London, November 30. According Tibet Information Network (TIN), "The Chinese authorities have confirmed the outbreak of 'serious' unrest in a remote town in northern Tibet last year. Reports from Tibetans say that unrest flared in the area, Sog county in Nagchu prefecture, after Tibetans began a county-wide campaign in July 1993 to force Chinese poachers and traders to leave the area. In other areas of the county Tibetans accused the Chinese of building settlements on farming land, while Tibetans in one rural area of Sog have sent a letter appealing for international assistance because of muggings by Chinese. 18 Chinese-owned shops were damaged by protestors in the main county town of Sog Dzong during the July 1993 protests. In the rural district of Yagla troops surrounded villages and imprisoned at least 19 Tibetans, including local officials, after the Tibetans had evicted Chinese migrants and traders from the villages. A report in the official Party newspaper Xizang Ribao (Tibet Daily), published last Sat

urday by the BBC Monitoring Service, confirmed for the first time that protests had taken place. 'In July last year [1993] a small number of criminals stirred up a serious incident of violence', said the paper in its 8th November edition. The incidents were described as consisting of 'beating, smashing and looting by 'criminal offenders', but the paper listed the crackdown that followed the unrest as an example of the Party's 'accurate and relentless strikes at activities of national separatists', signalling that the protests were in fact political. The paper said a 'work group' of Party officials was sent to the area and 'worked assiduously for 40 days in conducting a thorough investigation and meting out punishments'". (EuroTibet News N·6)