Tents like these were used in the protest in Ngaba
Photo: TCHRD
Sixteen elderly Tibetans have been evicted from a building construction site where they have held a month-long sit in protest in Trinken village which is in Ngaba county in the Sichuan Province, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has reported. Police threatened the protesters with imprisonment and said that they will be held responsible for the fact that there has been a halt on the construction work.
The Tibetans were protesting against a Chinese land grab which happened nearly 30 years ago. The 16 elderly people represented 16 families in the village where 40mu (one mu equals 67 square meters) of their farmland was seized by the Chinese authorities in 1986 to build a cattle slaughterhouse and cold storage facility. The families were promised jobs and financial compensation for their land by the local Chinese government but these promises have not been fulfilled.
Petition submitted against land grabbing
Photo: TCHRD
The villagers have continually petitioned for compensation. On September 14, members of the 16 affected families submitted a further petition in the Chinese language to the Chinese authorities, stating three key demands: to provide employment to one family member from each affected family as promised in 1986 and to compensate the families for denying them the promised employment since the land grab; affected families be given ownership of the roads and premises surrounding the newly-built multi-storey structures on the appropriated land and thirdly, that the government return the 6 mu of unused land as only 34 mu is being used for building. Three days after submitting this petition, they erected tents and staged their sit in.
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