Changes were promised and several monasteries were rebuilt or reopened; a period of economic reforms opened up Tibet to tourism. However, in 1989, troops were sent to quell separatist demonstrations, and martial law was rigorously imposed. According to human right groups, hundreds of people, most of them monks and nuns, were held without trial and routinely tortured in prisons around Lhasa. And today, Tibetans who express strong opinions in public, especially to foreigners, still risk immediate arrest.
|
|