Publications

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Chapter 1: Political Repression - Notes

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2. The term "endangering national security" applies to whoever colludes, organises, plots or acts to split the country or undermine national unification, sovereignty, territorial integrity, or whoever carries out armed rebellion or armed riots with a plot to subvert the political power of the state and overthrow the socialist system. The severity of the sentence varies from a life term to a minimum three years' imprisonment, depending on the perceived gravity of the crime.

3. On 17 March 1996, China national legislature approved sweeping revisions to the CPL and came into effect on 1 January 1997.

4. Raidi, Executive Deputy Secretary of "TAR" : Public address, 15 Nov. 1998.

5. Tibet Daily in Chinese on 3 June 1997. Bai Zhao President of the "TAR" Regional People's Court at the Fifth Session of the Sixth "TAR" People's Congress on 20 May 1997.

6. Conflicting reports monitored at that time appear to indicate that at the initial time of detention, there were approximately 40 students and other detainees with various occupational backgrounds.

7. TIN, Human Rights Watch/Asia, Cutting Off the Serpent's Head: Tightening Control in Tibet (USA, March 1996), 158.

8. For more details, see Chapter 2: Freedom of Religion, 30.

9. Tibet Daily, 4 July 2000.

10. TIN News Update, 25 August 2000.

11. For more details, see Chapter 2: Freedom of Religion, 27.

12. Conflicting reports monitored at that time appear to indicate that at the initial time of detention, there were approximately 40 students and other detainees with various occupational backgrounds.

13. Founder of Ngarig Nangten Lobling Institute in Sertha Township, Golog, Qinghai Province, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok reportedly sought an audience with the Dalai Lama in 1993. For more details, see Chapter 2: Freedom of Religion, 29.

14. Originally from Ngaba "Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture", Gonpo had a background in music at the Cultural Institute of Marthang County (Ch: Hongyuan) for nine years.

15. Twenty three-year-old male from Kawasumdo (Ch: Tongde) County, Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) "TAP", Qinghai Province.

16. Document no.5, Ragdi's speech to the "TAR" Party Committee, 5 Sept. 1995.

17. Shigatse Prefecture Tourist Travel Agency in Lhasa is one of 18 branch tourist agencies in the capital. Information on expulsion from the 17 other branch tourist agencies is not yet available.

18. Sonam Wangdue returned to Tibet in 1997 after four years of schooling in an institution administered by the exile Tibetan government. In Lhasa, he worked in Shigatse Prefecture Tourist Travel Agency as a tour guide for three years from August 1997 until his expulsion.

19. For more details, see Appendix 9, Regulations on Tourist Guides.

20. Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Opening to Reform? An Analysis of China's Revised Criminal Procedure Law (USA, 1996), 20.

21. Ibid., 63

22. The Five monks from Thenthok Monastery, Chamdo Prefecture, arrested on 2 May 2000, are Jamyang Tashi (28), Tenpa (35), Tsultrim Jinpa (25), Tsering Chonden (22) and Yeshi Nyima (25).

23. On 31 October 1999 approximately 3,000 protestors demanded the release of Sonam Phuntsok, a senior religious figure arrested on 24 October and his assistants Sonam Choephel and Agya Tsering who were arrested the previous week. Sonam Choephel and Agya had spent 18 months in prison in the early 1990's under suspicion of distributing political leaflets. At least 50 Tibetans were detained after PSB and PAP personnel used tear gas and guns to suppress the protest.

24. Only seven names are available. They are Chemi Tsering (56) and Pema Tso (55) from Rego; Jampa Sod (38) from Sadhu; Chemi Gyaltsen (33) from Shigatse; Sonam Yeshi (32) from Khar gang; Ani Kalu (35) from Golo; Beshe Tsewang Wangdue and his brother from Dhura.

25. Phuntsok Wangchuk spent five years in Drapchi Prison for his political involvement and was released on 16 June 1999. He reached Dharamsala India on 8 December 2000.

26. For more details, see Appendix # 1, 79.

27. Lay name Palkyi is from Galo Nunnery in Phenpo. She was detained in February 1995 when she was 23 years old.

28. Lay name Tsewang Dolma was a Shar Bumpa Nunnery. She was 21 years old when detained in 1995 and was released in February 1995 from new rukhag # 3.

29. A 29-year-old deputy head of Taktse Township.

30. They are Khedrup, Thupten Tsering, Dhra Thutop and Yeshi from Yong Nag Township, village # 3, Sog County.

31. For more details, see Appendix # 1, Case 1.1.

32. TIN News Update, Lhasa prison expansion and social change (22 March 2000).

33. TIN News Update, New Prison Capacity in Lhasa: Photographs indicate increase in prisoners and new factory inside Drapchi (27 Oct. 1999).

34. TIN News Update, Lhasa Prison expansion and social change (22 March 2000).

35. Thirty one-year-old male from Nagchu Prefecture, who formerly worked in the Bank of Nagchu.

36. Article 247 of the Criminal Law of the PRC stipulates that judicial workers who extort a confession from criminal suspects or defendants by torture, who use force to extract testimony from witnesses, are to be sentenced to three years or fewer in prison or put under criminal detention.

37. "... the use of torture to coerce statements and the gathering of evidence by threat, enticement deceit, or other unlawful methods is strictly prohibited ...."

38. A monk of Gaden Monastery, Lhasa, arrested in May 1995 and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for political activities.

39. A 26 year-old Ganden monk from Meldro Gongkar. Arrested in August 1994 for participating in a demonstration in Lhasa and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

40. For more details, see Appendix # 1, Case 1.22.

41. The names of the four nuns are Tsultrim Sangmo, Lobsang Wangmo, Khedron Yonten and Tashi Lhamo. They were all due for release in the period from January 1999 to February 2000.

42. For more details, see Appendix # 1, 79.

41. Adopted by the First United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva in 1955, and approved by the Economic and Social Council by its resolutions 663 C (XXIV) of 31 July 1957 and 2076 (LXII) of 13 May 1977.

44. Ordained name Lobsang Choekyi is a Shar Bumpa nun who along with Ngawang Sangdrol is the only nun who received sentence extensions due to the Drapchi Protest. Choekyi, who looked younger than her age of mid-twenties is described by a friend as physically very small. She received severe beatings as prison authorities believed that she engineered the protest along with Ngawang Sangdrol.

45. Xinhua News Agency, Chinese language service (via BBC WS monitoring) Beijing, via Hong Kong, 14 April 2000.

46. A Gaden Monastery monk who was arrested on 6 May 1996 for political dissents and sentenced to 12 years in Drapchi Prison.

47. A former political prisoner, jailed for five years for her political involvement. She fled into exile in 1999.

48. TIN Briefing paper, Social Evils: Prostitution and Pornography in Lhasa (July 1999).

49. Senator Bob Brown with the assistance of Stephanie Calahan, "Chinese-Occupied TIBET and the Tibetans in Exile", (December 1999).

50. TCHRD, Behind Bars: Prison Conditions in Tibet (1998), 67.

51. Article 37 of Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.

52. Tseyang accidentally hit an elderly woman with a stone while playing which caused the woman's death. She was detained in Drapchi Prison. The prison officials assigned her the duty of spying on the inmates of rukahg # 3. Tseyang, who was an orphan, developed a friendship with the political prisoners who shared supplementary food and clothing that they received from visitors with her. Constantly harassed for information, and threatened with sentence extension for not acceding to the demand, Tseyang finally hung herself from her bunk.