31 October 1997
-
Couple imprisoned
[ read ]
-
Principal arrested
[ read ]
-
New arrest
[ read ]
-
A child's dream of school
[ read ]
-
Disappearance
[ read ]
-
Monk dies in prison
[ read ]
-
Profile:
17-year sentence for political activities
[ read ]
Tsering Gyaltsen
and
Yangzom,
a married couple from Lhasa, have been reported to be
currently in detention after their arrest around the end
of September this year. The information was received from
a reliable source but the charge is unknown. It is believed
that they were detained by Chinese authorities on suspicion
of being involved in political activities.
Tsering Gyaltsen
is a 38 year-old man from Lhasa. He is the son of late
Gyalo. Tsering attended primary school from the age of
8 to 12 years and middle school until the age of 18.
After completing middle school, Tsering worked as an
accountant in an upmarket department store commonly called
"Yamey" for 10 years. He later worked as an accountant at
a branch office of the Gangchen Development Co-operation
until his arrest in September which occurred just after
his return from a visit to India.
Tsering was first arrested in 1983 by the Public Security
Bureau as a result of political activities. He was held in
Gutsa Detention Centre in Lhasa for four and a half months.
In 1985,
Tsering visited India to see relatives and in 1989 he was
again arrested. This time he was detained for about a
month in Lhasa.
In December 1996,
Tsering travelled to India with his wife for the
Kalachakra initiation, to make a pilgrimage and to visit
with relatives. He returned to Tibet in May-June of 1997
and his wife followed him in August this year. Both of
them had legal documents for travel.
Tsering's wife, Yangzom, is 31 year olds and is also
from Lhasa. She is reported to be currently detained in
Gutsa Detention Centre and Tsering is believed to be in
Sangyip Prison in Lhasa. Nothing is known of their present
condition but sources say that they are undergoing severe
interrogations.
[ top ]
The principal of Lhasa Shol School,
Drakpa Nyendrak,
was reportedly arrested in the first week of July this year
for engaging in clandestine pro-Tibetan activities such
as drafting slogans and making posters.
PSB (Public Security Bureau) officials reportedly found a
Tibetan flag and certain documents, in the principal's
possession after being informed by insiders of his
political activities. Drakpa Nyendrak was interrogated over
a series of sessions and some other Tibetans, suspected
of colluding with Drakpa, were also arrested.
The arrest of six Tibetans during the first week of July,
coinciding with the Hong Kong handover and believed to be
aimed at stifling potential political unrest, was reported
in Human Rights Update, September 15, 1997. The six names
received in that report included Dakpa Wengdak, a teacher
at the Lhasa Shol primary school, but did not mention
Drakpa Nyendrak. This latest report (source protected)
also refers to six arrests and it is therefore unclear
whether names have been confused or whether more than six
arrests were in fact carried out.
[ top ]
22-year-old old
Gyun-ne Dorjee,
a monk from Dargye Choeling Monastery, is from Noru in
Tsethang sub-county under Lhoka region (close to Lhasa).
He was arrested around the last week of May this year after
he allegedly pasted anti-Chinese posters on the walls of
the county office.
During a search of the monastery, PSB officials found
photographs of the Dalai Lama and some incriminating
documents amongst Gyurme's belongings. He was immediately
arrested and for seven days he was kept in Lboka Dranag
prison, where after he was sentenced to three years and
tranferred to Drapchi prison.
[ top ]
The growing number of children fleeing Tibet at a great
risk, often sent by parents, is a clear indication of
the desperation of Tibetans to reclaim their Tibetan
identity.
The most recent statistics reveal that almost 500 children
(below the age of 18) have already fled Tibet this year.
Growing up as a minority group in Tibet, and
educated within a Chinese school administration, Tibetan
children are taught — often in Chinese — that Tibet
has always constituted part of China. At the same time,
Tibetan students in Tibet report having to pay attendance
fees far higher than their Chinese classmates, often so
exorbitant as to make it impossible for the predominately
rural dwelling Tibetans to receive any schooling at all.
Ten year-old
Tashi
is from a village farming family in Pelbar County in
Chamdo region (cast of Lhasa). Tashi has six members in
his family: his mother, a younger brother aged seven,
an older brother and sister, and a grandmother of more
than 70 years who also lives with the family. His father
left the family when Tashi was five years old.
When even survival became a question for the family, they
had little choice but to leave their farm and migrate to
Lhasa. Things were no better and Tashi says that sometimes
his family members even begged for food. School for Tashi
he recalls, was a subject not even worth discussing. His
days were spent from morning to evening trying to find
fuel for cooking. The alternative was begging.
As Tashi became older he says his mother became very
worried for her son's future. Yet the possibility of
attending school remained a far-off dream for him.
His mother therefore borrowed some money and paid a guide to
take Tashi across the mountain pass out of Tibet.
Tashi describes the trek as very difficult. He was one of
many small children in a total group of 45 people. The
elder men in the group helped the small children and
carried them on their backs.
Upon reaching the huge Tsangehu that he and the other monks
must have been river in Ngari Region (western Tibet),
the group was forced to stop. They were reluctant to
swimm with the children on their backs, and therefore
decided to follow the river until they reached a narrower
crossing point.
This slowed down the group and dampened everybody's spirit.
The members of the group recalled that
Tashi was especially affected. Suddenly he jumped in the
river crying, "I have left my mother and I don't think
I will reach India. I don't want to live anymore". The
group quickly pulled Tashi out of the water before he drowned.
"Tashi is really a special child", they said of this courage.
Today Tashi is admitted in at Tibetan school in India. He
remembers his mother and relatives back home but he is
happy that he is finally able to fulfill his mother's wishes
to receive an education and to serve the Tibetan community.
[ top ]
Chadra,
a monk from Shabron Monastery in Nagehu region (north
of Lhasa), has been missing since mid- February of
thisyear. Kunchok Gelek, a monk formerly of Drigung
Thil Monastery, says Chadra disappeared after Chinese
officials discovered a photograph of the Dalai Lama in
his possession.
Chadra is aged in his late twenties and comes from a
nomadic family. He was the monk responsible for performing
the burial ceremony for the other monks — currently about 100 —
of Shabten onastery, says Kunchok Gelek.
Just days after Losar (the Tibetan New Year which concluded
on February 10 1997), Chinese officials ransacked Chadra's
room and found that he was keeping a picture of the Dalai
Lama in his amulet (a brooch used to hold charms). Chadra
and three other monks were subsequently arrested.
There was absolutely no news of Chadra following his
arrest until recent unconfirmed reports that he was in
Lhasa. "Some people in my hometown say that he might have
been killed," says Kunchok. "Even his close relatives
have no idea of his whereabouts and they were not allowed
to see him. It is said that he and the other monks must
have been found discussing Tibet's independence. When the
officials found the forbidden picture, Chadra was known to
have said, 'His Holiness will always remain my Tsawal Lama
("core teacher"). I still have faith in him no matter what you do'."
Chinese "re-education" work-teams arrived in Kunchok's
monastery on April 20, 1997 and stayed for two
months. "They would make us say things that go beyond
our principles and beliefs," said 23 year-old Kunchok.
"They forced us to denounce the one person we hold the most
important in our hearts. I decided it was better to leave
the monastery even though I knew that this was precisely
the work-teams' intentions. I could not dream of opposing
His Holiness the Dalai Lama nor any of his virtues."
Kunchok,
who entered the monastery at the age of nine, left the
monastery after 13 years on 8 May 1997. Now in India, he
says he has found peace of mind and is happy to be able
to speak without having to fear the consequences.
[ top ]
Jamyang Trinlay,
a monk from Chamdo monastery, died from severe beatings
while in prison last year, says his former fellow-monk,
16-year-old Sonam Woeser.
Sonam,
who recently escaped to India, says that the "re-education"
process is still in place in his monastery where a
40 member work team - all from the Chamdo "Religious
Department" and all Tibetan - is in residence. "Some years
ago, when I first joined the monastery at the age of 12,
there were about 1800 monks in Chamdo monastery, but by
late March 1997 the number of monks had fallen to only
1300. For the last four years no new monks were recruited
in the monastery," reported Sonam Woeser.
Sonam says that the Chinese work team arrived in the
monastery in August 1996 and announced that monks below
18 years of age would be expelled. The abbot of the
monastery appealed to the authorities not to go ahead
with the expulsion or, if there was no other choice, to
expel 'Older monks rather than those yet to receive their
formal religious education. Thus far the authorities have
expelled from Chamdo monastery only the monks who were
not originally from Chamdo county.
Sonam says that during the education sessions:
"we showed our reluctance by various means. Unable to conduct proper
sessions, they decided to confer responsibility for a
particular group on each of the senior monks. If a monk
failed to co-operate, the senior monk of his group
faced imprisonment. During the session the monks were
asked to denounce the Dalai Lama and to oppose the 11th
Panchen Lama recognised by the Dalai Lama but the monks
unanimously refused."
In late March 1996, four monks from Sonam's monastery
were arrested for pasting wall posters reading "Tibet
is an independent country' at the outside gate of their
quarters. The four monks, all from Tsawa Zogon county
in Chamdo region, were:
Soepa, aged 30;
Sonam, aged 36;
Jamyang Trinley, aged around 34 years;
and an
unnamed fourth monk.
The monks were detained for four months in Chamdo prison
and in August 1996 Soepa was sentenced to two years and
Sonam to three years. The sentence term for Jamyang and
the fourth monk are unknown.
In prison the four monks were reportedly severely tortured
and it was said to have been as a result of this brutal
treatment that, in his third month of detention, Jamyang
Trinley began to suffer serious mental problems. After his
health deteriorated, Jarnyang was shifted to Tatsathang
hospital but he was declared dead upon reaching the
hospital. It is believed-that his, kidney was critically
damaged from beatings.
The other three monks are currently being held in Powo
Tramo labour camp.
[ top ]
In a collective trial held by the Intermediate People's
Court of the "Tibet Autonomous Region " on 30 November
1989, Ngawang Woeser was sentenced to a 17-year prison term
and subsequent deprivation of political rights for five
years. The court verdict pronounced him a "main culprit" in
the organisation of a "counterrevolutionary clique" and for
"spreading propaganda" and "violating state security law".
In January 1988, Ngawang Woeser and some of his close
friends organised and formed a ten-member secret
organisation in Drepung Monastery. The "Organisation
of Ten" was to distribute: speeches of the Dalai Lama; a
Tibetan version of the United Nations Declaration of Human
Rights; and a document entitled "Maong Bod Kyl Mangtsoi
Tsa Kbrim" (Future Democratic Constitution of Tibet).
29-year-old Ngawang Woeser (lay name Jamyang was a
farmer from Dranang county in Lhoka region. He is the
eldest son of Tenpa Phuntsok and has a younger sister and
brother. Ngawang joined Drepung monastery in 1981.
Ngawang Woeser was one of the 21 Drepung monks who
initiated the famous Lhasa demonstration on 27 September,
1987. The demonstration - said to have sparked Tibet's
independence movement - lasted only a few minutes and
the men were quickly arrested by the Public Security
Bureau. Ngawang Woeser was held in Gutsa Detention Centre
for one day and then transferred to Sangyip Prison for
about a month of interrogations. He was then shifted back
to Gutsa for a further three months.
Ngawang Woeser was finally released on 21 January, 1988,
along with more than 50 other prisoners after repeated
appeals by the 10th Panchen Lama. Monks from the three
largest monasteries - Gaden, Drepung and Sera had also
Monlam Chemo (the prayer festival).
After his release Ngawang Woeser was forbidden to ever
enjoy the monastery again. Neverthless, he continued to
carry out political activities in the monastery and was
one of the most active members of the organisation of ten.
When the organisation's activities became known to Chinese
officials, Ngawang Woeser was immediately arrested on
April 16, 1989. The other members were arrested soon
after. Ngawang was detained for almost for a year in
Sangyip Prison during which he underwent a series of
interrogations.
Finally, a group trial was held for the ten memebrs by the
Intermediate People's Court of the 'TAR" on November 30,
1989. Ngawang Woeser was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment
for induldging in "counterrevolutionary activities" and
"incitment of pro independence activitiesd and leajkiong
state secrets", along with other charges. The other nine
monks were simultaneously sentenced, receiving different
terms. In the trial they were not provided to defend
themselves against the charges.
After his sentence was pronounced,
Ngawang Woeser
was transferred to Drapchi prison on January 15,
1990. He was forced to undergo "Reform-through-labour"
and "Re-education". He is presently leading a very
miserable prison life in Drapchi. His health condition
has deteriorated over the years spent in Prison," adds
Ngawang Rinchen, a former Drepung monk and one of the
group's members, who arrived in India in 1996.
The ten members of the organisation were:
Ngawang Woeser (29),
Ngawang Phulchung (39),
Jampel Jangehup (37),
Ngawang Cyaltsen (36),
Jampel Losel (30),
Jarnpel Monlarn (10),
Ngawang Kunga (30),
Kalsang Thutop (49) who died in prison in July 1996,
Jampel Tsering (29),
and
Ngawang Rinchen (32),
both released in 1996. Most of them are serving long-term
sentences of over ten years.
Express your concern over the arbitrary detention of Ngawang
Woeser by writing an appeal letter for his immediate
release and humane treatment to China's Premier,
Mr. Li Peng, and
send it to TCHRD for forwarding.
|
