Free Tibet urges Brown to call for immediate investigation into Kandze lockdown

Free Tibet campaign today issued a statement urging Prime Minister Gordon Brown, while he is in Beijing to attend the Olympic closing ceremony, to call for an immediate and transparent investigation into persistent reports of a military lockdown and shootings in the Kandze region of eastern Tibet even while the Games were taking place in Beijing.

Although the Prime Minister made a general statement of concern regarding human rights abuses in China and Tibet whilst en route to Beijing, recent news from Kandze requires urgent attention.

Le Monde yesterday reported the Dalai Lama’s concerns about stories that many people had been killed in Kandze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP). after Chinese troops opened fire on a peaceful demonstrations.

Journalists are barred from visiting Kandze, despite the supposed easing of restrictions on foreign journalists for the Games and it has therefore been impossible to verify independently the reports to have emerged from the region in recent weeks. Free Tibet Campaign has not been able to reach its usual sources in Kandze for weeks and it is clear that the local authorities have imposed a communications blackout on the area. But the persistence of the reports creeping out of Kandze, together with the Chinese authorities determination to prevent journalists from entering the area, indicate that a highly repressive crackdown has been implemented by the Chinese authorities in Kandze behind closed doors.

On 18 August Free Tibet Campaign reported eyewitness accounts it had received from its own sources, and the sources of other outlets, in the region which indicated a huge military build-up had recently taken place in Kandze town as well as other towns in the surrounding areas. These accounts spoke of an atmosphere of extreme fear amongst the local Tibetan populations in Kandze and surrounding areas. (1) It is possible that that the Chinese government is building up a military presence there for a brutal crackdown on Tibetan protesters after the Games are over.

Matt Whitticase of Free Tibet Campaign said: “Yesterday we welcomed Gordon Brown’s statement of concern regarding human rights in China and Tibet. However, if his concern is genuine, it must include specific demands for a full investigation in to what has happened in Kandze and the immediate re-admission of journalists into the area. The situation on the ground in Kandze is clearly very grave and the Prime Minister’s concerns must be raised publicly while he is in China. The Chinese leadership can be left in no doubt about the seriousness the British government attaches to the extremely alarming reports from Kandze.”

Ends

For more information, contact Matt Whitticase, Free Tibet Campaign, in Bangkok on +66 844 549 764 or Anne Holmes in London on +44 (0)20 7324 4605 or +44(0)7798 666658.
Notes to editors:

(1) More detailed information about the situation in Kandze can be found in our briefing As Beijing celebrates the Olympics, the lockdown of Tibet worsens. Go to http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/180808.