Dorjee Tso | Radio Free Asia [caption id="attachment_3312" align="alignleft" width="300"] Police gather in Benshul Jeyna village, May 5, 2015.
(courtesy of an RFA listener)[/caption]
Authorities in China’s northwestern Qinghai province began this week to demolish a Tibetan village containing houses deemed to have been built without official permission, leaving many families homeless, Tibetan sources said.
The raid on Benshul Jeyna village in Mangra (in Chinese, Guinan) county in the Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture was the second in as many years, and was led by the head of the county’s Sumdo township, a local source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
“He brought in officials from the local offices of security and law enforcement, along with the heads of 16 area villages, with the intent to demolish the Tibetan homes,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“They said that the houses built in the village were ‘illegal,’” the source said, adding, “The work of demolition began on May 5 and will continue for a week.”
The raid on Benshul Jeyna—the largest of 16 nomad villages in Mangra county—is causing significant loss to the settlement’s Tibetan residents, who had spent “much money and effort” to rebuild homes torn down in a similar raid last year, the source said.
“Residents, including the women in the village, are crying out and protesting against the actions of the authorities, calling them unfair and unjust,” he said.