China’s Crackdown Intensified, 5 Tibetan Community Leaders Detained

Radio Free Asia, 2008.04.17-

KATHMANDU—China is intensifying its crackdown on Tibet after the largest anti-Chinese protests there in almost 50 years. But many monks have refused to fly the Chinese flag on monastery roofs, sources in China and India say.

In addition to reports from remote Qinghai province this week that authorities have arrested Tibetan feminist and writer Jamyang Kyi, Tibetans say five other Qinghai Tibetan community leaders are in custody as well. All are residents of Machen [in Chinese, Maqin] county in Golog [Goulou] prefecture, and all are now being held in the provincial capital, Xining, sources said.

The five are Golog Dape, a popular comedian, leader of the Gangchen performance group, and animal rights activist; Dolma Kyi, a singer, activist, and founder of the folk-music company Gangchen Metok; Palchen Kyab, principal of the private Mayul Dargye school, founded with donations from Tibetan nomads; Lhundrup, Mayul Dargye’s assistant principal; and Sonam Dorje, a teacher.

Golog prefecture State Security Bureau officers took the five into custody March 31 and moved them to Xining, sources said. No information on charges against them was available. “No relatives have been allowed to visit them,” one source in Qinghai said.

An official at the Golog prefecture Public Security Bureau refused to comment and referred questions to her superior, who also refused to comment and hung up.

Also in Qinghai, according to the exile Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, 100 people, including monks from the Rong Gonchen monastery, were arrested April 17 in Rebkong [Tongren Xian] county.

A hotel employee told RFA’s Cantonese service that tourists were now barred from visiting the Rong Gonchen temple. “There are some armed police there,” a local religious affairs official said.

“There aren’t many armed police, but there are many police there. No one can go to the monastery now. Other monasteries are o.k., though,” the official said. County officials and police declined to comment……. (more details from Radio Free Asia: China Steps Up Crackdown in Tibet)