Students protest to save Tibetan
Hundreds of Tibetan students took to the streets in a Tibetan-populated county in the northwestern province of Qinghai, protesting against a new education policy, which they say stifles their unique language.
According to the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, several thousand Tibetan students from six schools protested in Rebkong county (Tongren in Chinese) in Malho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Huangnan), about 200 kilometres south of Xining, the provincial capital, from 7am on Tuesday, chanting: 'We want equality of nationality; we want equality of culture.'
Students from the National Senior Middle School of Rebkong county had marched from school to school and were joined by more and more students from other schools before rallying outside the Rebkong People's Government Building, the group added.
The report attributed the cause of the protest to reforms in Rebkong, which stipulate that all subjects be taught in Chinese and all textbooks be in Chinese except for Tibetan-language and English classes.
Lalong Dhondup - the government head of Rongwo, or Longwu, the town where the headquarters of the county government is - confirmed the mass rally took place yesterday. Such an event is rare.
When asked whether the demonstration had been triggered by the abrupt shift of language from Tibetan to Chinese in local textbooks, Lalong Dhondup said: 'As far as I've learned, what you have said is the only major cause of the incident.'
While the report quoted eyewitnesses as saying that 5,000 to 9,000 students had participated in the demonstration, locals with whom the South China Morning Post spoke said they had seen only hundreds.
On reports saying that up to 9,000 people had taken part, Lalong Dhondup said: 'According to my colleagues, not as many people as you have mentioned took part in the action. They have told me there were only hundreds of students.'
Lalong Dhondup added that, along with most of his colleagues, he was extremely busy with local census work. 'That's why I was not at the scene yesterday,' he said. 'I've visited four schools since 8 this morning and found that all the students had gone back to school.'
He said no schools under his jurisdiction had participated, and almost all demonstrators were from elsewhere in Rebkong county or Malho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.
Meanwhile, a middle-aged man working for a branch of the Agricultural Bank on a main road next to the county government headquarters said yesterday that he had seen scores of protesters, most of whom were middle school students, and heard them chanting slogans as they marched outside his office as early as 8.30am on Tuesday.
The protest did not end until the late afternoon, added the bank employee, who declined to be named.
'There were at least hundreds of them,' said the ethnic Han, adding: 'I guess there were more than a thousand protesters.'
He said the demonstrators had been in high spirits and voiced their aspirations powerfully, though he understood no Tibetan.
'I hardly saw a single ethnic Han among the protesters, nor did I see any police officers, aside from a handful of traffic policemen.'
Calls to the government office and Public Security Bureau in Rebkong county went unanswered.
