Tibetans refuse to sow spring crops in protest against China

Tibetan discontent at Chinese rule has taken a new twist, with farmers refusing to till their fields in a show of passive resistance against Beijing.

So anxious are officials at the latest action that they have sent in troops from the People's Liberation Army to work with farmers - or in their place if need be - to carry out spring planting in mountainous regions able to support only one crop a year.

Local sources said that many farmers in areas of Sichuan province with large ethnic Tibetan populations have decided to down tools and leave their barley fields fallow this year.



“The farmers know that they will be the ones to suffer if they do this,” one source said. “But this is a way for them to show their unhappiness.”

State-run TV broadcast footage, shot by army cameramen, of soldiers accompanying Tibetan farmers into the fields to plough and hoe. The Government has even ordered officials and party members into the fields themselves to get on with the spring planting.

The extent of the protest was impossible to gauge since foreign reporters are barred from Tibet and have been prevented from entering Tibetan-populated regions. However, it appears to be serious enough to have prompted a statement this week from the Dalai Lama's base in India, saying: “The Tibetan Government in exile of the Dalai Lama appeals to Tibetans not to make this sacrifice and to stop their ‘refusal to till the fields'.”