China detaining Tibetans returning from India

17.02.2012

The Chinese government has detained several hundred Tibetans who returned from India after attending teaching sessions overseen by the Dalai Lama, and is forcing them to undergo political re-education, a human rights group said.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said it believed it was the first time since the late 1970s authorities had detained Tibetan laypeople in such large numbers, and comes as China frets about unrest in Tibetan parts of the country.

China allowed about 7,000 Tibetans to attend the sessions with exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Bihar in India between December 31 and January 10, in what the rights group said seemed to be a sign of a relaxation of policy towards Tibetans.

"However, that changed against a backdrop of unrest in the eastern Tibetan areas and apparent fears it might spread to Lhasa," it said in an emailed statement received on Friday, referring to Tibet's capital.

At least 15 Tibetans are believed to have died after setting themselves on fire since March in protests against Chinese rule, mostly in heavily Tibetan parts of China's Sichuan and Gansu provinces rather than in Tibet itself.