From:    Thomas Izaguirre                       Area: Mundane
To:      All                                    29 May 96 20:18:20
Subject: New Oppression in Tibet                UpdReq 

* Original Area: BURNING_TIMES
* Original To  : All (93:9806/0)
CHINESE GO AFTER TIBETAN SEPARATISTS
 Dalai Lama pictures target of authorities
 BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese authorities in Tibet were conducting house-to-house 
searches for pictures of the Dalai Lama as new measures to crush support for 
Tibetan independence were revealed Friday.
  Government-run Tibet Radio, monitored by the British Broadcasting 
Corporation, announced a new campaign to root out sabotage, bombings, 
killings and other criminal activities carried out by separatists.  The 
measures intensify a campaign to discredit the Dalai Lama that was launched 
in November.
  The radio said separatists who surrendered or provided information on their 
colleagues before the end of June would be treated leniently. 
  The May 16 issue of the Tibet Daily, seen in Beijing on Friday, also said 
stricter control would be placed on temples and monasteries where monks and 
nuns have been calling for independence.
  A Chinese decision last month to ban photographs of the Dalai Lama, the 
exiled spiritual leader of the fervently Buddhist Tibetans, has caused some 
of the worst violence the Himalayan region has seen in several years.
  Ganden, one of Tibet's most important monasteries, remained virtually 
abandoned Friday, 19 days after police opened fire on stone-throwing monks, 
the London-based Tibet Information Network said.  Police shot and wounded at 
least three monks and another was believed to have been severely beaten.
  The monitoring group said Chinese officials plan to keep Ganden, 25 miles 
east of the Tibetan capital Lhasa, sealed for up to three months.  It was not 
clear whether most of its 600 monks left in anger or were forced to go.
  Authorities have also reportedly been making house-to-house searches in some 
parts of Lhasa, for pictures of the Dalai Lama.
  Bombings in Tibet have been reported sporadically since last summer.  Robert 
Barnett of the Tibetan Information Network said his group has heard of at 
least eight bombings but that information on them was sketchy.
  Barnett said one bomb went off outside the home of a senior Tibetan leader 
who backed Beijing in its dispute with the Dalai Lama over the naming of an 
important religious figure.
  After the Dalai Lama chose a 6-year-old Tibetan boy last May as the 
reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, Beijing named its own 6-year-old six 
months later and launched a campaign to discredit the exiled leader.
  Since then, supervision of monasteries and temples has been tightened, 
senior religious figures have been called on to denounce the  Dalai Lama and 
the photograph ban was widened to cover all Tibetans, not just officials.


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