After Turkmenistan accused the Russian state energy company Gazprom of causing a pipeline explosion by giving less than a day's notice before abruptly cutting its imports, observers see heightened tension between Moscow and Ashgabat. Dimitri Alexandrov, an analyst for the investments company Financial Bridge, said "that kind of explosion can only happen when the pipes are defective.... [T]he tone of the Turkmenistani Foreign Minister's accusation suggests that this is a political issue."

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), April 8 sentenced two Tibetans to death on charges relating to "starting fatal fires," according to an official report. These are the first known death sentences passed against Tibetans in connection with the Lhasa riots of March 2008. Two other Tibetans were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and one other was sentenced to life imprisonment in a total of three separate cases of arson, reportedly involving the deaths of seven people.

In the first major Tibetan protests since last year's Lhasa uprising, hundreds of local residents in Ragya township, Golog "Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture," Qinghai province, attacked a police station March 22, leading to the arrest of nearly 100 monks from the Ragya Monastery. Some 2,000 ethnic Tibetans took to the streets of Ragya after word spread that a monk had taken his own life after being arrested for possession of "separatist" literature. Authorities said several police were "slightly injured" in the clash.

Opposition parties this week called for protests across Kyrgyzstan on March 27, amid worsening economic conditions and mounting accusations of government repression. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's government has authorized the rally—but Interior Minister Moldomusa Kongantiyev issued a grim warning. "At the slightest breach of the law, the police will take every measure to restore law and order and the security of our citizens," Kongantiyev said.

Protests in China's Tibetan regions continue to be met with harsh repression one year after the Lhasa uprising—now reported on only by the Tibetan exile media. Chinese police in Nyarong County, Sichuan Province, arrested three Tibetans March 12 and paraded them in a marketplace after they pasted protest letters in front of a local government office and hoisting of Tibetan national flag in a school, according to a report on the Tibetan exile government website. (Phayul, March 16)

A March 6 headline in the official Chinese news agency Xinhua acknowledged that the declaration of March 28 as "Serfs Emancipation Day" is intended as a "tit-for-tat" against "Dalai clique." The rubber-stamp parliament of Tibet Autonomous Region adopted a motion in January to commemorate the day in 1959 when China officially dissolved the local government of Tibet. (Tibetan Review, March 9)

A young Tibetan monk was shot by Chinese police after he set himself on fire Feb. 27, the third day of the Tibetan New Year, at a market in Sichuan province's Aba (Ngaba in Tibetan) prefecture, Voice of Tibet radio service reported, citing eye-witness accounts. The monk from Kirti Trunkhor monastery was apparently named Tabey and aged between 25 and 30. He doused himself with gasoline and set himself ablaze after holding aloft a picture of the Dalai Lama. He collapsed after being shot by police, and was taken away. It is not known if he is alive or dead.

Chinese police in Lithang County, Sichuan province, detained 15 Tibetans who marched peacefully in support of the Dalai Lama Feb. 16. Five more local Tibetans who are believed to have participated in the march were detained the next day. Citing reports from witnesses on the ground, the India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said the town of Lithang has been effectively shut down since the protest, with shops closed and traffic brought to a halt by police checkpoints.