Published by: World Tibet Network News ISSUE ID: 98/01/03

NEW DELHI, Dec 31 (AFP) - A Tibetan human rights forum Wednesday accused China of increasing repression in Tibet during the year.

1997 was marked by "an increasingly intensive momentum by Chinese authorities to crack down on Tibetans who call for independence and respect for human rights," the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a 110-page report.

There were currently 1,216 political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Tibetan jails, of whom 295 were women and 39 under the age of 18, according to the centre, which is based in the northern Indian town of Dharamsala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government.

Chinese military seized control of Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama, Tibet's traditional god-king, fled into exile in India eight years later following an abortive anti-Chinese uprising.

The centre said monks who refused to denounce the Dalai Lama or questioned Chinese policies in Tibet suffered under a crackdown with 2,827 expulsions, 165 arrests and nine deaths.

"Religious control has been tightened and monastic populations culled," it said, adding that 613 child monks and nuns had been expelled during the past two years.

The report said 883 cases of forced abortion and sterilisation were carried out on Tibetan women in 1997 and added that roughly a third of Tibetan children received no schooling.

"Most new schooling is built in Tibetan urban centres and is designed for the education of Chinese settlers," it said.

"In April, officials announced that the Tibetan language would no longer be the sole language for education in primary schools.

"Tibetan children are now forbidden from wearing Tibetan clothes, eating Tibetan food, observing Tibetan holidays and carrying photographs of the Dalai Lama."

Lobsang Nyandak, executive director of the forum, said: "Political, religious and cultural repression has been intensified in 1997.

"Tibetan people are being progressively stripped of their most precious collective right: their cultural identity."

The Dalai Lama heads a Tibetan government-in-exile in India.