March 18 – According to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), yesterday evening, on 17 March 2008, protest demonstration broke out in Dechen Township, Toelung Dechen County, Lhasa City of the “Tibetan Autonomous Region (“TAR”).
According to numerous sources and eyewitnesses, the protest demonstration was initially started by a dozen of monks of Dinka Monastery, in Dinka Township, which was later joined by ordinary Tibetan people. Soon the protest demonstration ran out of the control of local security forces stationed in the area. In minutes, a large contingent of People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) security officers were dispatched to the area to disperse the Tibetan protestors.
As a result of the deployment of (PAP) and (PSB), the Chinese security forces arrested around 30 Tibetan protestors consisting of monks and ordinary people. The situation in Toelung Dechen Township is said to be tense and the area was under a heavy deployment of paramilitary troops when information last came in. At the moment the identities of the arrestees could not be identified. TCHRD will issue more updates as the situation progresses.
