Over a dozen Tibetans were seriously injured after a violent clash with up to 100 Chinese thugs. The Chinese gang attacked with sharp weapons, batons and stones over a land dispute in a village in Tibet’s Amdo region.
The incident occurred on July 17 in Dola County’s in Arik Dragkar village, Qinghai province, which borders the Chinese township of Tsomen in Menli County (Gansu province). Allegedly the Chinese residents in Tsomen hired a mob that launched a surprise raid on the post manned by Tibetans living in tents.
For decades the land dispute between the two villages saw many quarrels but this attack, at a Tibetan security post in the village, is amongst the most serious of clashes. “There were about 33 Tibetans at the post at the time of the attack,” said Arik Gyurmey, a Tibetan in Dharamsala citing contacts in the region. At least 17 Tibetans were seriously wounded. “Rabten, the head of Dragkar village, has both the legs and arms broken”, he said. Others have suffered serious injuries to their head and legs and are undergoing treatment at Menli hospitals.
Gyurmey continued: “Several officials and police from Dola and Menli counties later arrived at the scene and they promised to ease up the situation and to protect local Tibetans.”
“Arik Dragkar is part of the traditional province of Amdo in Tibet. [It] has been locked in a long-standing land dispute with hundreds of Tibetans families, who maintain the Han Chinese of Tsomen village have illegally try to grab their land,” Gyurmey added.