Bombs add to tension ahead of Tibet anniversary
Armed police patrolled the streets outside Buddhist monasteries, which have been at the forefront of many protests. New checkpoints went up on previously open roads, the internet and text messaging have been blocked, and the government ordered foreigners out of the mixed Chinese-Tibetan city of Kangding.
Today is the anniversary of an uprising 50 years ago against Chinese rule that sent the Dalai Lama into exile and protests last year that became the most widespread, violent revolt by Tibetans in decades.
Chinese President Hu Jintao said that Tibet was basically stable and urged Tibetan politicians in Beijing to develop the long-lagging region economically to tamp down on separatism.
“We should build a solid great wall to oppose the separatists, uphold the unity of the mother and advance Tibet from basic stability to lasting stability,” Hu said in brief comments carried by state-run television.
Yesterday, small bombs ripped the emergency lights and roofs off a police car and fire engine at a remote timber farm in Qinghai province, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. No deaths were reported. A local official, surnamed Qi, confirmed the explosion but provided no other details.
But the blasts, made by “unsophisticated homemade explosives”, came hours after a clash between locals and police who were inspecting vehicles at the Makahe timber farm, Xinhua said.
Both the 1959 uprising and last year’s started in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital. After Lhasa erupted in ethnic rioting last March 14, demonstrations spread across the region. Some of the worst violence occurred in strongly traditional communities in the mountains where Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai converge and is home to large Buddhist monasteries that have chafed under Chinese-imposed controls.
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