170 Tibetans detained after opposing land confiscation
Authorities in Golog, eastern Tibet, are enforcing laws allowing authorities to strip land from Tibetan nomads
On Tuesday 10 May, Chinese authorities in Cheudru Village in Gade County detained over 170 nomadic Tibetans and questioned them one by one at the county police station due to disagreements over the Chinese government’s orders that grazing lands be confiscated.
According to information supplied by Tibet Watch, the local police and other authorities in Cheudru Village pushed to investigate local Tibetans’ grassland use certificates and confiscate grassland from nomads if their certificates are out of date.
Under the occupation, pastures that had been used by rural Tibetans and their flocks for generations have been placed under government control. Grassland use certificates permit the holder the right to let their flocks graze on the land for 50 years.
Local Tibetans have opposed this directive, asserting that grazing lands should belong to the people. As a result of this resistance, over 170 Tibetans from Gade County have been summoned, detained and questioned at one of the county’s police stations.
Gade County is located in Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in eastern Tibet. The campaign to confiscate grazing lands from nomads if they cannot provide the correct paperwork is being pursued in other counties in Golog, namely Machen County, Maduo County, Darlek County, Pema County and Chigdril County.
Last year, authorities in neighbouring Yushul Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture also started collecting grassland use certificates from Tibetan nomads residing in the region and proclaimed that the Chinese government is the sole owner of these vast grasslands. Authorities then confiscated this grassland from the local Tibetans. Under China’s occupation of Tibet, Golog and Yushul have both been incorporated into China’s Qinghai Province.
A grassland use certificate, with text in Chinese and Tibetan
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
