The officials confiscated cell phones, laptop computers and books from the students who were shocked at the ‘breach of privacy’ by the government. According to Phayul.com, officials checked their rooms, beds, books and drawers, took away their study materials.
Activity
Tashi (picture below) was the editor of the banned literary magazine the Shar Dungri (Eastern Snow Mountain) on the 2008 protests in Tibet, and also edited a collection of work called “Written in Blood”.
His “fearless” writings had led to his arrest in July 2009. His fellow
schoolmates said last year that he had won “great respect and popularity among students, intellectuals and ordinary readers in Tibet as an outstanding and brave young thinker.”
The students have threatened to launch protest against the authorities if they continue the “infringement of students’ privacy and disturbance of academic life.” “If the government continues to violate our freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought” we will certainly protest,” a student had told to Phayul.com source.
“What has happened in Lanzhou is a clear indication that the Chinese government is trying to deliberately violate the intellectual freedom and interrupt the academic life of Tibetan students in intermediate and high schools in Tibet,” he added.
Background
According to BBC, protests by monks in Lhasa marking the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule have turned into
riots and clashes with security forces. The protests began on 10 March, and escalated on 14 March 2008. Protests by ethnic Tibetans have been reported in at least 25 places in Tibet and neighbouring provinces in western the People´s Republic of China, although not all of them can be independently verified. The Tibetan government in exile in India says 99 people died in clashes with security forces – including 80 in Lhasa. Chinese officials say only 13 people died – and they were killed during riots by supporters of the Dalai Lama. Both claims are impossible to verify independently.
Related links:
China executes four Tibetans over spring 2008 protest
CPJ concerned for welfare of detained Tibetan writer
Tibetan writer Kunga Tseyang arrested
CPJ calls for China to release Tibetan journalists and allow foreign reporting
