Over the past one week, a series of peaceful protests were carried out by Tibetans particularly teenage monks in Sertha County in the traditional Kham region of Tibet resulting in arrests and detention, according to information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

Beginning 30 March, two teenage students of the famed Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Sertha were taken into police custody by security forces in civilian dress for staging a protest at Sertha County. The two monks with the banned Tibetan national flag shouted slogans calling for the ‘swift return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet,’ ‘independence for Tibet’ and ‘human rights for Tibet’ at the Sertha County market square. Two teenage monks: Tenzin Gyamtso, 16, is a monk of Nedo Monastery in Dzatoe County and Gawa Wangchen Topgyal, 15, a monk of Jeytrung Monastery in Dzatoe County, Jyekundo (Ch: Yushu/Jiegu) “Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture” (‘TAP’) under Qinghai Province. Both were studying at Sertha Larung Gar Buddhist Institute at the time of their protest. There is no information on the current whereabouts of detained teenaged monks.

Similar protest was also staged by another two monks of the same Buddhist institute in Sertha County on 31 March and both were immediately detained by the Chinese security forces and taken into police custody, according to sources. There is no information on the identity of the detainees and their current location of detention.

On 2 April 2010, a 20 year old Tibetan youth, Ugyen Namgyal from Choktsang village of Sertha County staged a solo protest at the county market square. The Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials suddenly appeared at the site of the protest beating him severely before arresting him.

On 3 April 2010, an identified Tibetan layman from Choktsang village of Sertha County staged a brief protest at the county market square before being detained by the security forces.

Similar protest was also carried by a 19-year-old reincarnated lama, Tulku Namgyal of Taglung Monastery in Choktsang Village on 4 April 2010. Numerous handwritten pamphlets calling for “independence for Tibet,” “swift return of the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to Tibet,” and “human rights for Tibet,” were thrown into the air at the site of the protest in Sertha County. According to sources, he was immediately detained by the security forces and taken into police custody. Tulku Namgyal was a teacher at the Taglung Monastery.

Again on 5 April 2010, a 20-year-old Thakchoe, layman from Choktsang village was detained by the security forces after he staged a solo protest at Sertha County by raising the banned Tibetan national flag and shouting slogans.

According to sources, similar incident of peaceful protest having occurred yesterday (7 April) at Sertha county but no detail is available at the moment. New restriction on the free movement of the monks and nuns were imposed. Many new security barricades were erected on the 22 Kms road stretching between Larung Gar Buddhist Institute and the Sertha County and many security forces in civilian dress were deployed in the area to contain further protest by Tibetan.

TCHRD calls upon the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for the immediate and unconditional release of the detained Tibetans including the teenage monks who were arrested for exercising their fundamental human rights peacefully.