEIJING 00000648 002 OF 003


Provincial PSB officials in Xining told PolOffs that
travel to Tongren was closed to foreigners, despite
the "open" designation for Tongren on the "official"
list of closed and open areas they provided.

CONFUSION AT THE CHECKPOINTS
--------------


5. (C) PolOffs on March 10 eventually located a
driver willing to travel to the majority Tibetan
town of Guinan (Mangra),Hainan Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture. This driver told PolOffs that he had
taken several other Westerners to the same area the
week before. PolOffs traveled through two police
checkpoints on the road to Guinan without being
turned back, even though the vehicle was stopped and
the driver asked to produce registration and
insurance information. Upon arrival in Guinan,
however, PolOffs were immediately approached by
local police and told that the area was "closed to
foreigners." Local PSB officials ordered PolOffs to
depart, hastily arranging for transportation for the
journey back to Xining. The police officials said
the area was closed because they could not guarantee
the "safety" of foreigners in their town but
declined to provide details on the nature of the
supposed threat to public order.

GUINAN TENSE, POLICE READY FOR TROUBLE
--------------


6. (C) In Guinan, PolOffs observed at least five
People's Armed Police (PAP) trucks and more than 30
PAP equipped with riot gear and body armor. The
security forces had set up a semi-permanent camp
with at least five large tents directly behind the
local Communist Party headquarters and main
government building. Local police acknowledged to
PolOffs that the week of March 10 was a
"particularly sensitive period," but declined to
provide additional information on the nature of the
threat. (Note: Radio Free Asia (ref A) reported
that a group of 100 monks had marched on the Guinan
city government building during the Tibetan New Year
in February to protest government policies toward
Tibetans. Other foreign journalists, however, told
PolOffs that they had not been able to independently
confirm the report. Separately, a monk resident at
Guinan's Lucang Monastery informed PolOff via phone
on March 6 that there was "trouble" (mafan) in
Guinan. The monk, who frequently visits Beijing,
told PolOff it was "inconvenient" (bu fangbian) for
him to travel.)

RESTRICTIONS TIGHT DURING SENSITIVE ANNIVERSARIES
-------------- --------------


7. (C) The blanket restriction on travel to Tibetan
areas, even if unevenly implemented at the local
level, was in contrast to the slight relaxation of
access for foreigners to less sensitive areas of
Tibetan Qinghai during the last half of 2008 (refs
B,C). The situation now more closely resembles that
of the period immediately after the March 2008 riots
in Lhasa and other Tibetan areas, when travel
restrictions were hastily implemented for most
Tibetan areas in China (ref C). The heightened
restrictions reflect greater official concern over
possible protests or other civil disturbances during
the one-year anniversary of the widespread riots in
Tibetan areas in March 2008 and the 50th anniversary
of the 1959 failed Tibetan uprising and the Dalai
Lama's flight to India. (Note: The restrictions
encountered by PolOffs appear to have been
heightened recently, in anticipation of the March
anniversaries. Canadian Embassy Political Officer
Louis-Martin Aumais told PolOff March 12 that,
during a visit to Qinghai the week of February 23 to
review Canadian aid projects in the province, Aumais
had been able to travel "largely unimpeded"
throughout the province, even to ethnic Tibetan
areas, with the approval of local Foreign Affairs
Office officials.)

KUMBUM MONASTERY TENSE
--------------

BEIJING 00000648 003 OF 003




8. (C) PolOffs visited Kumbum Monastery (Ta'er Si in
Mandarin) near Xining, which provincial PSB
officials said was the only Tibetan monastery open
to foreigners. Even in this tourist-friendly
monastery outside of the majority Tibetan areas,
however, there were signs of tension. Monks were
generally unwilling to engage in conversation with
PolOffs, and security surveillance cameras were
ubiquitous, including in areas of worship. One
older monk, who refused to give his name, rejected
PolOff's assertion that the monastery seemed calm.
The monk claimed that numerous armed police had
"surrounded" the compound beginning on March 10 and
that movement by monks was severely restricted. A
foreign journalist and photographer who visited
later that same day told PolOffs they had been
expelled from the monastery by uniformed police
officers after attempting to take pictures of monks.
Yet, at least two large portraits of the Dalai Lama
in his youth were on display in relatively less-
visited parts of the monastery, including one in a
room adjacent to a worship hall that was monitored
by a surveillance camera.

MONKS TOLD TO FULFILL "PATRIOTIC RESPONSIBILITY"
-------------- ---


9. (C) In a sign that authorities had taken
precautions against the possibility of unrest in the
Kumbum Monastery, PolOffs noted a "Responsibility
Notice" (zeren shu),dated March 5, that was posted
on monastery walls. The notice requires that monks
"be patriotic" and attend all "religious activities
and various activities organized by the monastery."
If monks have "matters to attend to outside," they
must "apply for leave at various levels." The
document threatened with expulsion any monk who
"harms the monastery's image or the interests of the
monks."
PICCUTA