International Campaign for Tibet

January 29, 2015

A group of around 10 Tibetan nomads held a vigil outside the hotel in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, where an official meeting on January 28. They were calling for protection to pasture areas and opposing illegal land acquisition.

The Tibetans, wearing Tibetan traditional dress, were detained and taken away by armed police about ten minutes after they sat outside the hotel where a session of the Regional People’s Congress was being held. Their current whereabouts is unknown.

The nomads carried banners that read “Defend pasture lands of herdsmen. Firmly oppose illegal land acquisition”, “Homes are being occupied. We have no home to go.” According to exile Tibetan sources in contact with Tibetans in the area, the nomads said that they were “risking their lives to protect their grasslands and livestock”. The nomads feel that they and their animals had been displaced from their land due to government policies of confiscating pastureland and slaughter of livestock.