China said yesterday that two Tibetans had been executed for their role in deadly ethnic unrest that rocked the Himalayan region last year, the first known use of capital punishment over the violence.
The confirmation by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) came after several international activist groups had reported that up to four Tibetans were shot dead by Chinese firing squads over the violence that erupted in March last year.
“The two criminals who were executed were found guilty in accordance with the law in both a first trial and an appeals trial,” Ma told reporters.
“China’s judiciary handled the cases in strict accordance with the law,” he said, noting that the verdicts had been reviewed by the Supreme Court.
Ma said he was unaware of the executions of two other Tibetans reported by the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Fierce protests erupted in Lhasa and spread across Tibet and adjacent areas in March last year, embarrassing the government in Beijing as it prepared to host the Summer Olympics.
Beijing blamed the Dalai Lama for inciting the unrest, but the Buddhist monk says he only seeks greater regional autonomy.
China has said “rioters” were responsible for 21 deaths, while its security forces killed only one “insurgent.” But the exiled Tibetan government has said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in the subsequent crackdown.
State media said in April that two people had been sentenced to death over the violence, the first such penalties reported.
The top Communist Party leader in Tibet, Zhang Qingli (張慶黎), has said the fight against separatism in the region remained “very serious” more than a year after the unrest, state media reported yesterday.
In a speech in Lhasa this week, Zhang urged all levels of government, as well as the military, to step up efforts to ensure public order, the Tibet Daily reported.
“Since 2005, we have made important contributions to safeguard overall social stability ... by hitting hard and preventing [separatism] and by building a solid line of defence to strike at hostile people,” Zhang said.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951 after “liberating” the region the previous year.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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