Local Tibetans in Zatoe county protest against mining and display banners of statement by President Xi Jinping urging protection of the environment in August.
Photo: RFA
Chinese authorities have reprimanded three Tibetan officials, Khetsa Soetop, Gyaltsen and Budhag, and removed them from their posts for their participation in a protest against mining which is taking place in Zatoe county, and which local Tibetans say is damaging the environment. The authorities stated that the Tibetan officials were involving themselves in “separatist” activities.
Additionally, Radio Free Asia has reported that the Central Government sent a group of reporters and researchers to Zatoe county in order to look into the recent accounts of unlawful mining taking place there, and that this group was then misled by Chinese authorities.
A Tibetan exile named Kunchok Dhondub told Radio Free Asia “some groups of reporters tried to visit the mines, but they were not taken to places where Chinese miners are actually extracting minerals, instead, they were taken to other sites in an attempt to convince them that mining is not harming the local environment.”
The Central Government had sent the group to investigate the damage to the environment caused by the mining activity in Zatoe County. This is the area where Tibetans who were protesting against the mining back in August were confronted by armed Chinese security guards. Around four thousand Tibetans were attempting to stop Chinese mining operations which they said were damaging the area, one man was shot dead and many others subjected to harsh treatment and injury following the confrontation.
Kunchok Dhondub added that “reporters never met the local Tibetans who had protested [against] Chinese mining in their area.”
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