How China cracked down on uncommon protests over Kamtok dam

Lots of of Tibetans protesting towards a Chinese language dam have been rounded up in a harsh crackdown earlier this 12 months, with some overwhelmed and significantly injured, the BBC has learnt from sources and verified footage.

Such protests are extraordinarily uncommon in Tibet, which China has tightly managed because it annexed the area within the Fifties. That they nonetheless occurred highlights China’s controversial push to construct dams in what has lengthy been a delicate space.

Claims of the arrests and beatings started trickling out shortly after the occasions in February. Within the following days authorities additional tightened restrictions, making it troublesome for anybody to confirm the story, particularly journalists who can’t freely journey to Tibet.

However the BBC has spent months monitoring down Tibetan sources whose household and associates have been detained and overwhelmed. BBC Confirm has additionally examined satellite tv for pc imagery and verified leaked movies which present mass protests and monks begging the authorities for mercy.

The sources reside outdoors of China and should not related to activist teams. However they didn’t want to be named for security causes.

In response to our queries, the Chinese language embassy within the UK didn’t verify nor deny the protests or the following crackdown.

Nevertheless it mentioned: “China is a rustic ruled by the rule of regulation, and strictly safeguards residents’ rights to lawfully specific their issues and supply opinions or options.”

The protests, adopted by the crackdown, befell in a territory residence to Tibetans in Sichuan province. For years, Chinese language authorities have been planning to construct the huge Gangtuo dam and hydropower plant, often known as Kamtok in Tibetan, within the valley straddling the Dege (Derge) and Jiangda (Jomda) counties.

As soon as constructed, the dam’s reservoir would submerge an space that’s culturally and religiously vital to Tibetans, and residential to a number of villages and historical monasteries containing sacred relics.

Considered one of them, the 700-year-old Wangdui (Wontoe) Monastery, has specific historic worth as its partitions function uncommon Buddhist murals.

The Gangtuo dam would additionally displace hundreds of Tibetans. The BBC has seen what seems to be a public tender doc for the relocation of 4,287 residents to make approach for the dam.

The BBC contacted an official listed on the tender doc in addition to Huadian, the state-owned enterprise reportedly constructing the dam. Neither have responded.

Plans to construct the dam have been first accepted in 2012, in accordance with a United Nations special rapporteurs letter to the Chinese language authorities. The letter, which is from July 2024, raised issues in regards to the dam’s “irreversible impression” on hundreds of individuals and the setting.

From the beginning, residents weren’t “consulted in a significant approach” in regards to the dam, in accordance with the letter. As an example, they got data that was insufficient and never within the Tibetan language.

They have been additionally promised by the federal government that the undertaking would solely go forward if 80% of them agreed to it, however “there isn’t any proof this consent was ever given,” the letter goes on to say, including that residents tried to boost issues in regards to the dam a number of instances.

Chinese language authorities, nonetheless, denied this in their response to the UN. “The relocation of the villages in query was carried out solely after full session of the opinions of the native residents,” the Everlasting Mission of the Individuals’s Republic of China to the United Nations workplace mentioned in a letter from September 2024.

It added: “Native authorities and undertaking builders funded the development of latest houses and offered subsidies for grazing, herding and farming. As for any cultural relics, they have been relocated of their entirety.”

However the BBC understands from two Tibetan sources that, in February, officers had informed them they’d be evicted imminently, whereas giving them little details about resettlement choices and compensation.

This triggered such deep anxiousness that villagers and Buddhist monks determined to stage protests, regardless of understanding the dangers of a crackdown.

The biggest one noticed tons of gathering outdoors a authorities constructing in Dege. In a video clip obtained and verified by the BBC, protesters may be heard calling on authorities to cease the evictions and allow them to keep.

Individually, a gaggle of residents approached visiting officers and pleaded with them to cancel plans to construct the dam. The BBC has obtained footage which seems to point out this incident, and verified it befell within the village of Xiba.

The clip reveals red-robed monks and villagers kneeling on a dusty highway and displaying a thumbs-up, a standard Tibetan approach of begging for mercy.

Prior to now the Chinese language authorities has been fast to stamp out resistance to authority, particularly in Tibetan territory the place it’s delicate to something that would doubtlessly feed separatist sentiment.

It was no completely different this time. Authorities swiftly launched their crackdown, arresting tons of of individuals at protests whereas additionally raiding houses throughout the valley, in accordance with one among our sources.

One unverified however broadly shared clip seems to point out Chinese language policemen shoving a gaggle of monks on a highway, in what’s regarded as an arrest operation.

Many have been detained for weeks and a few have been overwhelmed badly, in accordance with our Tibetan sources whose household and associates have been focused within the crackdown.

One supply shared recent particulars of the interrogations. He informed the BBC {that a} childhood pal was detained and interrogated over a number of days.

“He was requested questions and handled properly at first. They requested him ‘who requested you to take part, who’s behind this’.

“Then, when he could not give them [the] solutions they wished, he was overwhelmed by six or seven completely different safety personnel over a number of days.”

His pal sustained solely minor accidents, and was freed inside just a few days. However others weren’t so fortunate.

One other supply informed the BBC that greater than 20 of his kin and associates have been detained for collaborating within the protests, together with an aged one that was greater than 70 years outdated.

“A few of them sustained accidents throughout their physique, together with of their ribs and kidneys, from being kicked and overwhelmed… a few of them have been sick due to their accidents,” he mentioned.

Comparable claims of bodily abuse and beatings through the arrests have surfaced in abroad Tibetan media studies.

The UN letter additionally notes studies of detentions and use of pressure on tons of of protesters, stating they have been “severely overwhelmed by the Chinese language police, leading to accidents that required hospitalisation”.

After the crackdown, Tibetans within the space encountered even tighter restrictions, the BBC understands. Communication with the surface world was additional restricted and there was elevated surveillance. Those that are nonetheless contactable have been unwilling to speak as they concern one other crackdown, in accordance with sources.

The primary supply mentioned whereas some launched protesters have been finally allowed to journey elsewhere in Tibetan territory, others have been slapped with orders limiting their motion.

This has brought on issues for individuals who must go to hospital for medical therapy and nomadic tribespeople who must roam throughout pastures with their herds, he mentioned.

The second supply mentioned he final heard from his kin and associates on the finish of February: “After I received by, they mentioned to not name any extra as they’d get arrested. They have been very scared, they’d grasp up on me.

“We used to speak over WeChat, however now that’s not doable. I am completely blocked from contacting all of them,” he mentioned.

“The final individual I spoke to was a youthful feminine cousin. She mentioned, ‘It’s totally harmful, a variety of us have been arrested, there’s a variety of bother, they’ve hit a variety of us’… They did not know what was going to occur to them subsequent.”

The BBC has been unable to seek out any point out of the protests and crackdown in Chinese language state media. However shortly after the protests, a Chinese language Communist Social gathering official visited the world to “clarify the need” of constructing the dam and known as for “stability upkeep measures”, in accordance with one report.

Just a few months later, a young was awarded for the development of a Dege “public safety submit”, in accordance with paperwork posted on-line.

The letter from Chinese language authorities to the UN suggests villagers have already been relocated and relics moved, however it’s unclear how far the undertaking has progressed.

The BBC has been monitoring the valley by way of satellite tv for pc imagery for months. For now, there isn’t any signal of the dam’s development nor demolition of the villages and monasteries.

The Chinese language embassy informed us authorities have been nonetheless conducting geological surveys and specialised research to construct the dam. They added the native authorities is “actively and completely understanding the calls for and aspirations” of residents.

China is not any stranger to controversy in relation to dams.

When the federal government constructed the world’s greatest dam within the 90s – the Three Gorges on the Yangtze River – it noticed protests and criticism over its dealing with of relocation and compensation for hundreds of villagers.

In more moderen years, as China has accelerated its pivot from coal to scrub power sources, such strikes have grow to be particularly delicate in Tibetan territories.

Beijing has been eyeing the steep valleys and mighty rivers right here, within the rural west, to construct mega-dams and hydropower stations that may maintain China’s electricity-hungry jap metropolises. President Xi Jinping has personally pushed for this, a coverage known as “xidiandongsong”, or “sending western electrical energy eastwards”.

Like Gangtuo, many of those dams are on the Jinsha (Dri Chu) river, which runs by Tibetan territories. It types the higher reaches of the Yangtze river and is a part of what China calls the world’s largest clear power hall.

Gangtuo is actually the most recent in a sequence of 13 dams deliberate for this valley, 5 of that are already in operation or beneath development.

The Chinese language authorities and state media have offered these dams as a win-win answer that cuts air pollution and generates clear power, whereas uplifting rural Tibetans.

In its assertion to the BBC, the Chinese language embassy mentioned clear power initiatives concentrate on “selling high-quality financial growth” and “enhancing the sense of achieve and happiness amongst folks of all ethnic teams”.

However the Chinese language authorities has lengthy been accused of violating Tibetans’ rights. Activists say the dams are the most recent instance of Beijing’s exploitation of Tibetans and their land.

“What we’re seeing is the accelerated destruction of Tibetan non secular, cultural and linguistic heritage,” mentioned Tenzin Choekyi, a researcher with rights group Tibet Watch. “That is the ‘high-quality growth’ and ‘ecological civilisation’ that the Chinese language authorities is implementing in Tibet.”

One key concern is China’s relocation coverage that evicts Tibetans from their houses to make approach for growth – it’s what drove the protests by villagers and monks dwelling close to the Gangtuo dam. Greater than 930,000 rural Tibetans are estimated to have been relocated since 2000, in accordance with Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Beijing has all the time maintained that these relocations occur solely with the consent of Tibetans, and that they’re given housing, compensation and new job alternatives. State media usually portrays it as an improvement of their dwelling situations.

However rights teams paint a special image, with reports detailing evidence of coercion, complaints of inadequate compensation, cramped living conditions, and lack of jobs. Additionally they level out that relocation severs the deep, centuries-old connection that rural Tibetans share with their land.

“These folks will basically lose every part they personal, their livelihoods and group heritage,” mentioned Maya Wang, interim China director at HRW.

There are additionally environmental issues over the flooding of Tibetan valleys famend for his or her biodiversity, and the doable risks of constructing dams in a area rife with earthquake fault traces.

Some Chinese academics have discovered the strain from gathered water in dam reservoirs may potentially increase the risk of quakes, together with within the Jinsha river. This might trigger catastrophic flooding and destruction, as seen in 2018, when rain-induced landslides occurred at a village located between two dam development websites on Jinsha.

The Chinese language embassy informed us that the implementation of any clear power undertaking “will undergo scientific planning and rigorous demonstration, and will probably be topic to related supervision”.

Lately, China has handed legal guidelines safeguarding the setting surrounding the Yangtze River and the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. President Xi has personally harassed the necessity to shield the Yangtze’s higher reaches.

About 424 million yuan (£45.5m, $60m) has been spent on environmental conservation alongside Jinsha, in accordance with state media. Studies have additionally highlighted efforts to quake-proof dam initiatives.

A number of Tibetan rights teams, nonetheless, argue that any large-scale growth in Tibetan territory, together with dams reminiscent of Gangtuo, needs to be halted.

They’ve staged protests abroad and known as for a world moratorium, arguing that firms collaborating in such initiatives could be “permitting the Chinese language authorities to revenue from the occupation and oppression of Tibetans”.

“I actually hope that this [dam-building] stops,” one among our sources mentioned. “Our ancestors have been right here, our temples are right here. We now have been right here for generations. It is rather painful to maneuver. What sort of life would we’ve got if we depart?”

Extra reporting by Richard Irvine-Brown of BBC Confirm

UPDATE: This story has been up to date to incorporate China’s response to the UN in regards to the Gangtuo dam in a letter dated 12 September 2024.