China in show of force as Tibetan protesters sentenced

Chinese paramilitary police with riot shields and batons took up posts on the main street of a Tibetan town, disrupting Buddhist pilgrims in a reminder of China’s determined control of the region.

The show of force was meant to deter unrest while a local court sentenced a group of Tibetans for taking part in large anti-government protests in March in Xiahe, a small town abutting a sprawling complex of golden-roofed temples.

Though the verdicts were not publicly announced, the trial also seemed timed to answer the complaints of the Dalai Lama and other exiled leaders meeting in India over the weekend that Tibetans’ patience with China’s domination was thinning.

Seven months after Tibetans across western China exploded in the largest uprising against Chinese rule in nearly 50 years, the authoritarian government is adjusting tactics. Police checkpoints and guard posts in place for months are suddenly dismantled, only to reappear without warning days later.

“We are in the grip of the Communist Party. Tibet is occupied. The Dalai Lama has fled to India. My heart is sad,” said a monk who had studied at Xiahe’s Labrang monastery for 15 years.

Yesterday’s police action in Xiahe came after several weeks in which riot squads had rarely been seen on the streets, residents said.

Helmeted police with truncheons and six-foot-long poles stood outside the court and government buildings. At a checkpoint with sandbags chest high on a bridge, uniformed officers studied identification papers and stopped all but a few dozen vehicles from entering the one-street town.

Beijing maintains the Dalai Lama is promoting secession, not reconciliation, and that the government is bringing economic development to an impoverished area, while preserving Tibet’s culture and religion.

But the communist leadership’s heavy hand over Tibet and disregard for the Dalai Lama is adding to the gloom of Tibetans in China and in exile.

After the week-long meeting called to discuss a so-far failed policy of rapprochement with China after 50 years in exile, the Dalai Lama and other exiled leaders said they would maintain their push for genuine autonomy with China.

But the Dalai Lama struck a pessimistic note, calling the next 20 years a period of “great danger” for Tibet.

In the days since the Dalai Lama called the extraordinary meeting on Tibet’s future, Beijing has gone out of its way to display its commanding position in the tug-of-war.

As the talks in India went on, China started a series of trials of Tibetans who took part in the March rebellion.

The police action in Xiahe quieted the town as cars were cleared from the streets and people hurried past armed guards. Residents said they did not know what was happening.

A court officer confirmed those on trial participated in the March demonstrations, in which hundreds of monks marched through town, but declined to specify the number of defendants or their sentences.

Foreign visitors have been barred from the region for much of the past seven months, as authorities scoured monasteries and communities for uprising participants, detaining undisclosed numbers. A month ago the prohibition was lifted in Xiahe even as many other Tibetan areas remain closed.