NGO: Tibetan unrest due to increased security

A report released Thursday by the influential non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch argued that an uptick in political tensions in the Tibetan region of Sichuan province followed increases in the security budget for the area, the New York Times reported. The report said that security-related expenditure in Aba prefecture of Sichuan province – known as Ngaba in Tibetan – rose considerably before unrest broke out in 2008, suggesting that heavy-handed government policies may be partly to blame for the violence.”These findings suggest that the increase in government spending on security has contributed to provocative policing techniques such as monastery blockades and the mass detention of monks that have repeatedly contributed to local discontent and unrest,” the report said. Six of the seven monks who have recently performed self-immolations this year have taken place around the Kirti Monastery located in Aba. The monks were protesting what they described as excessively harsh government policies in the region.