On 6 January 2012, two more Tibetans have self-immolated in Ngaba County at around 2PM (Tibet local time). A monk and a lay man, with their hands folded in praying gesture, shouted for the long live of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the return of His Holiness to Tibet. Few minutes later, the People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) arrived at the scene. The PAP and PSB policemen extinguished the fire and took the two away to an unknown place.
Today is the 63rd anniversary of the adoption of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), commonly celebrated as Human Rights Day all over the world. On this occasion, we remember and pay tribute to all human rights defenders – from Tibet to Tunisia – who symbolizes, in word and deed, the universality of fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the UDHR.
The year 2011 witnessed unprecedented scale and influence of grassroots resistance movements against repressive dictatorial regimes. Ordinary people, like the Tunisian vegetable seller and a 21-yr-old Tibetan monk, asserted their rights in protest. The Tibetan monk, Phuntsog, died after self-immolation as Beijing, testifying to its egregious human rights record, reacted with force and violence that have caused 12 immolations this year in Tibet.
Tenzin Phuntsok has reportedly succumbed to burns on 6 December in Chamdo Hospital in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) after setting himself on fire on 1 December. Some sources also say the body was handed over to his family two days later (on 8 December).
Tenzin Phuntsok, aged 46, had distributed leaflets, expressing solidarity with the local monks while criticizing Chinese rule, before self immolating on 1 December, in protest against Chinese policies, in Karma Township, Chamdo, (TAR). He was taken to Chamdo Hospital after Chinese police extinguished the flames.
Phuntsok’s wife Dolma went missing since the police detained her after Phuntsok’s self immolation. There is no information on Dolma’s well-being and whereabouts. The couple has two sons and a daughter.
Thapkay Gyatso, a Tibetan monk from Labrang monastery, serving 15 years sentence in a Chinese prison in Gansu Province, is feared to be in critical health condition due to years of torture.
According to information received by TCHRD, a friend who visited Thapkay Gyatso in July this year reported that Thapkay is imprisoned in a place called Dianxin, 100 kilometers away from Lanzhou city in Gansu Province. The friend also said that Thapkey is half-paralyzed and is suffering from weak eyesight.
Sources report of another sad self immolation of a Tibetan on Thursday (1 December, 2011) in Chamdo Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). Tenzin Phuntsok, in his forties, shouted slogans and distributed leaflets before setting himself afire. He was reportedly taken to hospital and is believed to have survived.
Phuntsok was a former monk of Karma monastery, Chamdo (Chinese: Changdu), TAR. He was born in Jingdhung village, Chamdo County, TAR.
Chinese police have arrested two more monks; identified as Gyatso and Lobsang Gendun, from the Kirti monastery in Ngaba, Sichuan Province.
Sources reported that on 21 November 2011, monk Gyatso was arrested and taken from his room by authorities. Gyatso, age around 42, is from the Ragtsa family in Mesip Village in Ngaba County. He was ordained as a monk at a young age. He was a teacher of the monastery’s school before the school’s closure. Many of his compositions have appeared in regional newspapers and magazines.
Lobsang Gendun, age 48, a former disciplinarian of the Kalachakra college at Kirti, was arrested and detained in mid October. He belongs to the Sego family in Kanyag Village, Trotsik Township.
On 1 November 2011, around 3 p.m (Tibet Local Time), Lhaten received a telephone call from a Chinese lady teacher from Taktse County Primary School, where his son is studying, asking him to get his son. When he went to get his son from the school, several civilian dressed policemen were waiting for him at the school. The school gatekeeper reportedly said that they took him away in a black car when Lhaten’s relatives inquired.
Today, at around 12.40 pm, a nun in Tawu (Ch: Daofu) County, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), set herself afire in protest against the Chinese government amid the continued repression of religious freedom and human rights in Tibet.
Palden Choetso, 35 years old, shouted slogans such as “Freedom in Tibet,” “Long live H.H the Dalai Lama,” and “Let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet” before she self-immolated near Namgyal Stupa, a huge stupa in Tawu County.
Latest reports state that nun Choetso died from severe burn injuries. Her body is being kept at Tawu Nyatso Monastery at this moment.
In a Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) Communist Party meeting, held on the afternoon of 30 October, the Chinese government approved to carry out law-abiding patriotic re-education principles including a “model monastery,” according to the official chinatibetnews.com report on 1 November 2011. This is a new strategy to further intensify the control over Tibetan monasteries and nunneries in Lhasa.
The principles also include an annual “contest” among the various monasteries and nunneries in TAR. Additionally, all monasteries and nunneries shall not engage in creating social disturbances and should oppose strongly against the Dalai cliques. Monks and nuns should not participate in any ‘separatist acts’. There shall be a half-yearly assessment carried out in all monasteries and nunneries, and an annual award is promised to be given to the one that best obeys all the rules set by the Chinese government. That ‘winner’ shall be labeled the ‘Model Monastery,’ whose students (monks/nuns) will be given certificates and monetary rewards. This ‘Model Monastery’ will be set as an example for the other monasteries and nunneries which shall further strive to become one, states the principle.
Jolep Dawa, a teacher at Ngaba County Middle School for Nationalities, was sentenced to a three year imprisonment term by a court in Barkham (in Chinese: Ma’erkang) earlier this month. He was arrested on 1 October 2010 and was held at Jinchuan County Detention Centre for over a year before he was sentenced. The charges for which he was arrested and sentenced are not yet known.
Dawa, 39 years old, is also the founder, editor and writer of the monthly Tibetan language magazine, “Du-rab Kyi Nga.”
According to information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Choepa Lugyal (penname Meycheh), a young Tibetan writer working at the National Publication in Gansu province was arrested by the Public Security Bureau police in Lando (Chinese: Lanzhu) city, Gansu province on 19 October 2011.
There is no information on why he has been arrested.