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China on highest guard over Tibet protests
China's anxious leadership has warned security and government officials struggling to control restive Tibetans to be on their "highest guard" ahead of this month's Tibetan New Year festival.Following recent sporadic, deadly riots and a series of self-immolations by monks and nuns in Tibet and Tibetan communities in the country's western provinces, Beijing fears the potentially volatile holiday period which begins on the 22nd could muster coordinated and widespread anti-Chinese rule riots. "Officials must put all their efforts into maintaining a stable, unified social situation in our region. They must have a clear head and fully recognise the extreme importance and urgency of the job of maintaining stability," a Communist Party notice said in the state-run Tibet Daily newspaper. "Government departments must unstintingly carry out all measures designed to maintain stability, " the notice ordered. The diktat did not detail what measures should be deployed to quell any further unrest. But with the fifth anniversary of the large-scale March 2008 Tibet uprising also looming, the message to strike hard and stamp out any signs of mass revolt was clear. Posted by: Steve White 2012-02-07 |
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