October 15, 2013
New images show a broadening crackdown in Driru (Chinese: Biru), Nagchu prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), and protests by local Tibetans at the detentions of a monk and young writer. Further details about an incident in which police opened fire and killed four Tibetans, reported by Radio Free Asia, could not be fully confirmed due to the lockdown in the area and the Chinese authorities’ attempts to prevent news on the tense situation in Driru reaching the outside world. (RFA, Four Tibetans Shot Dead as Protests Spread in Driru County – October 11, 2013).
The unrest in Nagchu follows a drive to enforce loyalty to the CCP through compelling the display of the Chinese flag as part of the Party’s strategy to intensify control across the TAR as the answer to political ‘instability’. At the end of September, hundreds of officials were sent to Nagchu to enforce compliance by monasteries and families in the area.