Bloody Clashes In Tibet

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31880, 7 January 1969, Page 16

Bloody Clashes In Tibet

(N.Z.P.A -Reuter —Copyright) NEW DELHI, January 6. The Chinese Administration in Tibet has consolidated its grip over the vast mountainous territory in recent months, but there are, nevertheless, continuing reports of bloody clashes between Chinese soldiers and Tibetans, and between rival Maoist groups.

All-India Radio reported in its Tibetan service recently that about 1000 Chinese soldiers had been killed by

Tibetans since June. Other reports, mainly from Tibetan refugees crossing the Himalayas to India, have spoken of armed clashes in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and several - towns in its hinterland, between rival Chinese organisations. The Chinese Army, according to refugee reports, maintains control over Tibet and its civilian administration. Peking has had to deal with trouble in Tibet ever since it ordered its army to march in for the “peaceful libera-

i tion” of Tibet in 1951; there , were armed revolts in 1958-59 and 1961-62, and thousands of Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama, the traditional

Tibetan temporal and spiritual leader, fled to India when the revolts were crushed. The “Tibetan Review,” a monthly magazine published in India, quotes refugees as saying the Chinese are making large-scale military preparations on the Indian, Sikkim, and Bhutan borders. India’s Minister of Defence (Mr Swaran Singh) told Parliament recently that between 130,000 and 150,000 Chinese troops were massed along India’s northern borders.