> Tibetan Monks in Critical Condition After Attempted Suicide, as Protests
> Mount/RFA
>
> 2008.03.13
> Labrang monastery, Tibet
>
> http://www.rfa.org/english/images/2008/03/13/labrang_200.jpg
> Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims pray during a ceremony at the sacred Labrang
> Monastery, which is second only to the Potala Palace in Lhasa in size,
> at the town of Xiahe, Gansu Province on March 13, 2008. Chinese police
> fired tear gas to disperse a second day of protests in the Tibetan
> capital Lhasa by hundreds of Buddhist monks. AFP PHOTO/Mark RALSTON
>
> KATHMANDU--Two Tibetan Buddhist monks are in critical condition after
> stabbing their wrists and chests amid mounting anti-Chinese protests in
> the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, according to authoritative sources in the
> region.
>
> Two monks from Drepung monastery on the outskirts of Lhasa attempted
> suicide Thursday and were in critical condition at the monastery clinic,
> the sources told RFA's Tibetan service.
>
> The two monks were identified as Kalsang and Damchoe, both originally
> from Kirti monastery in Sichuan province and now resident at Drepung
> monastery. Sources said the men had stabbed themselves in the chest,
> hands, and wrists. Both refused to be moved to hospital but were taken
> instead to the monastery clinic, the sources said.
>
> "There are many other monks who hurt themselves in desperation, and
> protests are going on inside the monastery as of March 12 and 13," one
> source said. Another source described the two monks' condition as
> critical and said they were not expected to survive.
>
> Also Thursday, the Chinese authorities squarely blamed the exiled
> Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, for instigating "successive trouble by
> some monks in Lhasa" and voiced determination to oppose them according
> to Chinese law.
>
> The Chinese government is determined to safeguard the country's
> sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the vast majority of the
> Tibetan people are determined to safeguard national unity and solidarity.
>
> Chinese Foreign Ministry
>
> Monks at another major Lhasa monastery have meanwhile launched a hunger
> strike aimed at pressuring the Chinese authorities, as protests against
> China's heavy-handed presence in the region spread to other Tibetan
> Buddhist convents and monasteries, according to sources who declined to
> be identified.
>
> "The monks in Sera monastery are observing a hunger strike inside the
> premises of Sera," one source said. "They vowed not to eat and sleep
> unless their demands are met." The monks are demanding the withdrawal of
> paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) forces from the monastery
> compound and the release of monks detained during an earlier protest on
> March 10, the source said.
> China blames Dalai Lama for spreading protests
>
> Other sources, all of whom declined to be identified, reported
> additional protests at Reting monastery, north of Lhasa, and at Ganden
> monastery. Authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region have also warned
> Tibetans employed as civil servants to stay away from monasteries and
> convents.
>
> On Tuesday, armed Chinese police fired tear-gas to disperse a crowd of
> several hundred protesting monks near Lhasa. The protests began March 10
> when hundreds of monks staged a rare demonstration on the 49th
> anniversary of a 1959 uprising crushed by the Chinese People's
> Liberation Army. The Dalai Lama, now 72, subsequently fled into exile in
> northern India.
>
> http://www.rfa.org/english/news/politics/2008/03/13/deprung_200.jpg
> Drepung monastery, Dangba Village on the outskirts of Lhasa - 04 August
> 2004 in Tibet. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN
>
> "There were probably a couple of thousand armed police, PSB personnel,
> wearing different uniforms. Police fired tear-gas into the crowd," one
> witness told RFA's Tibetan service. PSB denotes the China's Public
> Security Bureau.
>
> Lhasa neighborhood committees have mobilized to inspect every household
> in predominantly Tibetan areas of the city, searching for unregistered
> monks or nuns sheltering illicitly in private homes, sources told RFA's
> Tibetan service.
>
> Monks in two more monasteries in Qinghai province--Lutsang monastery in
> Mangra (in Chinese, Guinan) county, and Ditsa monastery in Bayan (in
> Chinese, Hualong) county--also staged protests Monday, sources said.
> Armed police surrounded Ditsa monastery during the protest but neither
> intervened nor detained anyone there, the sources said.
>
> Tensions have been escalating in recent years in traditionally Tibetan
> areas of what is now western China, with Chinese authorities taking a
> tougher line against what they regard as ethnic "splittism," or
> resistance to Chinese rule.
>
> The Dalai Lama is regarded by China as a dangerous figure seeking
> independence for his homeland, although he says he wants only autonomy
> and for Chinese repression of Tibetans to end.
>
> Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang meanwhile called the
> protests "a deliberate political plot of the Dalai Lama group to cause
> social unrest, separate Tibet from China, and wreck the stable,
> harmonious, and normal life of the Tibetan people," according to China's
> official news agency, Xinhua.
>
> "The Chinese government is determined to safeguard the country's
> sovereignty and territorial integrity, and the vast majority of the
> Tibetan people are determined to safeguard national unity and
> solidarity," Xinhua quoted him as saying. "We are resolutely opposed to
> any plots attempting to separate Tibet from China. Relevant Chinese
> departments will handle the issue properly and strictly in accordance
> with law."
>
> In its dispatch, Xinhua said: "It is the common wish of all
> nationalities in Tibet to safeguard national unity, solidarity, and the
> harmonious society, Qin said, noting that the plots of the Dalai Lama
> group are doomed to failure."
>
> Original reporting in Uke, Amdo, and Kham for RFA's Tibetan service.
> Translated by Karma Dorjee. Tibetan service director: Jigme Ngapo.
> Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.