Just in the last few days, more news has come out of China about further arrests and jail sentences of Tibetans for alleged “rumour mongering”. The unusually tough sentences, in particular, indicate Beijing’s determination to block news about the 3.14 Lhasa crackdowns. According to Beijing’s official version of events, the March riot in Lhasa involved Tibetans taking part in acts of assault, vandalism, arson and looting against Han and Hui nationals. Other versions of events, including attempts to analyse the cause of such violence, had been condemned as “biased reports by western media”.
ABC Radio Australia News confirmed that a Tibetan who worked for a Melbourne-based medical group to stop the spread of HIV in Tibet had been jailed for life for passing on information about the situation in the region to the outside world.
