China builds police station at highest border point in Tibet

BEIJING: At over 5,000 metres above sea level, China has set up a police station at the highest border point in Tibet as part of measures to ensure lasting "peace and stability" along Tibet's border.

The highest border police station in China, situated 5,373 metres above sea level was opened at a village in the Shannan prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region, neighbouring Bhutan.

The village has a population of over 900. "The foundation of the police station marks the progress of border administration and it plays a positive and important role in social development and lasting peace and stability along Tibet's border," state-run Xinhua quoted Tashi Dodan, head of the public security border detachment of Shannan prefecture as saying.

A female border police station was also founded in Nanyi village, Mainling county of Nyingchi prefecture, yesterday.

There, 20 female officers, aged 18 to 31, will maintain peace in the tourism scenic areas in Nanyi.

Most of the 445 villagers in Nanyi are Lopa People, the least populous ethnic group in China.

Nanyi's beautiful landscape attracts a large number of tourists every year.

Tibet and surrounding prefectures have witnessed unrest in recent months with over two dozen self immolation attempts by monks and nuns calling for the return of their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.

China accused the Dalai Lama of instigating the suicides. "The clique of the Dalai Lama is trying in vain to continuously create incidents in Tibet and the Tibetan- inhabited areas in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai," Jia Qinglin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference said here two days ago.

"The region's stability depends on how much work we put into maintaining social order as well as other efforts, including continuously improving Tibetans' living standards," Jia said.

"The key to the region's stability is to improve the construction of basic infrastructure at the grassroots level, especially in especially in border areas, and, of course, people's living standards," he said.