China parades Tibetans accused of separatism

Tibetans arrested by Chinese security forces have been paraded with placards around their necks indicating their names and alleged crimes such as "separatism", according to photographs published on Saturday by the Free Tibet campaign group. The pictures were taken in the ethnic Tibetan prefectures of Ganzi and Aba in Sichuan province, the Chinese dissident website Boxun.com said Friday, according to the London-based group. It did not give more specific information on where and when they were taken, Free Tibet said. These Tibetan-inhabited areas of Sichuan have seen a series of self-immolations by Buddhist monks and nuns in protest over Chinese religious repression. In one of the photos, armed and helmeted Chinese paramilitary policemen hold monks by the back of their necks, heads bowed and with signs around their necks, as they escort them out of a building. One of the monks, Lobsang Zopa, has his name written in Chinese on the sign along with the word "separatist", a charge punishable by life imprisonment, according to Free Tibet. In another photo, pairs of policemen twist the arms of detained civilians behind their backs to make them lower their heads. A third shows Tibetans on their knees with signs around their necks with their names, written in Chinese, accompanied by the charge "separatist" or "assembling to attack state institutions". A fourth picture shows an open-topped truck loaded with monks who are bent over with their heads sticking over the side as they are kept in this position by paramilitary forces, again with signs around their necks. Until at least the 1980s, it was common in China to parade condemned convicts in public in this fashion. If they were sentenced to death, their names were marked with a cross. Another three pictures, which Free Tibet said it had determined were taken in the town of Aba, show a police checkpoint, a large gathering of security forces and a patrol armed with assault rifles. China, which claims to have "peacefully liberated" Tibet in 1951, closely monitors the region and neighbouring provinces of the Tibetan plateau.