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Agam's Gecko
Monday, November 10, 2008
 
VIDEO: KIRTI PROTEST FOOTAGE
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ome video footage of the Tibetan protest near Kirti Monastery, Ngaba Prefecture on March 16, 2008 has been released to International Campaign for Tibet. This is the kind of evidence that readily found its way out of Burma during the popular uprising there in September 2007 -- often on the very same day an event happened.

But as everybody knows, nobody can put a lid on information quite like the communist Chinese. And so, seven and a half months after the fact, a brief three and a half minutes of images from this incident has made its way into exile. Not captured in this video is the moment Chinese troops opened fire on the non-violent protesters, killing at least 23 people.





Soon after those scenes were filmed, the following picture was taken which you may remember. Some of the bodies were brought to the monastery for their last rites.

Mourning at Kirti
Photo: Kirti Monastery


Other images of the aftermath soon followed. This is the mildest one I could find.

Not in vain
Photo: Kirti Monastery


Many such incidents of Chinese troops using deadly force against non-violent protest have taken place since March 16. They have happened out in the open, and behind concrete walls of prison cells. There have been no pictures.
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- posted by Agam @ 5:27 PM 6 comments

6 Comments:

It's hard to see who is doing what. It looks like the action is mostly around the next corner. I don't have much experience of this, but are the thudding sounds you hear and the thick smoke coming up the result of soldiers/police throwing tear-gas canisters?

Is this being done for purposes of crowd control?

Or are people throwing smoke bombs around for some other reasons? Excuse my ignorant questions.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11 November, 2008 01:49  

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anon: There's a bit of analysis of the scene at the ICT link in the article. Those are believed to be tear gas canisters which the troops are using. At one point in the second video, someone retrieves one and throws it back. Also, the water hosing looks pretty ineffectual, like they're just trying to get the people wet. Well, it was mid-March, so still pretty cold then.

It's just interesting to see what the situation was like during this incident, which was likely the deadliest of the hundreds of confrontations that took place across the plateau. We can see lots of people, but no evidence here of any "rioting" or "looting" etc. I don't see anyone even throwing anything, apart from someone returning that tear gas cannister.

By Blogger Agam, at 11 November, 2008 10:30  

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I see what you mean. Even when the tear gas canister is thrown back, it is just thrown against a wall, more a way of getting the tear gas away from people than a way of getting back at the throwers, I'd say.

For the water canons (no personal experience there, either), you only see the spray that goes up in the air, not the blasts hitting people, as they very likely would be. Just we can't see them because of the wall of a building blocking our view.

Btw, liked your way of spelling T-"A"-R in your latest. We'll all be using that one from now on. Do we have to credit you each time?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11 November, 2008 20:57  

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anon: Yeah, I've tried a few different variations on that one. Sometimes I spell it out with "Autonomous" or like T"A"R - but the dashes set it off quite nicely I think.

No need for credit at all, spread at will!

By Blogger Agam, at 11 November, 2008 21:40  

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I looked again. And again. That one canister seems to have landed right at the Kirti Monastery entranceway. From there it looks as if it is being relayed to the edge of the crowd of people. Then one person at the end visibly flings it up against the wall, where other canisters are already smoking over to your right.

Maybe someone could explain the high pitched whooping sound. Is that what it sounds like? The cry of too-long pent-up emotions?

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11 November, 2008 22:25  

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The whooping cries are a Tibetan thing, a few foreigners in Lhasa described it as well. But it's probably common to a lot of cultures, I bet.

By Blogger Agam, at 11 November, 2008 22:46  

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