15 September 1998
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Kumbum's Song of Sadness
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100 monks expelled
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Employment cuts
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UN Human Rights Commissioner in Tibet
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Deforestation in Nang County
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Profile:
Nun shot and dies in Drapchi Prison
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Kumbum Jonang Monastery
was visited by "work-teams" in May 1997. One year later,
when our source returned to visit it, the monastery had been closed down.
Among the pile of debris, a composition was found entitled,
"My Song of Sadness ...".
Kumbum Jonang Monastery is situated in the Shigatse region of central Tibet.
The famous, enormous Kumbum (meaning "one hundred thousand images")
stupa was originally built by Sherab Gyaltsen, the master from Dolpo,
in the early 14th century, and was reconstructed after its destruction
in the Cultural Revolution.
In May 1997, a 10-member "work-team" arrived in Kumbum Jonang Monastery to
stay for three months. Sources (who wish to remain anonymous) learned that
the "re-education classes" were being conducted every day for up to 10
hours with barely a break, and that already half of the monastery's 25 to
30 monks had left for home or been expelled because they refused to sign
a letter denouncing the Dalai Lama.
By spring 1998 (March to May in Tibet), Kumbum Jonang Monastery was completely
closed, according to sources. There was not one monk left in the monastery
and the monks' rooms were either locked or filled with straw and animal
dung, probably to be used as stables. Villagers reported that all the monks
had been taken to prison or forced to leave and that, although the nearby
nunnery still had a few nuns it had no teachers.
In one room a box was found piled high with the wooden block prints of scriptures.
To prevent them being used again for printing, each one had been carefully
shaved so that only a faint impression remained. Other wooden blocks had
been completely burnt.
A worn, discarded textbook of the "re-education" committee was also found
in the ruins of the monastery. On the pages outlining Communist theory
one despairing monk had written a short poem, entitled "My Song of Sadness":
... but then the Official Working Committee stormed in
And there was nothing at all to be done about it.
So now all monks, each and every one,
Have set out (back home) for the middle reaches of Amdo.
My dear father and mother,
To find you well and be happy once more,
This young One, [name withheld]
Shall set out in the seventh lunar month.
His final inscription several pages later read:
"[Everything here] has been destroyed by the Jonang Working Committee."
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More than 100 monks in Tashi Choeling Monastery, Amdo, were expelled after the
arrival of a Chinese "re-education work-team" and People's Armed
Police members in May to June 1998. The monastery, which held about 530
monks prior to the officials' arrival, is 200 years old and a famous
Gelukpa (a sect in Tibetan Buddhism) monastery.
Kalsang Tsultrim, 23 years old, from Kansu Province, Jona County, was a monk in
Tashi Choeling Monastery, situated in Amdo. The 200-year-old monastery
was built by Amdo Lama Kapa and has four monastic colleges which each function
independently as a monastery. During the Cultural Revolution the monastery
was completely destroyed, and was then renovated in 1980.
Kalsang said,
"By 1997, there were 530 monks in the monastery and they were all
studying to their best capacity. In May to June 1998, some posters were
pasted which read: 'Tibet is a free country and we will continue to stuggle
for this until independence is achieved.'
"After four days, about 100 People's Armed Police [PAP] and almost 60 'work-team'
members came to the monastery. The work-team stayed in the monastery but
the PAP men came only during the day and left in the night.
"The work-team singled out about 18 monks as prime suspects of the poster incident.
They were taken for interrogation and released within a month. While at
the monastery the work-team also searched each monk's room and confiscated
all pictures of the Dalai Lama.
"After that a meeting was held in which the work-team laid down the basic principles
of 're-education'. This went on for days and each monk was forced to put
his thumbprint to the document which laid down the principles.
"A monk named Tenzin Tsultrim and about 100 other monks refused to sign the
document. Some of them tore up the document and others threw it in the
toilet. As a result, all of the 100 monks were expelled. The PAP men have
now left the monastery but the work-team is still there conducting 're-education'
sessions."
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A new campaign has been launched since the beginning of 1998 in government
offices and enterprises in Lhasa City. Tibetan staff in government business,
industrial, judicial and administrative sectors have been reduced
and it is thought that the campaign is intended to reduce and control the
number of Tibetan government officials in Lhasa.
Many Tibetans working in these sectors are reportedly being expelled from their
jobs. Expelled staff are provided with a small payment for one year and
retired officials are no longer granted a pension.
Externally,
the authorities give the impression that the system of recruitment for
these positions is being modified but sources say that, in reality, quotas
have already been set limiting the number of staff in the various offices.
In Lhoka region in central Tibet, departments have been issued with a notice
of the new ìrecruitmentî policy although it has not yet been put into practice.
It is said that 50 percent of the staff in the Lhoka Meteorological Department
will be fired.
Another Tibetan reported that there is a "new economic policy being implemented
by the Chinese government" in Tibet. He said that 3,600 (unconfirmed)
Tibetan workers had been removed from government offices and business enterprises
in the "Tibet Autonomous Region" in February 1998. He believed that the
reason was that there were thought to be excess office staff.
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China"s record in heavily regulating visits by foreign delegations concerned with
human rights still stands after the recent visit by the UN Human Rights
Commissioner to China and Tibet. The 10-day visit to China by Mrs Mary
Robinson, who was in Tibet from September 10 to 12, represents the first
such visit of a UN Human Rights Commissioner. The visit, aimed at strengthening
dialogue between China and UN bodies on human rights, was unfortunately
hampered by China's heavy-handedness in preventing contact between the
High Commissioner and the local people.
Mrs Robinson did not visit any prisons or detention centres while in Tibet,
saying it was not part of her brief. Prior visits by international
delegations to Chinese prisons in Tibet have resulted in severe retaliation
against prisoners who tried to speak to the visitors of human rights abuses
in the prisons. Most recently this year, two protests in Drapchi Prison
in Lhasa on May 1 and 4, timed to coincide with the visit of a European
delegation, were stifled with gunfire by prison and police officers. Eleven
prisoners are known to have died.
Chu Hailan, wife of imprisoned dissident Liu Nianchan, was dragged screaming
from a hotel lobby in Beijing on September 9 where she was waiting
to hand Mrs Robinson a letter. She later reported that plainclothes officers
had pulled her hair, punched and kicked her in a hotel detention room where
she was held for about eight hours before being released. Upon learning
of the incident, Mrs Robinson expressed her regret and declared it
"completely unacceptable that somebody coming to me would have any problem."
Mrs Robinson was also prevented from meeting with Yulo Dawa Tsering, a
69-year-old Tibetan monk who served 27 years in prison on political grounds.
Yulo Dawa Tsering is now reported to be effectively under house arrest,
a punishment apparently imposed for speaking openly to a visiting UN human
rights delegation in 1994.
While visiting Lhasa's central temple, the High Commissioner handed a written
request to a monk attempting to set up a meeting with Yulo Dawa Tsering.
No meeting took place, nor did Mrs Robinson meet with any other Tibetan
political prisoners or dissidents.
The focus of Mrs Robinson's three-day trip to Tibet was on "developing a culture
of and a concern for human rights and for the rights and culture of the
Tibetan people". The High Commissioner also raised the issue of population
transfer of Chinese settlers into Tibet during a meeting with Chinese officials.
Mrs Robinson stated that China would stick to its pledge to sign the UN International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) within three months.
The covenant protects freedom of expression and religion, peaceful assembly,
and public representation.
However there is international concern that China may hold off actually ratifying
the ICCPR. The UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights was signed by China in October 1997 on the eve of Chinese President"s
Jiang Zemin's visit to the United States but has not yet been ratified
and incorprated into Chinese law.
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A source from Nang County, Nyingtri region in the "Tibet Autonomous Region"
has reported on unauthorised foresting and mining in his area.
In the last three have been two incidents of Chinese individuals gaining unofficial
approval to exploit "whole hillsides" in Nang. The county Department of
Forestry had no authority to grant this use of land and the Chinese allegedly
used connections to directly approach high level county officials.
The second incident occurred 18 months ago when an "agreement" was reached
allowing three years' access to a richly forested piece of land in Kemnor
township in Nang. A Chinese group set up tents, installed timber cutting
equipment, employed 300 local Chinese settlers and used ten trucks to transport
the timber. No Tibetans were employed. Some mining was also carried
out by the same group.
In a separate incident, Chinese authorities were reported to have visited
the township of Mingli in Nang and cut down a 1,000 year old tree. The
tree was described as so massive that it would take 12 people with arms
outstretched to encircle it. The tree was transported to Beijing and transplanted
close to Tiananmen Square where it now stands as a tourist attraction.
[ top ]
Tashi Lhamo
was only 24 years old when she died. A nun of Nyemo Jewo Thekchogling Nunnery,
Tashi Lhamo was shot during a peaceful protest in Drapchi Prison
on May 4, 1998. Suspected as one of the instigators of the demonstration,
she was held in solitary confinement and died about one month later on
June 7, 1998.
Tashi Lhamo from Nyemo township in Nyemo county, 150 km west of Lhasa, first
became a nun in 1992 when she joined Shugseb Nunnery in Lhasa. She stayed
in Shugseb for one year and in 1993 she joined Nyemo Jewo Thekchogling
Nunnery which was built in 1987.
On January 9, 1995, Tashi Lhamo and two other nuns from her nunnery went to
Lhasa. The two nuns were Khedron Yonten, aged 27 from Nyemo County, and
Khechok Sangmo, aged 20 from Kharu township in Nyemo County.
In Lhasa, the three nuns held a peaceful demonstration, calling for Tibet's
freedom and other independence slogans. The Lhasa Public Security Bureau
immediately arrested them and took them to Gutsa Detention Centre situated
east of Lhasa. Upon their arrival in Gutsa, Tashi Lhamo and the other two
were interrogated and severely beaten.
Tashi Lhamo was tried in the Lhasa People's Intermediate Court and a sentence
of six years was passed against her. She was then transferred to Drapchi
Prison in Lhasa.
In Drapchi, Tashi Lhamo was said to have suffered inhuman prison treatment.
She worked in the prison's vegetable hot houses and spinning 2 kg of wool
each day, as well as doing forced exercise.
On May 1, prison officials and People's Armed Police (PAP) forces opened fire
on prisoners staging a peaceful demonstration during a ceremony marking
International Labour Day. Three days later, on May 4, another protest broke
out in the prison. The second protest was timed to coincide with a prison
ceremony commemmorating Chinese Youth Day, as well as the visit of the
European Union Troika delegation to Drapchi prison on May 4.
The May 4 demonstration prompted another violent clamp down in which the prisoners
were again fired upon.
Early reports indicated that Tashi Lhamo and three other nuns were shot during
this second demonstration and that all three died on June 7. The
cause of the nuns' death were unknown but those who saw the bodies described
them as swollen.
It was later confirmed by Tibet Information Network (TIN), an independent
monitoring organisation based in London, that Tashi Lhamo had died on June 7.
TIN reported that authorities said that Tashi Lhamo had suffocated herself
by stuffing her mouth with scarves.
This official statement did not explain why the nuns all apparently died on
the same day, particularly as they were reportedly being held in solitary
confinement and had no contact with each other. It was suggested that the
nuns may have been singled out for harsh treatment as protest ringleaders.
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