15 September 1997
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Six arrested prior to Hong Kong handover
[ read ]
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Chadrel Rinpoche in secret prison cell
[ read ]
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Woman fined for pregnancy
[ read ]
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Chinese business
[ read ]
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Prisoner's appeal in vain
[ read ]
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Six years for Drayab monks
[ read ]
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Profile:
Monk takes responsibility for Tibet booklet and is
sentenced to 12 years
[ read ]
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63-year-old arrested
[ read ]
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The Next Generation: The State of Education in Tibet Today
- A report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
[ read ]
Restrictions were imposed by the Lhasa Public Security
Bureau from April of this year to ensure stability and
security during the July 1 Hong Kong take-over and to
prevent riots and pro-independence movements during the
July 7 birthday ceremony of His Holiness the Dalai Lama
(broadcast on VOA Tibetan service on 27 August 1997). A
new arrival from Tibet reports that six Tibetans were
arrested by the Lhasa Security Bureau prior to these two
events for fear they may stage pro-independence activities
during this time.
The six arrested were:
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Dawa, male, aged 60 from Tsemonling, north of Lhasa
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Kalsang Tsewang, male, from Ramoche
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Lhakpa Tsamchoe, a woman from Kyiray
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Pema Choedon, a woman from Kyiray
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Migmar Drolma, a woman from Dranakshol
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Dakpa Wangden, male primary school teacher from Lhasa Shol.
Lhakpa Tsamchoe
was reportedly released after three days of detention
and it is not clear where the other five are being
held. Sources provided TCHRD with the following details
of two of the prisoners.
Dawa,
aged 60, was born in Lhasa and lived in Ramoche village,
north of Lhasa city. Dawa was a former monk of Sera
Monastery and before 1959 worked for Lhasa City Municipal
Enterprises as a watchman and later in the house of his
brother Gyaltsen, who held a high official post in the
Tibetan Government. In 1959 Gyaltsen fled to India and
all the property was seized by the Chinese who labelled
the entire family "revolutionary class" and subjected them
to degrading treatment.
During the Cultural Revolution Dawa was sent for hard
labour: from 1960 to 1964 on the Ngachen hydro-electric
power station and from 1965 to 1966 on the Paye
hydro-electric power station in Kongpo. On his return to
Lhasa he was forced to clean drains, build houses and cut
stones in the electric power station.
In 1979 a fact-finding mission from the Tibetan
Government-in-exile was permitted to visit in Tibet. In
July 1980, as soon as the five-member delegation reached
the Potala palace, Dawa shouted for pro-independence
and prayed for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai
Lama. Soon afterwards the Chinese police tried to arrest
him but he escaped into the crowd.
In August 1985, the year celebrating the 20th anniversary
of the foundation of the "Tibetan Autonomous Region",
Chinese officials arrested Dawa and detained him for four
months in Gutsa prison. Each day of his detention he was
reportedly charged 2 yuan for food.
In 1987 Dawa travelled to India for a pilgrimage and stayed
for two months in Dharamsala.
On 10 December 1988 - International Human Rights Day
- Dawa and some other Tibetans, staged a peaceful
demonstration in Lhasa and flew the forbidden Tibetan
flag from the top of a long stick. He was reported to
have told the younger Tibetans; "I'll go first. I'm old
and I won't regret it if I am shot. You all are young
now and it would be an unbearable loss if you were to
die in the demonstration." Dawa was arrested by police
in the middle of the demonstration and sentenced to
three years in Gutsa prison. In Gutsa he suffered from
gastro-enteritis and had to undergo an operation and
extended treatment. Kalsang Tsewang, who had also worked
in Lhasa Municipal Enterprises, appealed to the prison
authorities for Dawa's release on medical grounds and,
two years after his arrest, Dawa was finally released into
Kalsang's care.
A source in Tibet describes Dawa as "a man who served
others in his life and sacrificed his own benefits and
profits. He will lend his hand to the needy and poor
when they are ill. He is extremely patriotic and felt
a responsibility for all prisoners. He used to visit
all the prisons nearby Lhasa to take the prisoners food
once a month and when he didn't have enough he would ask
the prisoners' relatives if they would like him to take
something for the person. When he saw prisoners without
proper clothing and shoes he would take off his own and
offer them to the prisoners."
Kalsang Tsewang,
born in Lhasa, is a 49 year old man from Ramoche who
worked as the Chief Engineer in the Lhasa City Municipal
Enterprises. He has four younger sisters and their mother
died before 1959.
His father, the commander of Tibet's north-east army
unit, was forced to flee Tibet in 1959. Chinese officials
seized all the belongings of their family and, labelled as
"revolutionary class", they were forced to do hard labour
along with other Tibetans.
At that time Kalsang Tsewang's sisters were very small
and he worked hard as a stone mason and carpenter to
earn livelihood for his family who were living in severe
poverty.
Kalsang Tsering
requested the Chinese authorities many times to be
permitted to visit his father in India but all of
his appeals were rejected. It was not until after his
father's death that Kalsang was allowed to visit India
during the Kalachakra Initiation held in Salugara, India
in December 1996.
[ top ]
Chadrel Rinpoche,
the abbot of Tashilhunpo Monastery and head of China's
Search Committee for the Reincarnation of the 11th Panchen
Lama, has been on hunger strike since July this year,
locked in a secret compound in Chuandong No 3 Prison
in Dazu County in Eastern Sichuan, US monitoring group
"Human Rights in China" (HRIC) recently reported.
The 58-year-old Tibetan man had not been heard of
since he was sentenced on 21 April 1997 to six years
imprisonment and three years subsequent deprivation of
political rights for "plotting to split the country"
and for "leaking state secrets". Chadrel Rinpoche
had disappeared two years earlier, in May 1995, after the
Dalai Lama officially declared Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the
next Panchen Lama. He was held incommunicado under house
arrest, suspected of having communicated with the Dalai
Lama in exile regarding the choice of the reincarnation.
According to Chinese authorities, Chadrel Rinpoche
"confessed" to the charges and refused legal
representation. Reasoning that the case involved "state
secrets", Chadrel Rinpoche's trial was closed to the
public and the whereabouts of his detention has remained
unknown until now.
Chadrel Rinpoche is believed to be held in the
same cell as Hu Feng, a liberal communist intellectual,
imprisoned by Mao Tsetung for over 20 years in complete
secrecy for arguing that culture should not be made to
serve political ideology.
Chadrel Rinpoche was reportedly brought to this
top-secret compound, which even top prison officials are
forbidden to enter, in late April or early May of this
year. Only three people are allowed inside: two commissars
who report directly to the Ministry of Justice in Beijing
and a prisoner who acts as cook and guard of Chadrel
Rinpoche and is never permitted to leave.
Human Rights in China, based in New York, reports that
Chadrel Rinpoche, who is always called by a code
name, has been denied all outside contact and is not
allowed to leave his cell to take exercise. He reportedly
commenced his hunger strike in July of this year and while
it is unknown whether he has resumed eating sources report
that his health is very poor.
[ top ]
A Tibetan woman
aged 19 years (name withheld) from
Dingrae Dzong (county), Shigatse region, who arrived
in Dharamsala on 2 September 1997, has reported the
implementation of birth control policies in three rukhag
(units) in the county and the growth of Chinese business
and prostitution.
The source was told by her mother that the Chinese had
arrived in the area about six months ago and announced that
from that time onwards the farmers were to be allowed only
3 children and the government officials only 2 children.
The policy was put in force from this year. Pregnant
women who had already reached these prescribed limits,
were advised to have an abortion or they would be fined
1000 yuan. Where a couple had exceeded the limit but
the children were born in previous years, they would not
be fined.
The Chinese officials announced that this policy has been
implemented in the three Rukhags (units) of Dingrae Shen:
Maenthu Rukhag, Sharlung Rukhag, and Dongma Rukhag. Maenthu
Rukhag is very small, comprising only 30 families, while
the other two Rukhags are much bigger. The Chinese have
claimed that they have so far collected about 40,000 to
50,000 Chinese yuan during 1997 in fines from the those
who exceeded the limits.
The source reported that her mother was fined for the fifth
child, who was born a couple of months ago. She says that
her mother had a difficult time in paying the fine and
that she had helped her to pay.
All women who already had the maximum number of children
were advised to undertake sterilisation; carried out by
means of injection or the insertion of a tube in the upper
arm. (This latter procedure was reported on in our last
update of 31 August 1997). The source had visited Lhasa
earlier this year and had also heard of women there being
inserting with this tube .
The source says she has heard of many women in Maenthu
Rukhag having fled into the forest for fear of the Chinese
birth control policy. "I have heard that many of the girls
have been sterilised and a few of them have escaped,"
she says, "The Chinese birth control policy is very strict
and the fine has to be paid in a limited period."
[ top ]
"I was working in an Amdo Restaurant in Dram, the Tibetan
town at the border of Nepal. A few years ago there used
to be lots of Tibetan businessman who owned shops and
restaurants but recently many Chinese businessman have
migrated to Dram and set up business there selling general
everyday goods. With the migration of the Chinese many
of the Tibetan businessmen have lost business and they
have had to return home. At present there are only about
10 Tibetan businessmen; some sell clothes and thick white
boots to walk in the snow.
The Chinese have opened many brothels recently and I know
of about 20 brothels in Dram alone. In each brothel there
are about 4 or 5 girls and sometimes there are also Tibetan
girls who have been brought from Lhasa.
[ top ]
Tsewang,
a 63 year old man from Shol Lhasa, has failed in his appeal
to the "TAR" People's High Court after being sentenced by
the Lhasa City's Intermediate People's Court to five years
imprisonment for "stealing state secrets and communicating
with western splittist forces" in its verdict issued on
26 March, 1996.
The verdict of the Intermediate Court stated "at the end
of July 1992 defendant Tsewang has visited Mysore region
in India. After returning to Tibet the defendant Tsewang
has collected information on the political and economic
situation in Tibet, lists of people who participated in
demonstrations and secret documents and has sent them
twice to a secret enemy organisation based abroad without
mentioning his name. The defendant confessed to receiving
40,000 Indian rupees from the organisation on whose request
he has undertaken these activities."
The verdict also stated "the defendant, with intention to
destroy the proletarian and socialist system, had collected
information as assigned by a secret organisation based
abroad and has sent this information to them. He has
therefore violated the state security law and is hence
convicted of espionage crime. As per article 97 section 1
and article 52 of the People's Republic of China's Criminal
Law, the defendant has committed espionage crime and is
hence sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and deprived of
his political rights for 3 years."
Tsewang had been arrested on June 16, 1995 at 6:45 pm from
his home for "political reasons". After charging him with
spying, he was interrogated by the TAR National Security
Bureau on August 10, 1995, and was thereafter detained in
"TAR"'s Detention Centre (Seitru).
Tsewang, born in 1935, worked as an accountant at the
'Shol Thongye Ngamle' a co-operative production unit,
and lived in Shol's main Gate No. 1/20 before his arrest.
He visited India twice in 1985 and in 1992.
He was first arrested in 1959 after the abortive uprising
of Tibetan people against China. At that time he was a
soldier in the Tibetan army. In 1985, after returning from
a trip to India, he was again arrested. He was arrested
for the third time in June 1995 and accused of being a
"spy" for the Tibetan Government-in-Exile.
The High Court in its sentence paper issued on 30th
May 1996 stated "The High Court regards the previous
investigating court's judgement on the defendant
Tsewang who had committed espionage crime as reliable,
appropriate and just and hence the defendant's appeal has
been rejected."
Appeal cases are notoriously problematic under China's
appellate system, despite minor modifications introduced
this year. Defendants are reluctant to appeal for fear
an appeal decision may be even harsher than the original
verdict and there is to date no known case of a Tibetan
prisoner ever successfully appealing his or her case.
[ top ]
In Drayab Magon Monastery, monks have protested without
success against recent decisions by Chinese officials to
reduce by hundreds the number of monks allowed. Five monks
who refused to accept "Re-education" principles requiring
renouncement of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence
have been arrested, four of whom are now serving six-year
sentences.
Drayab Magon monastery in Drayab County, Chamdo region, is
considered one of the biggest monasteries in Drayab with
about 440 monks. It also has about 32 small monasteries,
each with more than 20 monks, under it. When Chinese
officials put a limit of 80 monks on Drayab Magon the
monks appealed to the officials for the ceiling to be
raised. They were told that "with luck" a maximum of 100
monks might be allowed.
"Re-education" work teams arrived in our monastery on the
12th day of the 11th month of the Tibetan year in 1996 (21
December 1996). There were 27 officials in total: 3 Chinese
and 24 Tibetans. Lectures on "Chinese Judicial System" and
"Religion" were begun and classes were held everyday. In
the beginning they did not stay in the monastery, leaving
in the evenings after classes, but later, when the sessions
were proving unsuccessful, they were ordered by Chamdo
officials to stay 24 hours a day to watch the monks.
Exactly three months after their arrival the work team left
Drayab Magon to visit the 32 smaller monasteries. They
left a note saying they would be back again because they
were not happy with the performance of the monks. The
work team's expenses during their stay at Drayab Magon
were borne by the monastery.
During the "Re-education" sessions the monks were told to
submit their photos of H.H. The Dalai Lama and oppose the
"Dalai Clique". About 280 monks accepted these principles
in order to stay in the monastery and the work team said
the "Re-education" would be extended to three years or
so until the other monks changed their mind. The monks
were restricted in their movements inside and outside
the monastery.
On 18th or 19th of the 11th month in 1996 according to
the Tibetan calendar (27 or 28 December 1996), while the
re-education sessions were underway in Draya Magon, five
monks pasted a poster on the door of the treasury office
reading "Free Tibet"; "Beat the drum when it is in your
hand and when you have to hear it from somebody that will
be too late" and "Long Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama".
When the officials saw the poster all the monks in the
monastery were rounded up and their hand writing was
screened. After a few days five monks were arrested on
the 22nd or 23rd of the same month (1 and 2 January 1997):
Gonpo, aged 23; Shadok, aged 45; Chimmey Lobsang, aged 18;
Ngawang, aged 21 and Tashi Nyima, aged 19. Tashi Nyima
is from Nyenmo Drayab County and the other four are from
Drayab County.
The five monks were first taken to Drayab prison and later
to Chamdo. In Chamdo all except Shadok were sentenced to
six years. Shadok was released after 12 days in prison
and then expelled from the monastery as a "splittist".
This information was provided by Lobsang Khedrup, aged 28
from Drayab County, (Tib.: Dzong) came to India on 27th
of Aug. 1997. He became a monk when he was 11 years old.
[ top ]
In 1995 a young monk named Sonam Dhondup was arrested after
Chinese officials found a booklet on Tibet and a Tibetan
national flag in his room. His plans to distribute the
booklets were never able to be fulfilled and Sonam Dhondup,
attempting to take the full responsibilty plan and thus
save his fellow helpers, is now serving a 12 year sentence
in Gutsa Detention Centre.
Sonam Dhondup
is a 23 year-old monk from Nyalenda Monastery who comes
from Phenpo Khatse, Dhondup Dzong under Lhasa City. His
father is no longer alive and his mother's name is
Jangchup. Sonam Dhondup (layname) chose to join Nyalenda
monastery when he was 12 years old. At that time there
were about 250 to 260 Nyalenda monks.
In the 1st month of the 1995 Tibetan calendar year (around
February or March of 1995), Sonam Dhondup, then 21, and
Tseten, aged around 23 years, initiated some political
activities. They printed a booklet on Tibet and stitched
a Tibetan national flag which they kept wrapped in yellow
silk cloth.
Later that same month, Sonam Dhondup together with
three other monks went to a place nearby called Thang to
distribute the booklets. When they arrived at Thang the
four monks stopped to watch some Chinese officials playing
a game of Daechu (snooker) while at the same time they
whispered among themselves about how they would distribute
the booklet. One of the Chinese officials overheard them
and reported to his supervisor about their plans.
Later, after the game, the Chinese began to tease the
four monks and a fight broke out. One of the monks was
subsequently hit over the head with a beer bottle by one of
the Chinese officials. The next day these officials came
to search the house where the four monks were staying in
Thang. Their rooms were ransacked and the Chinese officials
discovered the booklets and the national flag in Sonam
Dhondup's room.
Soon afterwards, in the same month, some 40 monks from
Nyalenda monastery were arrested in connection with the
printing and distribution of the booklets and 30 monks
were expelled from the monastery. The expelled monks have
appealed to the Chinese authorities, without success,
to be re-admitted. This leaves just 30 monks now in
Nyalenda Monastery; all others have been expelled or have
left voluntarily.
Sonam Dhondup and the other three monks were taken to Gutsa
Detention Centre and during interrogation Sonam said that
he had taken the lead in the booklet distribution plan. As
a result he was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.
Tseten was also sentenced to 12 years. The other two monks
were sentenced to six years. Sonam's mother is permitted
to visit her son in prison only on the 15th day of each
month and she is not allowed to take Sonam more than two
Tibetan breads.
Sonam's niece, now living in India, describes Sonam as a
"quiet and simple" man. She believes that he is currently
in good health and is still being detained in Gutsa
Detention Centre in Lhasa. Sonam Dhondup is now 23 years
old and is not due for release until around 2008. TCHRD
considers Sonam Dhondup to be arbitrarily detained for
political reasons and we call on the Chinese authorities
to release him immediately and unconditionally.
Add your appeal to ours: address your letters to Mr
Li Peng, Premier of China, and send them to TCHRD for
forwarding.
[ top ]
Sixty-three-year-old
Gonpo
from Tsongyon region under Bayan county was arrested
on December 25, 1996, by the Public Security Bureau
and his detention was officially announced in January
1997. However, the term of his sentence and present
whereabouts are unknown.
Gonpo was reportedly arrested on charges of having contacts
with the Tibetan Government-in-Exile based in Dharamsala,
India. Gonpo, a graduate of West North National University
in Lanzhou city under Kansu province, was the former
Director of Section 5 of the People Investigation Office
of Qinghai province. Since his retirement he has been
residing in Xiling city, Qinghai.
[ top ]
A report released by the Tibetan Centre for Human
Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) describes widespread and
systematic violations by the People's Republic of China
(PRC) of Tibetan children's rights to education. "The
Next Generation: The State of Education in Tibet Today",
a 100 page report based on interviews conducted in spring
1997 with 50 Tibetan children who have fled Tibet in the
previous two or three years, reveals the imposition of
prohibitively high school fees, the phasing out of Tibetan
language and culture, discrimination, indoctrination
lessons and excessively cruel punishments.
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