As Tibetans in Tibet mourn the loss of lives in self-immolation protests by observing a quiet Losar (Tibetan New Year), the Chinese authorities are ordering Tibetans to celebrate the festival by announcing huge rewards, and punishments for those who disobey the order.
According to information received by TCHRD, days prior to Losar, which began 11 February, Chinese officials in Tsolho (Ch: Hainan) Prefecture, Qinghai Province, were seen visiting Tibetan villages in the area, ordering the Tibetans to celebrate the New Year.
Officials announced that villagers would be rewarded handsomely if they celebrate the New Year. They warned that those Tibetans who did not celebrate would be deprived of financial help for farming and animal husbandry.
Five monks have gone missing since the raid by Chinese security officials on Ramoche Temple following protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in March 2008.
According to information received by TCHRD, the whereabouts of Ramoche monastery’s Chagzoe (manager and treasurer) Sonam Rabgyal and four other monks cannot be ascertained. The monks were arrested during a midnight raid in monks’ residence on 7 April 2008.
In the past few days, since the 10th March Commemoration of the People’s Uprising Movement of Tibet, although information is hard to come by, a few confirmed accounts are trickling out about protests, arrests, detentions and restrictions all around Tibet amidst severe control of information flow. Tibet is said to be increasingly reeling under a tense situation following a recent spate of peaceful protests by monks of three main monasteries in Lhasa that have now rippled across eastern and far north eastern Tibetan areas of Amdo and Kham. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has received numerous confirmed reports concerning the recent spate of protests, subsequent arrests and detentions of people having taken place inside Tibet and have compiled a list of protests and subsequent arrests in chronological order as follows