Affrontements dans le 炉霍县 Xian de Luhuo (四川 Sìchuān) après deux immolations – 9 février 2012

Report Says 2 Tibetans Killed By Security Forces

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIJING February 9, 2012

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese security forces shot dead two Tibetan brothers who had been on the run since taking part in anti-government protests two weeks ago in southwest China, a U.S.-funded broadcaster reported Friday.

Radio Free Asia said the two — 40-year-old monk Yeshe Rigsal and his 38-year-old brother, Yeshe Samdrub — were killed Thursday in the high-altitude pasturelands used by nomadic herders where they had fled after the Jan. 23 protest in Luhuo county. Radio Free Asia cited sources in the area and in the Tibetan exile community in India.

Luhuo and other Tibetan areas of Sichuan province have been sealed off due to recurring, sometimes violent protests, so the Radio Free Asia report could not be independently confirmed. Telephone calls Friday to the Communist Party propaganda department and the public security office in Luhuo rang unanswered, as did a call to the party propaganda department in Ganzi prefecture, which oversees the county.

In the Luhuo protest, Tibetans besieged a police station, drawing fire that killed at least one person. It marked a return to the mass anti-government demonstrations periodically used by Tibetans in recent decades to protest Chinese rule. A widespread rebellion across Tibetan areas in 2008 prompted China to smother the region with police and tighten controls on the Buddhist practices and the clergy that are at the core of Tibetan identity. Read more …