Around 40 middle school students arrested in Marthang
Around 40 Tibetan middle school students were known to have been severely beaten before being arrested at around 8:30 AM (Beijing Time) today, 17 March 2008, following students' call for the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet, according to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) multiple sources within Tibet.
Around one hundred Tibetan students of Marthang Nationality Middle School in Marthang County (Ch: Hongyuan xian), Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Prefecture, "Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture" ("TAP"), Sichuan Province, erupted into a spontaneous demonstration inside the school compound calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet during the morning school hours. According to witnesses, the People's Armed Police (PAP) and Marthang County Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials blocked and immediately crushed the students while they came out of the school premises shouting slogan calling for the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. Students were severely beaten and manhandled before being dragged into the waiting police vehicles.
According to the latest information coming out of Tibet, it indicates that around 700 students of the Marthang Nationality Middle School in a solemn gesture of solidarity with the arrested students are staging protest outside Marthang County PSB office. The conditions and identities of those middle school students could not be ascertained at the moment; however, the Centre will continue to monitor the situation and will update as and when more information surfaces from the area.
TCHRD condemns in its strongest terms the Chinese security forces' heavy handedness in dealing with the peaceful Tibetan students and expresses its deepest concern over the safety of the protesting students. TCHRD calls for the immediate and unconditional release of those arrested this morning for peacefully expressing their views and exercising their freedom of expression, association and assembly.
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