Tibet campaigners accuses China for concealing scale of flood disaster

A Tibetan advocacy group says hundreds of homes were destroyed on the Tibetan side of the border in last week’s deadly floods, raising questions about Beijing’s official account of the scale of the disaster.

Chinese authorities say 16 people have been confirmed dead and 546 are missing, including 261 foreign citizens. But the International Campaign for Tibet says its sources believe the number of casualties is significantly higher, with at least 300 homes destroyed.

Public discussion about the flash floods has been restricted, with security officials in Tibet announcing on Sunday that it had penalised at least 10 people for sharing “false disaster information”. There was no further information on the nature of the penalties.

Advocacy groups say there has been a stark contrast in the amount of information presented on either side of the border. Chinese coverage has been dominated by official state media reports, with few unofficial accounts about the scale of the disaster and its aftermath.

Many people in China also question the legitimacy of China’s data, such as why all the updates were coming from the Nepali side of the border, and dispute that the death toll is higher than what the Chinese government claims to be.