FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 12th, 2011
New video footage of brutal Chinese police raid and civilian arrests in Tibet following the March 2008 Tibetan protests
The Department of Information and International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration obtained raw video footage showing Chinese police, SWAT teams and paramilitary troops conducting household raids in Dogde township in March 2008. This footage was smuggled out of Tibet.
The footage depicts the sheer scale of police operations to hunt down suspected demonstrators and is graphic evidence of the terror tactics that are employed to subdue any sign of unhappiness with China’s rule in Tibet. In a huge show of force, villagers are seen taken from their homes at gunpoint, some literally dragged out of bed, terrified and panic-stricken. As such, this is the first glimpse the outside world has yet had of the regime of fear and intimidation that Chinese security forces enforce on ordinary Tibetans to keep them under control.
Dogde township, where the video was shot, is a rural area located near Sera monastery and individuals arrested in this video are allegedly suspected of having taken part in the March 11, 2008 protest led by monks from Sera monastery and nuns from Chusang nunnery, both located on the outskirts of Lhasa in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. This protest, along with an earlier one on March 10, sparked the largest series of demonstrations against China’s rule since the mass uprising in 1959. More than 300 protests took place across the Tibetan plateau.
The video can be viewed www.tibetonline.tv. Subtitles in English have been added as the quality of the sound permitted. Exchanges in the video take place in Tibetan and Mandarin.
Media contact:
Thubten Samphel, Secretary
+91 98050 24662
Tenzin Phuntsok Atisha, Secretary
+91 98050 22510
Lobsang Choedak, Press Officer
+91 98822 32476
Email: [email protected]
Tel: +91 1892 222510, 222457