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    February 19, 2012

China's Crackdown on Tibetan Activists Leads to Writer's Arrest

   VOA News
   Indian police detain Tibetan exiles during a protest outside the
   Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, India, February 16, 2012.

   Authorities in Tibetan regions of southwestern China are continuing a
   recent crackdown against anti-Chinese government activists ahead of
   this week's celebration of the Tibetan New Year and in advance of the
   March anniversary of the Dalai Lama's flight into exile.
   News reports from Sichuan province say a Tibetan writer, identified as
   Gangkye Drubpa Kyab, 33, has been detained. The reports say he was
   seized from his home in Seda county this past Wednesday and has not
   been released.
   His detention follows a recent series of self-immolatrions including
   that of a Tibetan monk who set himself on fire in Qinghai province on
   Saturday to protest the presence of Chinese security forces in his
   Bongtak monastery. Two teenaged Tibetans, a nun and a monk, killed
   themselves earlier this month.
   On Friday, China detained several hundred Tibetans as they returned to
   China from attending teaching lessons in India with the Dalai Lama.
   The Chinese government is blaming overseas organizations, including the
   London-based Free Tibet movement, of fomenting the unrest.
   Over the past year more than 20 Tibetans, most of them monks, have set
   themselves on fire to focus attention on what they see as Chinese
   repression of religious freedom and controls on Buddhist monasteries.
   There have been at least a dozen deaths.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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