17 March 2008: 9 AM (Beijing Time) – According to the confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), the Tibetan students of the Tibetan Medical College, Teacher Training Higher Institute and other colleges in Tsoe City, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Prefecture, Gansu Province, “TAP” had carried out protest demonstrations in their respective university premises in an apparent opposition to the Chinese rule in Tibet. The protests in the campuses took place around the same time in the morning of 17 March 2008, spontaneously.
Just moments after the outbreak of the protests, the People’s Armed Police (PAP) came to the scene and blocked them from continuing the demonstration. The security forces had cordoned off the campus premise and holed up the protesting students. When the information last came in, the scene was said to be very tense. Similar protest also took place in the North Western Nationality University in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu Province in northeastern Tibet.
In a similar case, on 16 March 2008, around one hundred Tibetan students of Marthang Nationality Middle School in Marthang County (Ch: Hongyuan xian), Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Prefecture, “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture” (“TAP”), Sichuan Province, erupted into a spontaneous demonstration inside the school compound calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet during the morning school hours.
The protest movement inside Tibet is gradually changing its trend with intellectual community such as students of universities and even the middle schools. The trend is significant as their being ‘literate’ and ‘educated’ part of the community. It shows the educated section of the Tibetan community too is raising their voices and resentment against the Chinese government.
There has been no reports of arrests or detention so far. TCHRD will update more information as the situation progresses.
