TIBET
Attitude problem
All drawings by Bilash Rai |
If any other indication is needed regarding China's continued no-tolerance policy towards pro-Tibet activity, a recent official document has outlined Beijing's detailed stance on the various punishments to be meted out to monks considered to have "attitude problems". According to the document, monks committing "minor" infractions will be sent for "re-education"; those committing more serious "crimes" will be thrown in jail until they renounce their stance. Those considered to have "serious crime and attitude problems" will be banned from monasteries, while alleged "masterminds" of "splittist" actions have been warned that they will be prosecuted with "the full force of thelaw."Monasteries from which at least 10 to 30 percent of the resident monks took part in the March protests appear to be the main targets of the new policy. All members of these monasteries have now been ordered to "re-register" with local party offices, and those who fail loyalty tests will not be allowed to remain. Interestingly, the new instructions did not actually originate in Beijing (though they now bear its stamp of approval), but rather in the local Communist Party Central Executive Committee in Kandze prefecture, in southwestern Sichuan province. The area is home to a significant Tibetan population, and saw some of the largest protests earlier this year. That may be a notable example of decentralised decision-making, though not of a type that everyone would back.