Reporters Without Borders said in it’s 2005 special report titled “Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency”, that “Xinhua remains the voice of the sole party”, “particularly during the SARS epidemic, Xinhua has for last few months been putting out news reports embarrassing to the government, but they are designed to fool the international community, since they are not published in Chinese.”
Chinese authorities in Tibet have detained three villagers for refusing to fly the Chinese national flag from their homes, as local officials continue to press a campaign forcing displays of loyalty to the ruling Chinese Communist Party. Read the rest of this entry »
BEIJING (AFP) — Dramatic video footage that purportedly captures the moment a Tibetan Buddhist nun burned herself to death in southwest China has emerged after it was smuggled out and given to a campaign group.
The video, which AFP cannot independently verify, was posted online by Students for a Free Tibet and shows a figure being engulfed in flames in the middle of a street before collapsing to the ground.
The group says the figure is Palden Choetso, a 35-year-old Buddhist nun who self-immolated on November 3 in a Tibetan-inhabited town in Sichuan province.
The Tibetans shown in the footage had “risked everything” to smuggle it out of China, said Tenzin Jigdal, programme director of Students for a Free Tibet, which has offices in New York and Dharamshala, the Indian town that is home to the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. Read the rest of this entry »
China says a Tibetan nun has died after setting herself on fire in southwestern China. It was the 11th such self-immolation protest this year involving Buddhist monks and nuns in the restive region.
Palden Chetso, 35, died Thursday in Sichuan province. A witness told VOA’s Tibetan service he found the nun drenched in gasoline on a local roadway moments before she set herself ablaze. She said she was prepared to sacrifice for greater freedoms and the return of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have self-immolated since a young protesting monk died after setting himself on fire in March at the flashpoint Kirti monastery. That death sparked months of protests by monks and nuns and triggered a major Chinese crackdown on area monasteries that included the arrests and disappearances of hundreds of monks. Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese authorities in the Tibetan capital Lhasa have stepped up security ahead of a sensitive political anniversary, residents said.
An employee who answered the phone at a guesthouse with a mostly Tibetan clientele said police were now carrying out spot-checks on rooms in the middle of the night in case anyone had booked a room without registering with the police-monitored hotels database.
Three Tibetan writers detained earlier this year by Chinese authorities have been tried on charges of “inciting activities to split the nation,” according to sources in the region.
“The three writers—Jangtse Donkho, Buddha, and Kalsang Jinpa—were tried on Oct. 28 by the Aba [in Tibetan, Ngaba] Intermediate People’s Court,” in China’s southwestern Sichuan province, said Kanyak Tsering, a Tibetan living in India and citing contacts in Tibet. Read the rest of this entry »
Local Tibetans have challenged Chinese work crews trying to build a dam near a mountain considered sacred by area residents, according to Tibetan sources.
The mountain, called Lhachen Naglha Dzambha, rises in Driru [in Chinese, Biru] county in the Nagchu Prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), a native of the region now living in exile said.
“The Gyalmo Ngulchu [Salween] river runs through the foothills of this sacred mountain,” the source said.
“Sometime in August this year, a large number of Chinese workers arrived in the area. Local Tibetans were told they were building a dam.”
Representatives from each village in the county then gathered at the site to protest the construction, another Tibetan living in exile said, citing sources in the region. Read the rest of this entry »
BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese police “accidentally” shot dead an ethnic Tibetan during a protest in south-western China two weeks ago, state news agency Xinhua said Monday…….(more details from Reuters)
Jane Macartney, The Times, Via The australian, August 13, 2010 –
CHINA has sentenced to life imprisonment a property tycoon believed to be the country’s richest Tibetan businessman.
Once hailed by authorities as one of Tibet’s top ten outstanding young people, Dorje Tashi, 37, was sentenced on June 26 by the Lhasa Municipality Intermediate People’s Court, Tibetan sources told The Times.
Dorje Tseten, his elder brother, was jailed for six years.
Details of the charges were not available, but if they were political then such secrecy is not unusual in Tibet – where officials are anxious to avoid further unrest.
Many in the deeply Buddhist population resent Beijing’s rule and yearn for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
The absence of any reports in China’s state media underscored the possibility that the arrests may have been related to activities deemed political.
However, court sources said that the conviction was based on “illegal business operations” involving Mr Dorje’s Yak Hotel, the best-known and oldest in Lhasa – the capital of the region.
The court confiscated Mr Dorje’spersonal property, estimated to be 4.3 billion yuan ($707 million). He was arrested in March 2008, shortly after an anti-Chinese riot rocked Lhasa, even though he had been praised at the time for supporting the government crackdown and providing supplies to security forces.
Mr Dorje was well known in Lhasa after he founded the popular hotel.
He operated many other enterprises, from property to trading companies, and had close links with Chinese authorities. Shortly after his arrest, however, there were reports that he had made donations to monasteries, or even the Dalai Lama – donations which would have enraged Beijing.
(New York) – Eyewitness accounts confirm that Chinese security forces used disproportionate force and acted with deliberate brutality during and after unprecedented Tibetan protests beginning on March 10, 2008, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Many violations continue today, including disappearances, wrongful convictions and imprisonment, persecution of families, and the targeting of Tibetans suspected of sympathizing with the protest movement.
The 73-page report, “‘I Saw It with My Own Eyes’: Abuses by Security Forces in Tibet, 2008-2010,” is based on more than 200 interviews with Tibetan refugees and visitors conducted immediately after they left China, as well as fresh, not previously reported, official Chinese sources. The report details, through eyewitness testimonies, a broad range of abuses committed by security forces both during and after protest incidents, including using disproportionate force in breaking up protests, proceeding to large-scale arbitrary arrests, brutalizing detainees, and torturing suspects in custody.
“Dozens of eyewitness testimonies and the government’s own sources show clearly the official willingness to use lethal force against unarmed protestors,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “This report decisively refutes the Chinese government’s claim that it handled the protests in line with international standards and domestic laws.”
The report also suggests that contrary to government claims, Chinese security forces opened fire indiscriminately on demonstrators in at least four separate incidents, including in one area of downtown Lhasa on March 14.
In order to avoid external or independent scrutiny of the security operations, the Chinese authorities effectively locked down the entire Tibetan plateau and dispatched massive numbers of troops across all Tibetan-inhabited areas. It expelled journalists and foreign observers, restricted travel to and within the region, cut or monitored telecommunications and internet, and arrested anyone suspected of reporting on the crackdown. The government has rejected all calls for independent investigations into the protests, including those from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN special rapporteurs…….(more details from Human Rights Watch: China: Witnesses Lift Veil on Abuses by Security Forces in Tibet)
Testimonies from “‘I Saw It with My Own Eyes’: Abuses by Security Forces in Tibet, 2008-2010”:
“They were firing straight at people. They were coming from the direction of Jiangsu Lu firing at any Tibetans they saw, and many people had been killed.” – Pema Lhakyi (not her real name,) a 24-year -old Lhasa resident.
“She was shot by a single bullet in the head. Local people managed to take her body home to the village, which is about five kilometers from Tongkor monastery.” – Sonam Tenzin (not his real name), a 27-year-old monk from Tongkor monastery.
“At first, the soldiers fired in front of the crowd a few times to scare them, but the crowd thought they would not dare to actually fire and continued crowding inside the compound. At that point, the soldiers started to fire.” – Tenpa Trinle (not his real name), a 26-year-old monk from Seda county.
“The first thing I saw was a lot of soldiers and police beating the crowd with electric batons. Groups of four or five soldiers were arresting crowd members one by one and putting them in a truck.” – Dorje Tso (not his real name) 55-year-old resident from Tongren.
BEIJING — Chinese security forces have stepped up a crackdown in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, two years after protests marking a failed 1959 uprising erupted in deadly violence, police and reports said Thursday.
More than 400 people have reportedly been rounded up so far in the “strike hard storm” campaign launched earlier this month, which has worried residents on edge since the March 2008 unrest in the remote Himalayan region.
A policeman at a Lhasa precinct who asked not to be named told AFP on Thursday that the campaign was aimed at cracking down on Tibetan independence activities and ordinary crime.
“I don’t know when we will end this campaign, but it could be at the end of March when this matter is over,” said the policeman, referring to the sensitive anniversaries.
More than 1,500 extra police and security personnel had been deployed as of last week, with more than 4,100 rented apartments or homes searched, according to the Lhasa Evening News.
The newspaper said while more than 400 people had been taken into police custody, only 14 had been formally arrested on unspecified charges. It was not immediately clear if the others were released or remained in detention.
Lhasa residents said Thursday the city was tense due to the heavy police and military presence.
“There are armoured vehicles patrolling the streets… the television is always talking about the need to ‘maintain stability’,” said a retired woman who identified herself as Ceyang.
“We don’t dare go out at night.”
Police are carrying out identification checks of the city’s migrant population as well as increasing routine traffic stops, the Lhasa Evening News reported…….(more from AFP)
China shed a glimmer of light yesterday on the life of a young Tibetan man who vanished 15 years ago after the Dalai Lama declared him to be the reincarnation of the second-highest monk in Tibetan Buddhism.
The son of a Tibetan herder, Gendun Choekyi Nyima was only 5 when he was selected by the exiled Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. Police swooped on the boy’s village in a county to the north of Lhasa and, pro-Tibet exiles say, removed the child and his parents.
He has not been seen or heard from since. But Tibet’s new governor, Padma Choling, revealed yesterday that the young man, now 20, is still living in Tibet, where “his brothers and sisters are at university or are doing regular work”.
He gave no hint as to the family’s whereabouts but repeated the Communist Party’s mantra: “As far as I know, his family and he are now living a very good life in Tibet. He and his family are reluctant to be disturbed. They want to live an ordinary life.”
The information amounts to a revelation compared with the secrecy that has surrounded the life of Gendun for the 15 years since he vanished and was described by human rights groups as the youngest political prisoner in the world.
The exiled Dalai Lama announced in 1995 that he had found Gendun and the move enraged Beijing: the Dalai Lama is revered by Tibetans and his decision was certain to win widespread respect.
The Chinese Government retaliated by naming its own Panchen Lama, Gyaltsen Norbu, while Gendun is known only from a photograph of a wide-eyed five-year-old with ruddy cheeks, his mouth open in surprise at the camera……. (more details from The Times)
BEIJING — China indicated Sunday it would take a hard line on the selection of a successor to the ageing Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in rare comments on the sensitive issue.
The final decision on the reincarnated successors to the Buddhist region’s top lamas lies with Beijing, insisted Qiangba Puncog, Tibet’s former governor and a delegate to the national parliament.
“It must get the approval of the central government otherwise the reincarnation will be illegitimate and invalid,” he told reporters on the sidelines of China’s National People’s Congress session.
Traditionally, the search for the figure’s reincarnated successor was conducted by the region’s high lamas.
But China’s officially atheist Communist Party-ruled government has claimed the right to intervene, citing a precedent set by a past emperor.
The issue of who will succeed the monk looms as potentially explosive after an outburst of anti-Chinese violence tore through the region in March 2008, prompting a tight security clampdown, which continues.
China vilifies the exiled monk as a separatist. He denies this and remains hugely popular in his Himalayan homeland. Many Tibet experts believe China is waiting for him to die and then install its own Tibetan spiritual leader.
Amid such worries, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner said last month he would have no misgivings ending the centuries-old spiritual tradition if Tibetans so choose.
“(Its) ultimately up to people, I made clear, whether this very institution should continue or not,” the 14th Dalai Lama told National Public Radio on a visit to Los Angeles.
“If majority of Tibetan people feel the Dalai institution is no longer much relevant, then this institution should cease — there is no problem.
“It looks like the Chinese are more concerned about this institution than me,” he said with a laugh.
The Dalai Lama, who fled his Chinese-ruled homeland in 1959, turns 75 in July and is believed to be in good health.
He has said his successor could be appointed before his death or democratically elected. The Dalai Lama could also, he has said, be reincarnated in exile — out of Beijing’s reach……. (more from AFP)
President Obama and the Dalai Lama spent more than an hour together in the White House yesterday, out of sight of the press but aware that Beijing regards their meeting as an infringement of Chinese sovereignty.
As a large crowd of Tibetan supporters — and smaller groups of Chinese — gathered on Pennsylvania Avenue, the exiled Tibetan leader made up for his failure to secure an invitation from Mr Obama on his last trip to Washington with a long discussion of religious freedom and human rights that he said showed the President’s “genuine concern” for Tibet.
The meeting may jeopardise longstanding American efforts to secure Chinese co-operation on Iran, North Korea and climate change, but Mr Obama had little choice but to welcome the Dalai Lama: he was harshly criticised from both the Left and the Right for ruling out a meeting in October, and his deferential approach to Beijing since then has yielded little except accusations of appearing weak on the world stage.
There was no joint press conference or photo call after the Map Room meeting — only a written statement from Mr Obama’s press secretary, calculated as much to mollify China as to show backing for Tibetan autonomy.
“The President stated his strong support for the preservation of Tibet’s unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity and the protection of human rights for Tibetans in the People’s Republic of China,” the statement said.
For Tibetans living under Chinese rule, the fact of the meeting was enough. In a remote Himalayan monastery where communications are strictly limited, lamas heard yesterday that their god-king was to meet Mr Obama, and they were rejoicing…….(The Times)
Two young Tibetans, identified as Gyaltsing and Nyima Wangdu, have just been given three-year jail sentences for posting photos of the Dalai Lama online. The exact date of their conviction is not known but it is believed to have been three or four days ago. They were convicted on charges of “communicating information to contacts outside China.”
They have been detained in Lhassa since 1 October. Their families, who have not been able to visit them in prison or obtain any information about them, are concerned for their health.
Three other Internet users, identified as Yeshi Namkha, Anne (a pseudonym) and Thupten, were arrested for similar reasons on 1 December but have not yet been tried. It is not known where they are being held.
“All these young Tibetan Internet users did was exchange photos of Tibet’s spiritual leader,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We call for their immediate release and the withdrawal of all the charges. These convictions are absurd. These young people should not be made to pay for the tension between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama.”
As US President Barack Obama used the Shanghai leg of his China visit to call for an end to online censorship, it emerged that a Chinese court has sentenced Tibetan writer and photographer Kunga Tseyang to five years in prison on various charges including posting articles on the Internet. Two days before, literary website editor Kunchok Tsephel has meanwhile been sentenced to 15 years in prison on a charge of “divulging state secrets”.
“Was this the Chinese government’s pre-emptive response to the US president’s very clear defence of the free flow of information,” Reporters Without Borders asked. “Either way, we hope the central government will overturn such heavy prison sentences, which two Tibetan writers have been given just for expressing their views. We deplore the increased repression since the major protests in Tibet in March 2008.”
Reporters Without Borders has learned that Tseyang, who is also know by the pen-name Gangnyi (Snow Sun), was given the five-year sentence by a court in the western province of Gansu on 14 November 2009 after being found guilty of writing “separatist” articles, posting them online and having contact with a Buddhist monk based in India. The authorities objected in particular to his posting articles on the website Zindris……. (more detailsfrom Reporters Without Borders)
Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of three young Tibetans from the village of Dara who have been held in Nagchu county since 1 October, when they were arrested in nearby Sogdzong county for allegedly sending information about Tibet to contacts abroad via the Internet.
The police have not allowed the three – identified as Gyaltsen, 25, Nymia Wangchuk, 24, and Yeshe Namkha, 25 – to have any contact with their families since their arrest.
“The Internet is monitored, censored and manipulated more in Tibet than in other Chinese provinces,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Despite the risks, Tibetan Internet users continue to transmit information, especially to the diaspora and human rights groups. It is deplorable that the Chinese police devote so much energy to identifying and arresting ordinary Internet users.”
The three young people allegedly used QQ, a Chinese instant messaging service, to send photos of the Dalai Lama and speeches by him. It appears that the Bureau of Public Security had been monitoring their online activities for some time. The population of Sogdzong country complain of police harassment, including frequent ID checks.
The monks in Sog Tsandan monastery, for example, were forced by the police to attend patriotic meetings with the authorities and were forbidden to observe their end-of-summer retreat (in which they stay within the monastery to avoid harming the insects that emerge at that time of the year).
Several bloggers and other Internet users have been arrested in Tibet in recent months. They include Pasang Norbu, arrested in Lhasa on 12 August for looking at online photos of the Tibetan flag and Dalai Lama, and Gonpo Tserang, a guide sentenced to three years in prison in June on charges of inciting separatism and “communicating outside the country” for sending emails and SMS messages about the March 2008 protests in Tibet.
HONG KONG—Residents of the Tibetan capital Lhasa say they fear a spike in infections with H1N1 influenza, while Chinese officials decline to give infection figures.
“This disease has become very serious. Most of the victims are students,” said one Tibetan man living in Lhasa.
“The leadership seems to have been more engrossed in celebrations of the 60th anniversary, and they seem to be underplaying the seriousness of the epidemic,” he said, referring to nationwide celebrations of Communist Party rule on Oct. 1.
China announced its first swine flu death in the Tibetan region last week.
The victim was an 18 year-old Tibetan woman who had been hospitalized in Lhasa the week before with severe symptoms.
Officials have sent 200,000 doses of influenza A (H1N1) vaccine to the region since, according to a statement on the Health Ministry’s Web site.
No outreach
But residents say that so far there have been no Tibetan-language programs on radio or television to educate the population on how to prevent swine flu, which was declared a pandemic in June.
Another Tibetan man said that the local swine flu infection rate is considered “very high” by Lhasa residents.
“The number of people arriving on trains from different parts of China is increasing, and there are huge concentrations of people at railway stations and other places where people gather. The chance of getting infected is extremely high,” he said.
“It is very serious in the Lhasa area, but the authorities are trying to underplay the spread of this disease.”…… (more details fromRadio Free Asia)
Oct. 6 (Bloomberg) — China’s first death from swine flu, in Tibet, prompted the health ministry to hold an emergency meeting and send 200,000 doses of vaccine to the region’s capital, Lhasa, state radio reported today.
The victim was an 18-year-old woman who was admitted to hospital in Lhasa on Oct. 3 and died the following day, the state-run Xinhua News Agency reported……. (more details from Bloomberg)
DHARAMSALA—As authorities prepare for sensitive anniversary celebrations across China, a growing security presence in the country’s west is limiting the religious practices and travel of Tibetans, residents say.
The increased security, residents say, is targeting several areas within China’s Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), as well as other parts of the country inhabited by Tibetans.
On Oct. 1, China will mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. Many inhabitants of the TAR oppose Chinese rule in the region.
A resident of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, who asked to remain anonymous said security personnel had been posted around sites of cultural and religious significance to Tibetans.
“There is a huge presence of security forces in Lhasa around the Potala Palace and in the Jokhang [temple]. Fearing Tibetan protests, the Chinese authorities have closed all other shrines in Jokhang except the main shrine,” the Tibetan said.
“In the past you would not see any armed personnel inside the Jokhang shrine—only monks. However, on Sept. 24, six armed security personnel were stationed inside to keep watch on Tibetans who come to view and pray at the main shrine,” the man said.
‘A show of force’
Another Tibetan resident of Lhasa said both armed police and soldiers have been ordered to march around the Jokhang temple in groups of 10 “as a show of force.”
He added that Tibetans from other parts of the TAR were being refused entry to the Tibetan capital.
“The Tibetans from Kham and Amdo in particular are checked for their IDs, while those who do not have proper permits have been ordered to return to their hometowns,” the man said……. (Radio Free Asia)
Chinese authorities are barring tourists from traveling to Tibet as security tightens in the run up to the 60th anniversary of the communist takeover of China.
An official at the Lhasa Tourism Bureau told AFP that the ban started yesterday and will last through October 8th.
This is the third time Chinese authorities have barred travel to Tibet since protests last March that, according to state media, resulted in 22 deaths.
Tour operators say Chinese authorities issued the restrictions Sunday, without explanation.
DHARAMSALA—A Chinese court has sentenced three Tibetans to prison for their roles in a disturbance in June in which over 30 were initially detained, according to Tibetan sources.
The sentence, two-year prison terms for each of the three men, was handed down on Aug. 4 in the Chamdo prefecture of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), sources said.
“The reason for the sentences was not made public,” Geshe Monlam Tharchin, a Tibetan living in Dharamsala, India, said, citing contacts in Tibet.
“Even their relatives had little information about their charges,” he said.
The three men—identified as Gyaltsentsang Jampa, 46, Buluk, 56, and Mutsatsang Tseten, 40—had been moved to a Chamdo detention center from Jomda county, also in Chamdo prefecture, prior to their sentencing, another source said.
“At one time, it was rumored that the three would be released in Jomda, but their attitude toward Chinese officials caused them to be transferred to Chamdo,” Dorje, a Jomda native now living in India, said.
“My contacts in Jomda are reluctant to give details,” Dorje added.
The three men sentenced had been part of larger group detained in Jomda following a disturbance at nearby Kyabje monastery at the end of June.
Calls seeking comment from authorities in Chamdo and Jomda rang unanswered.
Chinese authorities have imposed tight curbs throughout Tibet following widespread anti-China protests in the region in 2008, and detailed accounts of events in Tibetan areas are often difficult to obtain.
MADRID (AFP) — A Spanish judge said on Tuesday he intended to question eight Chinese leaders as official suspects in a case of genocide in connection with a crackdown on unrest that erupted in Tibet in March 2008.
National Court judge Santiago Pedraz sent a letter to Chinese authorities formally requesting permission to travel to China to question the eight, including Defence Minister Liang Guanglie and Minister for State Security Geng Huichang.
“Given the cordial relations between our two respective countries, I hope that you will respond favourably to my request,” he wrote referring to a bilateral justice cooperation agreement signed in 2005, according to a court document obtained by AFP.
The suit was filed against the Chinese leaders in July 2008 by a Tibetan rights groups, the Tibet Support Committee, and accepted by the court the following month just days before the opening of the Beijing Olympics.
It “denounces the new wave of oppression that began in Tibet on 10th March 2008, and just goes to prove that acts of genocide continue to be committed against the Tibetan people”.
It also “denounces China’s manipulation of the global war against terrorism in its attempt to justify and cover up crimes against humanity committed against the Tibetan people”.
Unrest in Tibet erupted on March 14 last year after four days of peaceful protests against Chinese rule.
The Tibetan government-in-exile says 203 Tibetans were killed and about 1,000 hurt in China’s crackdown. Beijing insists that only one Tibetan was killed and has in turn accused the “rioters” of killing 21 people.
The crackdown sparked international protests that dogged the month-long global journey of the Olympic torch in April.
The judge said that if the accusations made in the complaint are proven, they would constitute crimes against humanity under Spanish law.
“The Tibetan population would appear to be a group that is persecuted by the cited authorities for political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or other motives universally recognised as unacceptable under international law,” he wrote.
Spain has since 2005 operated under the principle of “universal jurisdiction”, a doctrine that allows courts to reach beyond national borders in cases of torture, terrorism or war crimes.
Other Chinese officials named in the suit were Communist Party Secretary in Tibet Zhang Qingli, Politburo member Wang Lequan, Ethnic Affairs Commission head Li Dezhu, People’s Liberation Army Commander in Lhasa General Tong Guishan, Public Security Minister Meg Jianzhu and Zhang Guihua, political commissar in the Chengdu military command.
The suit against the eight is an extension to another complaint filed by the Tibet Support Committee in 2006.
That suit accuses Chinese leaders, including former president Jiang Zemin and former prime minister Li Peng, of torture and crimes against humanity as well as genocide allegedly carried out in Tibet during the 1980s.
The National Court has been hearing that case since June 2006.
Beijing has condemned the accusations of genocide in Tibet as slander and it has accused Madrid of trying to interfere in its administration of the Buddhist Himalayan region.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after sending troops in to “liberate” the remote region.
Reporters Without Borders is concerned about the physical safety of journalists and website editors who have been arrested in the past few months in Tibet and neighbouring Tibetan regions. The latest to be arrested is Dokru Tsuilrim, a monk who edited the magazine Khawai Tsesok (Soul of the Snow).
The press freedom organisation hails the release of Golok Jigme, a monk who helped filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen make the 2008 documentary “Leaving fear behind”. Dhondup Wangchen is still being held.
“We are very worried by the reports of Chinese police torturing detained Tibetans, including a lama defended by lawyer Li Fangping,” Reporters Without Borders said. “They increase our concern that the six journalists detained in Tibet are being mistreated. All those held because of the views they expressed must be released without delay.”
Chinese police arrested Dokru Tsuilrim in his room in Ngaba Gomang monastery (in Sichuan province) at the start of April for publishing articles that allegedly support the “separatist forces.” The authorities have suspended publication of his magazine.
The authorities have meanwhile stepped up controls in Machu county in Gansu province. According to a researcher at India’s Norbu Lingka Institute, Chinese officials threatened reprisals against residents who continue to listen to international radio stations or visit websites such as the Radio Free Asia one. The authorities have installed dozens of satellite dishes while confiscating those belonging to private individuals.
Tibetan human rights groups have reported new cases of Tibetans being arrested for sending “state secrets” abroad. One is a monk identified as Thuksam, based in Nurma monastery, who has been held since 11 March. The Public Security Bureau accuses him of sending reports about human rights violations to organisations abroad. It is not known where he is being held.
Status of Chinese People 