15 December 1997
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Freedom of expression void
[ read ]
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Birth control policy in Amdo
[ read ]
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85 Tibetan women sterilised
[ read ]
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Re-education
[ read ]
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New temple and monastic rules
[ read ]
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More monasteries targeted
[ read ]
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Airport expansion in Lhoka
[ read ]
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Two nuns expelled
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Chinese President
Jiang Zemin
claimed, "China's citizens enjoy the freedom of
assembly, speech and demonstration and protests",
during his visit to Canada on November 29, 1997. In contrast
with this, hundreds of Tibetans have been arrested by
Chinese authorities solely for voicing their opinions or
gathering to peacefully call for human rights respect in
Tibet. Four new cases of Tibetans arrested for expressing
their religious and political views have been received.
Menpa Dorjee,
a 55-year-old from Rebkong County in Tsongon (Ch: Qinghai) County,
was arrested in March 1997 for hanging the Tibetan
national flag in the middle of the street of Rebkong
City during Monlam (prayer) festival. Public Security
Bureau (PSB) officials subsequently raided his room and
confiscated documents and books on Tibet. He was sentenced
to one year and six months imprisoment in early November this year.
Menpa Dorjee was a physician in allopathic medicine,
which he learned from a famous allopathic doctor called
"Barefoot Doctors" during the Cultural Revolution. In the
early eighties, he worked in different religious activities
and later in 1986 he bought a zerox machine and used it to
make copies of documents and books on Tibetan independence.
Menpa Dorjee has extensive knowledge of traditional Tibetan
language, medicine, history, art and calligraphy. He
used to write rare Buddhist texts for the monastery, draw
portraits, and made a computer script for Tibetan language.
Ngawang Tendar
is a 29-year-old monk from Jampa Ling Monastery in Tsawa
Pomda Village in Chamdo Region under "Tibet Autonomous
Region". He joined the monastery in 1990.
On 1 August 1995, Ngawang with three other friends went
to the annual summer picnic festival. When they felt
that the crowd had grown big enough they started shouting
pro-independence slogans such as "Free Tibet" and "Long
Live His Holiness the Dalai Lama".
They were subsequently arrested by the Tsawa Pashoe County
PS B and were then handed over to the Chamdo PSB. The
other three monks were released after three months of
imprisonment. However, Ngawang was regarded as having
spearheaded the demonstration and continues to be held
without charge.
Pentse,
a prisoner in Lhasa's Drapchi prison, reportedly shouted
"Free Tibet" during a visit by a foreign delegation to
the prison. Two other prisoners also supported Pentse's
comment. The three prisoners were said to have been put
in a dreaded cell and threatened with execution.
Ngawang Phelgay
is a 26-year-old monk from Drepung Monastery. On 22 October
1997, he reportedly brought down the Chinese National Flag
hoisted on the Drepung Monastery and tamped on it. He was
subsequently arrested and interrogated for his actions.
During the time of interrogations he is reported to have
said, "No one instigated me to do this. I am doing this
out of sheer frustration for the presence of work teams
in the monasteries who have deprived us of the right to
freedom of religion".
Tsultrim Dhargey,
a 26-year-old monk, was said to be in a state close to
death following more than two years detention, according
to a new arrival from Tibet (name withheld) who met with
him on 13th October 1997.
Tsultrim is from Ragya Monastery in Machen County, Golok
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture under Tsongon (Ch: Qinghai)
Province. He first visited India in 1990 for pilgrimage
and studied in Sera Monastery in south India until his
return to Tibet in 1993.
While crossing the Himalayan border, Ngawang and two of
his friends were arrested by the PSB of Nyalam County and
detained for a few days. They were then transferred to
Lhasa PSB and later to Qinghai Province PSB. They were
released after two months of severe interrogations and
torture. In May 1994, Tsultrim was arrested by the Public
Security Bureau of Machen County and detained for 6 months.
In July 1995, Tsultrim was again arrested by the Machen
County PSB and detained for 20 months. During his detention
he was reportedly beaten by PSB officials on many occasions
and injected with a toxic fluid which caused him to lose
consciousness. When he was released in February 1997,
he was beyond recognition even of his family.
[ top ]
The Chinese authorities claim to have achieved good
results with regard to the implementation of their birth
control policy in Tso Jang (Ch: Haibei) Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture in Qinghai Province.
It was reported in the Qinghai Tibetan Daily Newspaper on
8 August 1997 that, in 1996, the birth control officials
succeeded in inserting contraceptive coils in 2958 women
in the region. This has reportedly resulted in reducing
the birth rate of the region from 86.13% to 85.73%.
The Chinese Communist Party and government officials have
implemented the birth control policy in accordance with
the following points:
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Regulation of birth control policy and economic
development; implementation of research in those field;
timely deciding of critical issues and problems;
administration of birth control offices and
policy.
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Strictly observing the gap between the children born and
to control birth due to illiteracy of the policy.
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Strict enforcement and practice of the above regulations.
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Provision of support and guidance to poor and destitute
families in advance; helping the people of the region and
striving for a middle class economy by lowering the birth
rate and strengthening the economic status.
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In Chabcha district in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
under Tsongon, Chinese authorities have launched a strict birth control policy.
Since the start of 1997, 85 Tibetan women have been sterilised and
113 were force to go undergo abortions. This appeared in
the Official Qinghai Tibetan Daily Newspaper published on
12 June 1997.
This incident took place in 13 villages in Chabcha County
under Tsongon (Ch: Qinghai) county. The regional head of
Chabcha County passed a resolution to implement the birth
control policy and decided to award those in the village
who best succeed in implementing the policy. Under this
policy, 31 women from Sadrushi village were sterilised,
18 women were inserted with contraceptive devices and 14
Tibetan women from Changshe village of the Chabcha district
underwent sterilisation.
[ top ]
In Kain Lho In 1997, Chinese authorities
launched the "re-education" campaign in all monasteries
in the Kan Lho Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture under Gansu
Province. Officials from the PSB and the Religious Bureau
of Kan Lho were sent to monasteries to teach socialist
values and force monks to destroy pictures of the Dalai
Lama and the Panchen Lama recognised by Dalai Lama, and
to believe in and display pictures of Gyaltsen Norbu -
China's choice of "Panchen Lama".
In Machu County, officials forced monks to buy pictures
of Gyaltsen Norbu which come in three different sizes. The
large one costs 25 yuan, the medium 10 yuan and the small
one 2 yuan.
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The following is a translation from Tibetan of
"Lhasa Municipality's Monastic (temples and hermitages)
Disciplinary Rules for Monks and Nuns":
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One must protect law and order, property of the people,
unity of the nationalities, unity of the motherland
and oppose the splittists.
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One must respect the leaders of the party and the
government, the socialist system, and the policy and rules
laid down by the officials of the region.
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No one is allowed to listen to or disseminate reactionary
propaganda which threatens or harms the unity and
security of the country, possess or distribute reactionary
literature, audio and video tapes or participate in any
sort of splittist activity.
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One must accept the rules laid down by the Democratic
Management Committee of the monastery (temples and
hermitages), work for the welfare of the society and
monastery, actively participate in the production and
labour works.
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One must listen to the advice given by the teachers and
officials of the monasteries and maintain solidarity
between old and young.
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One must show sincere faith in the Buddha, study all
subjects of Buddhism and strive for its flourishing.
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Monks and nuns must strictly abide by the monastic vows
and religious discipline of the monastery. They must be
humble and bear good characters, and should wear monastic
robes unless it is an exceptional circumstance.
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No one can oppose the government and legal officials in
the name of religion or intrude in the re-education.
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One must preserve cultural monuments and artefacts,
monasteries and public property.
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One must take an interest in environment and personal
health. The monks and nuns must preserve the image of
monastic community and work hard to become good monks and
nuns who love religion and nation and abide by the law.
Nationalities and Religious Bureau of Lhasa
Municipality. 20.7.1997
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Thupten Soepa
is from Rame Kyishong town in Lhoka Gongkar county and
was a monk at Rame monastery. Thupten reports that on 1
March, 1997, an eight-member work team arrived at the
monastery. They started the re-education session and
ordered that photographs of the Dalai Lama be taken down.
"Initially, none of the monks were willing to meet
their demands and refused to comply with their orders,"
says Thupten. "Then the members made threats that our
parents would also be made to suffer and many of us had
no choice. In the space of a month our parents were called
twice to ensure that we listened to their instructions.
"There were three of us who refused to obey the work-team
and as a result we were expelled from the monastery on 5/4/97.
The other two monks were
Inchung la,
a 48-year-old from Tharpaling in Lhoka, and
Tsering,
a 38-year-old from
Toelung Dechen county. Before we were expelled we had to
give an ink handprint on the expulsion record and then
we were sent home and ordered not to ever return to the
monastery again nor join any other monastery. We were
also prohibited from moving about freely within Tibet and
if we wished to go to Lhasa we had to seek permission.
"The work-team was at our monastery for six months. They
stayed in the private chamber of the Dalai Lama and
for their entire stay they lived on the expenses of the
monastery. If we were late by one minute we were fined
5 yuan and if we did not turn up at all, we were fined
10 yuan.
They told us, 'Even if you do not obey our instructions
here in the monastery, you will not escape the re-education
session because you will have no choice when we conduct
it in your homes at a later stage. Therefore, it will be
much easier for you here in the monastery'."
"While they were at the monastery, they took note of
all the Kusung Thugten (religious artifacts) and took
photographs of all the sacred things in the monastery.
This made it difficult for us to conduct special prayers
because we had to seek prior permission to retrieve the
statues and idols from the cupboard."
"Another monastery called Sungrabling in Lhoka had more
than 70 monks. In May this year the monastery was finally
closed down after repeated expulsions of monks. There
were 25 monks when they closed down the monastery and now
it is completely empty. The Chinese authorities accused
the monastery of having dealings with the Tibetan exile
government. The caretaker was also expelled and the head
of the monastery was taken to Tsethang for four days of
interrogation before being sent home. As he was an old man
the authorities did not imprison him. Two policeman came
to the monastery and took many of the sacred objects to
the county office".
Thupten also reported that a monk named
Khedrup,
originally
from Tharpaling, was detained from Gongkar Choede monastery
for refusing to obey the instructions of the work-team
members. Khedrup, about 18 years old, was sentenced to
six years and is presently in Tsethang prison.
In Namrab monastery, says Thupten, four monks out of 48
were expelled when work-teams came to their monastery.
[ top ]
About four years ago, an airport was built in Kyishong
sub-district in Lhoka County. Kyishong is one of the
best known places in Tibet for excellent harvests and
many Tibetans in this area had to give up their land for
construction and thereby lost their means of livelihood. In
mid-February 1997, just after Tibetan New Year, expansion
of this airport began and many more Tibetans had to give
up their land.
The people were told that this expansion was necessary for
the people who would be returning from Hong Kong. Fifteen
trucks arrived, each carrying 70 workers. All of the
workers were Chinese brought from China and houses were
built alongside the construction as temporary sheltering
for them. Those Tibetans to whom the land had belonged
were given a certificate granting them permission to work
as a road constructor and some were given about 1000 yuan
as compensation.
Thupten
says, "I have strong feelings that the Chinese will stay
back even after the construction is completed. A few
years ago more than 300 Chinese came to work on a similar
project in Gongkar county. They built a carpentry factory
and all of the logs were carried out from Kongpo region
(Ch:Nyintri) in Tibet Autonomous Region. After one year the
factory was closed down but all of the Chinese are still
living in Gongkar and have built homes and own shops. Some
of them work in government offices. Now, with the transfer
of more than 1000 workers for the construction of the
airport in Gongkar, the Tibetans are totally outnumbered
by the Chinese."
Thupten also reported on the construction of a military
cantonment currently underway close to his monastery. "At
many places in Lhoka, there are military cantonments
being built. Within this year alone, about 15 military
base camps were built in the fields and more are built
close to the Tsangpo.
In a village in Lhoka called Koja with about 100 families,
about 40 women have been sterilised and many more have been
given contraceptives. In some cases, these contraceptives
have rendered women infertile. Young girls not yet married
are also given these contraceptive pills.
[ top ]
Lobsang Dolkar
is a 22-year-old nun from Gonpa Phug nunnery in Dongkar
Shang, Nyemo county under Lhasa city. Lobsang joined
the nunnery in 1990. At that time, there were only nine
nuns which later increased to 15. On 5 June 1997, she was
expelled from the nunnery along with another nun for not
having obeyed the principles of the workteam members.
On 9 March, 1997, a six-member work team had arrived at
the nunnery and started the "re-education" sessions.
Many rules were made which included restrictions on freedom of monement.
The nuns' behaviour was observed and recorded
since the date of their arrival in the nunnery. They were
given four books to study according and were expected to
follow the principles laid down which included opposing
the Dalai Lama.
The "re-education sessions" went on for three months
during which time the nuns at no point of time obeyed the
ideologies. As a result, the work team called the parents
and relatives of the nuns to the nunnery and told them to
advise the nuns.
Despite these heavy threats, Lobsang Dolkar and one of
her friends refused to follow the instructions of the work
team members. They were expelled from the nunnery on 5 June
1997. Subsequent to their expulsion, four other nuns were
also expelled on similar grounds. Four months after Lobsang
and her friend's expulsion, they decided to flee to India.
The work team is reported to have stayed at the nunnery
for a total of four months. When they left there were only
remaining in the nunnery.
Lobsang further also reports on the plight of four nuns
from Rangjung nunnery in Nyemo county under Lhasa city,
who had participated in a demonstration in Lhasa in 1994 to
show their support for peace marchers from India. These
nuns were:
Sangye Chodon (27),
Tsering Chozom (22),
Dekyi Yangzom (21)
and
Trinlay Dolkar (21).
Sangye Chodon
was later sentenced to 6 years, while other three were
sentenced for 4 years. They were first detained in Gutsa
detention Centre, and after being sentenced, they were
transferred to Drapchi prison.
Ranjung nunnery also faced expulsion after workteam members
arrived. The nunnery previously had 35 nuns, out of which
only 24 remain.
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