Chinese police detain 15 Tibetans after protest, group says

Beijing - Police in south-western China detained 15 Tibetans on Monday after they staged a protest in support of the exiled Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence, a Tibetan exile group reported. The police detained the Tibetans after they marched through the centre of the town of Litang, Sichuan province, shouting slogans including 'Long live the Dalai Lama' and 'Independence for Tibet,' the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said. The protestors also called for the 'Swift return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet' and shouted 'No Losar (Tibetan New Year) celebration this year,' the group quoted witnesses as saying. The report of the protest and the arrests could not immediately be confirmed. TCHRD is based in the Indian hill town of Dharamshala, which is also home to the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Dalai Lama. It said the two-hour protest was peaceful and followed another one on Sunday by a single monk in Litang. Monday's protest was led by Sonam Tenpa, 29, a younger brother of the monk, TCHRD said. Some protestors were beaten as paramilitary police forced them onto military trucks, and several suffered bruising and bleeding from injuries to their noses, heads and arms, TCHRD said. The arrested protestors were aged 21 to 41 and were all from nomadic families which had resettled in Litang town, it said. TCHRD said it had unconfirmed reports that police detained two more groups of Tibetans in Litang, after reinforcements arrived following the monk's protest on Sunday. It said the two other groups were supporters of Rongyal Adrak, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in November 2007 for 'inciting to split the country at an international sports event,' according to the Chinese government. In August 2007, Rongyal Adrak seized the microphone at the Litang horse festival and asked the mainly Tibetan crowd if the Dalai Lama should be allowed to return to China. Police nationwide detained thousands of Tibetans last year after independence protests and riots erupted in Litang and dozens of other Tibetan areas. The protests began in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, on March 10, the 49th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule. The government said 19 people were killed in the rioting but the Tibetan government-in-exile said about 140 people were killed, most of them Tibetans shot by Chinese paramilitary police. Tibetan exiles have alleged that the government has intensified a crackdown in Tibetan areas in the run-up to the anniversary of the rioting and the 50th anniversary of the flight into exile of the Dalai Lama. Officials have urged Tibetans not to join a campaign by exile groups for a boycott of the week-long Tibetan lunar new year celebrations, which begin February 23.