Published by: World Tibet Network News, Monday, Jun 03, 1996

By Graham Hutchings, China Correspondent

International News Electronic Telegraph Monday June 3 1996

Issue 397

CHINA has sentenced six Tibetans to up to five years in prison for demanding independence in the latest sign of Beijing's determination to crush separatism in its remote frontier regions.

The sentences were handed down in Xigaze, Tibet's second largest city, after a public rally broadcast on state television.

The six were said to be "counter-revolutionaries" who had "incited Tibetan independence". No details of their activities were given during the broadcast.

But the official media have suggested that anti-Chinese protests are increasing in Tibet, which had de facto independence until communist troops arrived in 1951.

"This year, the Dalai clique has further intensified its splittist and destructive activities," said the Tibet Daily in a reference to followers of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader.

Local officials have ordered separatists to surrender by June 30 if they want to be treated leniently, and warned that those who carried out bombing and assassinations would be treated mercilessly.

The Tibet Information Network said at least one of the activists sentenced this week was a woman.

It was the first political trial to be given publicity in the region for two years, and marks an intensification of Beijing's attempt to snuff out anti-Chinese resistance among the local population.

The latest action has centred on monasteries and temples, which are nerve centres of social and spiritual life for the intensely religious Tibetans, as well as foci of loyalty to the Dalai Lama.

Tibetan authorities have also ordered monasteries to remove photographs of the Dalai Lama from their premises, a move which met resistance earlier this month. Security forces had to seal off one monastery after disturbances threatened to get out of hand.

China is waging a similar secular offensive in the Xinjiang region, where the mainly Muslim population have a history of resistance to rule by distant Beijing.

Reports from the area, which borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and three mainly Muslim former Soviet republics, speak of bombing and terrorist campaigns that have forced military authorities to tighten control over the frontier.

This report appeared in Saturday's edition of The Daily Telegraph