China steps up surveillance of Tibetan monasteries
31 January, 2012
BEIJING — A top official in Tibet's capital has ordered authorities to dispatch police to monasteries and step up security after violent clashes in Tibetan-inhabited areas left at least two dead.
Qi Zhala, Lhasa's Communist Party chief, also ordered a crackdown on "separatist" activities that he linked to Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and said maintaining stability in the city would be hard.
His comments come just days after the neighbouring province of Sichuan -- which has large populations of ethnic Tibetans, many of whom complain of oppression under Chinese rule -- was rocked by deadly clashes.
"From today onwards, the maintenance of stability in Lhasa will be an arduous task," Qi said in a speech to police forces, which was posted on the Lhasa government website.
"We must strike hard at all the separatist, destructive and criminal activities of the Dalai clique and make efforts to realise our goal of not letting any incident, big or small, occur," he said in comments posted Monday.
"Lhasa officials and functionaries at all levels, especially the police, must increase ... efforts to rationally dispatch police forces and step up registration and inspection work along national roads, at key monasteries and among leading suspects."
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China recruiting 8,000 police for restive Xinjiang
31 January, 2012
BEIJING, January 31, 2012 (AFP) - Authorities in China's volatile Xinjiang region plan to recruit 8,000 extra police officers, a government official said Tuesday, as they beef up security in the remote area.
The Asian powerhouse is gearing up for a major leadership transition later this year, and authorities are clamping down on dissidents and strengthening security in volatile areas in a bid to avoid unrest.
Xinjiang -- a vast region in China's northwest that is home to around nine million mostly Muslim Uighurs who complain of oppression under Chinese rule -- has been hit by sporadic bouts of violent unrest in the past few years.
Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the Xinjiang government, told AFP that authorities planned to employ the first batch of new police officers -- around 4,000, or half of the proposed total -- this year.
"We are expanding the presence of police forces... The main purpose is because we don't have enough police doing rural work," she said.
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Kazakhstan Now Sees Strike at US-Linked Oilfield
30 January, 2012
A strike has broken out in western Kazakhstan at a local subcontractor for American energy giant Chevron, Radio Free Europe reports. News of fresh unrest is sure to cause disquiet in Astana, coming six weeks after a long-standing industrial dispute in the western energy hub of Zhanaozen descended into fatal violence.
Radio Free Europe said that around 200 workers employed in Atyrau Region by two companies affiliated to the Senimdi Kurylys firm, which carries out construction work for the Tengizchevroil oilfield operator (50 percent owned by Chevron), had downed tools on January 25, demanding salaries be almost doubled from 80,000-90,000 tenge ($540-$600) to 150,000 tenge ($1,000). EurasiaNet.org could not reach Senimdi Kurylys for comment.
Tengiz is the largest oilfield in Kazakhstan.
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