Beijing - Pro-Tibet activists urged British Prime Minister
Gordon Brown, who arrived in Beijing Friday for the Olympics closing
ceremony, to demand answers from China on a reported crackdown in a
traditionally Tibetan region.
The London-based Free Tibet Campaign issued a statement urging
Brown to demand an immediate and transparent investigation on reports
of a military lockdown and shootings in the Kandze prefecture in the
Kham region of southwest China's Sichuan province, while the Olympic
Games are taking place in Beijing.
The group said news from Kandze indicates that the situation there
is extremely grave and that the Chinese government is building up a
military presence there for a brutal crackdown on Tibetan protesters
after the Games are over.
The reports could not be independently verified Friday.
The group this week cited a Taiwanese eyewitness as saying there
was a huge military buildup in the area, citing its own sources, and
other sources saying the build-up had recently taken place in Kandze
town as well as other towns in the surrounding areas.
One of its sources, a Taiwanese, said groups of police sitting in
helmets holding guns and riot shields were stationed on the streets,
every half block.
The group has not been able to reach its usual sources in Kandze
for weeks and believes local authorities have imposed a
communications blackout on the area, it said.
Free Tibet Campaign said it was now imperative that Prime Minister
Brown moved beyond general statements of concern for human rights to
more specific and public calls for an immediate investigation into
the reports.
Chimme Chhoekyapa, an aide to the Dalai Lama, based in the
northern Indian town of Dharamsala, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
over the phone Friday that information on whether anyone was killed
or injured was difficult to obtain.
'What we have heard is that there were peaceful protests and
demonstrations in the Kham region but we are not aware of any
killings or injuries. We have no idea,' he said.
Another pro-Tibet activist also urged Brown to raise the Tibet
issue when meeting with Chinese officials. Brown met with Chinese
President Hu Jintao Friday.
'I hope Gordon Brown stands strong and stands in solidarity with
the Tibetan people,' said Alice Speller, a British activist from the
US-based Students for a Free Tibet, who held a press conference
Friday to wrap up the group's pro-Tibet protests during the Olympics.
'We should not inherit a Games that's tarnished with human rights
abuses,' she said.
Kandze prefecture, where a lot of Tibetans live, saw large
demonstrations in April and May. Free Tibet Campaign have cited
eyewitnesses saying Chinese security forces opened fire on protesting
crowds, killing at least eight Tibetans, and that 52 nuns had been
arrested.
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