The Chinese government has detained several hundred Tibetans who returned from India after attending teaching sessions overseen by the Dalai Lama, and is forcing them to undergo political re-education, a human rights group said Friday.
The New York-based group, Human Rights Watch, said it believed that it was the first time since the late 1970s that authorities had detained Tibetan laypeople in such large numbers, and comes as China is worried about unrest in Tibetan parts of the country.
Also Friday, a Tibetan monk burned himself to death in China’s western Qinghai Province, the 22nd confirmed self-immolation by Tibetans protesting Chinese rule since February 2009, Radio Free Asia reported.
China allowed about 7,000 Tibetans to attend teaching sessions with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in the Indian state of Bihar from Dec. 31 to Jan. 10. Human Rights Watch said the move appeared to be a sign of a relaxation of policy toward Tibetans.
“However, that changed against a backdrop of unrest in the eastern Tibetan areas and apparent fears it might spread to Lhasa,” Tibet’s capital, the organization said in an e-mailed statement distributed Friday.
The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Weimin, said that he was not aware of the detentions, but blamed foreign groups for the recent tensions in the region. “Some groups outside of China’s borders wait for their chance to incite separatist activities,” Mr. Liu said at a news briefing.
“These actions all have obvious political goals: to destroy social stability, pressure the Chinese government and provoke separatism to achieve Tibetan independence schemes,” he said.
Activists say China has waged a violent campaign to eradicate religious freedom and culture in Tibet, a vast, remote and largely mountainous region of western China that has been under Chinese control since 1950.
