31 July 1998
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Dead Nun Identified
[ read ]
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Imprisoned for having Dalai Lama's autobiography
[ read ]
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Extended term for prison protest
[ read ]
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Expulsions from Drayab Monastery
[ read ]
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Imprisoned mother: family ordeal
[ read ]
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Four monks arrested, one disappeared
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Profile:
Death of a democracy activist
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Information received in June regarding the Drapchi Prison incidents on
May 1st and 4th,
in which prison officials opened fire on protesting prisoners,
indicated that seven people had died.
Four of the dead were unidentified.
According to additional recently-received information from Tibet,
one of the nuns who died was
Ngawang Choekyi.
Ngawang Choekyi was 26 years old.
She was from Phenpo Lhundup County which is about
78 kilometres north of Lhasa. Her late father's name was Thinley. He had
two wives, Choedon and Dolma. Ngawang's mother was the older of the two,
Choedon. Ngawang has 13 other siblings and her family are farmers. When
she was a child, Ngawang attended a mangtsug (locally run) school and then
later joined Sharbumba Nunnery which is in the northern part of Phenpo.
This nunnery has more than 100 nuns, approximately 13 of whom are currently
political prisoners at Drapchi Prison.
While
they were still at the nunnery, Ngawang, her sister Seldon, Choekyi Wangmo,
Ngawang Chemi and Choekyi Gyaltsen initiated a small peaceful demonstration
in the Barkhor (market area) in Lhasa in June 1994. They were arrested
immediately by Public Security Bureau officials and later transferred to
Drapchi Prison. Their sentences ranged from five to six years. Ngawang
Choekyi was sentenced to five years.
Following
the Drapchi Prison protests in May, Ngawang's parents heard that five nuns
had died on June 7. Aware that their daughter often acted fearlessly, they
searched and found their daughter's body together with four other bodies.
The identities of the other deceased are currently unknown, although one
of them may have been Tashi Lhamo who was earlier reported to have died
on June 7.
Ngawang"s
parents were not allowed to touch her body but were able to see rope marks
on her neck as if she had been choked or strangled. They were told by the
prison guards that Ngawang had committed suicide by hanging herself. The
officials stated that the other four nuns had died from asphyxiation after
also committing suicide by stuffing cloth in their mouths and blocking
their windpipes.
The
prison officials decided without consulting Ngawang's parents that her
cremation would take place on June 11. Her parents were not allowed to
attend the funeral ceremony and its time and location were kept secret.
According
to the last press release issued by TCHRD on June 29, 1998 relating to
the Drapchi Prison incidents, five nuns had died on June 7, including an
unidentified nun from Phenpo Jhopo and a nun called Tashi Lhamo. Three
other unidentified nuns were reported to have been shot during the demonstration,
and subsequently to have died.
This
latest report from Tibet confirms that five nuns died,
but identified only Ngawang Choekyi.
It appears that the two reports refer to the same five nuns.
It is therefore probable that Ngawang Choekyi is the unidentified
nun from Phenpo Jhopo whose death was reported on June 29 and that Tashi
Lhamo is one of the nuns who was unidentified in the latest report.
[ top ]
According to information received recently,
Tseten
from Phugsum County in Nyemo has
been sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for possessing the autobiography
of the Dalai Lama. She is currently detained in Drapchi Prison.
Tseten"s birthplace is Nyemo Phugsum and she is now around 37 years old.
Her knowledge of Tibetan language is said to be very good
and she often wrote compositions.
Tsetan had been detained on two previous occasions for pasting freedom posters.
She was arrested in Nyemo County in 1988 and detained for six months in
Nyemo County Prison. She was again arrested in 1995 for pasting posters
and was held in Gutsa Detention Centre for eight months.
After her second release from prison Tsetan separated from her husband and started
to sell chang (Tibetan beer) near Sera Monastery, close to Lhasa, in order
to eke out a livelihood.
On the third and most recent occasion, Tsetan was arrested for possesing the
autobiography of the Dalai Lama and was charged with "counter-revolutionary"
activities. After sentencing, Tsetan was transferred to Drapchi Prison, Lhasa.
Tsetan's two children were taken care of by someone for some time but the Public
Security Bureau (PSB) of Nyemo later decided to take them away, suspecting
that they might attempt to escape into exile. Before the PSB arrived the
children managed to flee into the mountains but work-teams in Sera Monastery
handed them over to the PSB.
The two children, Wangchuk, aged around 15, and his sister, aged around eight,
were reported to have been put under the charge of a teacher. The teacher
was strictly instructed that the children should not be allowed to go outside
the school boundary.
[ top ]
On October 11, 1997, a delegation from the United Nations Commission on Arbitrary
Detention visited Drapchi Prison in Lhasa, accompanied by Chinese officials.
Three prisoners staged a protest during the visit and subsequently had
their sentences extended by four to five years.
On that day
Kyil Khar,
a prisoner from Nagchu Sog County, started shouting slogans such as:
"Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama", "Tibet is a free country",
"People are suffering in the prison" and "Prisoners do not get enough to eat".
His protest was supported by
Sonam Tsewang
from Meldro County and
Wangdu
from Sakya County.
Immediately afterwards the three
On October 11, 1997, a delegation from the United Nations Commission on
Arbitrary Detention visited Drapchi Prison in Lhasa,
accompanied by Chinese officials. Three prisoners staged a protest during
the visit and subsequently had their sentences extended by four to five years.
On that day Kyil Khar, a prisoner from Nagchu Sog County, started shouting
slogans such as: "Long live His Holiness the Dalai Lama", "Tibet is a free
country", "People are suffering in the prison" and "Prisoners do not get
enough to eat". His protest was supported by Sonam Tsewang from Meldro
County and Wangdu from Sakya County. Immediately afterwards the three prisoners
were reportedly taken aside and detained in solitary confinement for five
months. Information recently received stated that their sentences have
been extended. Kyil Khar and Sonam Tsewang have had their terms extended
by an additional five years and Wangdu's term has been prolonged by four
years.
The three prisoners' original sentences and the reasons for their detention
are unknown.
[ top ]
Recently a monk called
Chodak,
aged 16, arrived from Phenpo Drakyap Monastery in Tibet.
He reported that a work-team had arrived in his monastery and expelled
three monks, including himself, for refusing to denounce the Dalai Lama.
In April 1997, an 11-member work-team from Lhundup County arrived at the monastery.
The 17 monks of the monastery were all called for a "re-education" meeting
which included a revised history of Tibet and called for opposition to
the "separatist force".
An exam was conducted after the completion of the "re-education" and the monks
refused to answer "properly". This angered the work-team and the parents
or close family of all the monks were called, including the head of the
village or county, to urge the monks to co-operate with the work-team.
Finally most of the monks were forced to denounce the Dalai Lama if they wished
to remain in the monastery. However, three of the monks
— Chodak, Lhakpa and Ngawang Nyandak —
told the work-team members that they would not oppose
the Dalai Lama and that they would rather leave the monastery than deny
their basic faith and belief.
As a result the three monks were expelled from the monastery and taken to
Lhundup County where their photographs were taken and all of their personal
details were recorded. The monks were then taken to their birth place and
forbidden from leaving their village for any reason. They were required
to seek permission every time they wished to go anywhere.
[ top ]
Migmar Dolma,
aged 46, was arrested on June 29, 1997. Migmar is still in detention
and her family have suffered in many ways since her arrest, including being
forbidden from from visiting her in prison and having to use family savings
for bribes to obtain news of her.
When her arrest was first reported (Human Rights Update, September 15, 1997)
it was thought to be linked to the July 1 Hong Kong handover in 1997.
Recent information gives further details.
Migmar had been to India twice, first in 1994 and then in the winter of 1996.
She returned to Lhasa on June 28, 1997 and the next day, at around 10 a.m.,
ten Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials burst into her house. They took
her and her belongings away and her family members were told that she would
be released after interrogations.
Shortly afterwards more PSB men arrived and started searching Migmar's house.
Three PSB men searched each room and they found a book called "Prevailing Truth
of Tibet" and many letters sent from India to be distributed in Tibet.
They also discovered and removed a photograph of the Dalai Lama and a small
Tibetan flag which was placed under the altar.
Around the end of December 1997, Migmar's family members received a letter from
Seitru Detention Centre, the detention centre for the "Tibet Autonomous Region".
The letter reported that Migmar Dolma had been charged under the
offence of "counter-revolutionary propaganda".
After that none of Migmar's daughters were permitted to visit her in detention.
One of her daughters, Pasang, tried on various occasions to deliver food
and clothing to her mother but each time she was refused.
A source in Tibet reported that following Migmar's arrest, her family suffered
a series of misfortunes. Friends began to avoid them for fear of being
associated with a "freedom activist",
and many business associates and acquaintances
claimed repayment of money supposedly borrowed by Migmar.
Pasang, the younger daughter, a receptionist at the Lhoka Gongkar Airport in Lhoka
County, was pressured by her employer to resign. The reasons given for
her dismissal were that she considered her personal concerns more important
than office matters and that she had not been punctual. Pasang was unable
to get any other employment.
At the same time the family's savings were gradually exhausted in attempts
to have Migmar released. It was reported that on many occasions Pasang
had to pay more than 400 yuan (US$50) as a bribe simply to receive news
of her mother.
Pasang is currently in exile with her eight month old baby and her husband Kelsang.
[ top ]
It was reported in May 1998 that work-team members had arrived in Rongpo Rabten
Monastery and Chamda Dozong Monastery in Nagchu Sog County to implement
the Chinese "re-education" campaign. Several monks from the monastery pasted
freedom posters in the monastery and four monks were arrested. One monk
later disappeared.
After the arrests more work-team members and People's Armed Police forces came
to the monastery.They held meetings and instructed the monks to oppose
the Dalai Lama and to accept Tibet as part of China as well as the existence
of religious freedom in Tibet. The monks were also ordered to elect a representative
to advise them on these same principles. Bado Samten, a 70-year-old monk,
was elected.
Bado was reported as saying, "I will not oppose His Holiness the Dalai Lama
or his people because our identity is His Holiness. We Tibetans will not
oppose other Tibetans. I don't know how to oppose. If there is any monk
who wishes to oppose His Holiness, he must first take off his monastic robes.
The Chinese authorities just said that Tibet is part of China but
this is not true at all. Chinese have forcefully invaded Tibet. I don't
know if there is religious freedom because if one does not have faith in
one's teacher then where will the religion stand?"
That evening, after speaking out at the meeting, Bado Samten disappeared. Nothing
has been heard of his whereabouts since his disappearance.
[ top ]
Chozed Tenpa Choephel,
from Lhasa, was arrested on December 15, 1987,
reportedly for possessing a copy of the Dalai Lama"s
autobiography and democratic documents. He died on August 25, 1989 in Lhasa
People's Hospital at the age of 67 or 68. He had been transferred there
from Drapchi Prison where he had been held for 20 months.
Chozed Tenpa Choephel was a groundskeeper at Norbulinka (the Summer Palace of
the Dalai Lamas on the outskirts of Lhasa), and he and his wife ran a small
shop in Lhasa. Chozed's whole family was politically active.
His wife, Tsering Lhamo, was imprisoned in October 1979 for one year for shouting
pro-democracy slogans during the 1979 visit of a delegation from the Tibetan
Government-in-Exile.
Chozed"s wife was again detained in 1980 for protesting the arrest of their son.
One of Chozed's daughters, perhaps Lhakdron, was arrested in March
1989 for participating in a demonstration and was imprisoned for two years
in Gutsa Detention Centre, Lhasa.
Chozed"s son, Lobsang Choedrak, who worked in a truck repair shop, spent four years
in prison from 1980 to 1984. Lobsang was imprisoned for pasting pro-independence
posters and for his involvement with Geshe Lobsang Wangchuk, Tibet's best
known dissident (who is now dead). Prior to his imprisonment Chozed had
been making reprints of documents relating to the democratic constitution
of the Tibetan Government-in Exile and had distributed them widely. The
discovery of these and a copy of the Dalai Lama's autobiography resulted
in his arrest.
Chozed was kept in Drapchi Prison for more than a year without any formal trial.
He was reported to have been heavily interrogated at that time. Continuous
prison beatings combined with a poor prison diet caused Chozed's health
to deteriorate. On August 6, 1989, he was transferred to Seitru
Detention Centre, Lhasa.
In 1989, while in Seitru, Chozed suddenly fell unconscious. Different accounts
have been given to explain his sudden collapse. Some say he suffered a
minor stroke due to high blood pressure whereas others maintain he slipped
and fell. Chozed's fellow inmates reported Chozed's condition to
the prison officials.
He was taken first to Mentseekhang (Tibetan Medical Institute) in Lhasa where,
despite his poor health, his children were not allowed to see him. Two
days later, still unconscious, Chozed's family requested prison officials
to allow him to be transferred to Lhasa People's Hospital. He died that
same night in the hospital.
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