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Inside story: Tibetan discontent smoulders
Philip Wen
February 18, 2012
STEPPING foot on the main street in the small town of Aba, you cannot shake the ominous feeling that your every move is being watched.
Heavily armed police are set up at every intersection. Security personnel holding spiked clubs stand guard beside army trucks full of soldiers in riot gear. Roadblocks cut off the town at both ends, with every vehicle entering and leaving the town closely monitored and identity cards routinely checked.
Even low-level government officials more accustomed to pushing paper have been mobilised. Wearing red armbands emblazoned with the Chinese characters for ''on duty'', they sit on stools by the road in groups of three or four for hours on end, ordered simply to keep watch.
Nestled in the heart of Sichuan's mountainous north, Aba is the epicentre of the intensifying unrest sweeping through the Tibetan regions spanning China's remote western reaches. Since last March, at least 21 ethnic Tibetans, mostly Buddhist monks, have set fire to themselves to protest against what they say has been a systematic persecution of their religious freedom by the Chinese government. More than half of the self-immolations have taken place in Aba.
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/inside-story-tibetan-discontent-smoulders-20120217-1teh1.html#ixzz1mgmxIuIi
February 18, 2012
STEPPING foot on the main street in the small town of Aba, you cannot shake the ominous feeling that your every move is being watched.
Heavily armed police are set up at every intersection. Security personnel holding spiked clubs stand guard beside army trucks full of soldiers in riot gear. Roadblocks cut off the town at both ends, with every vehicle entering and leaving the town closely monitored and identity cards routinely checked.
Even low-level government officials more accustomed to pushing paper have been mobilised. Wearing red armbands emblazoned with the Chinese characters for ''on duty'', they sit on stools by the road in groups of three or four for hours on end, ordered simply to keep watch.
Nestled in the heart of Sichuan's mountainous north, Aba is the epicentre of the intensifying unrest sweeping through the Tibetan regions spanning China's remote western reaches. Since last March, at least 21 ethnic Tibetans, mostly Buddhist monks, have set fire to themselves to protest against what they say has been a systematic persecution of their religious freedom by the Chinese government. More than half of the self-immolations have taken place in Aba.
Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/inside-story-tibetan-discontent-smoulders-20120217-1teh1.html#ixzz1mgmxIuIi
You can view a video with both camera footage and stills at the link. I think this is only the second reporter to get into Aba in the last couple months.
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