A prominent former Tibetan political prisoner named Lodoe Gyatso was detained late last month for carrying out a lone protest against Chinese government in Lhasa. He has since been handed over to the Sog (Ch: Suo) County Public Security Bureau (PSB) in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). This is Lodoe Gyatso’s second detention following his release from prison after 21 years in 2013.
Chinese authorities have detained Lodoe Gyatso, a former Tibetan political prisoner who was released from prison three years ago after serving 21 years.
Lodoe Gyatso was arbitrarily detained in Lhasa at around midnight local time on 14 May 2016 for unknown reasons. His family members and relatives have no information on the exact location of his detention.
Chinese authorities have detained four Tibetan men including three monks from the embattled Tsenden Monastery in Sog (Ch: Suo) County in Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), in the Tibetan province of Kham.
According to the information received by TCHRD, local police detained the monks identified as Choephel Dawa, Jigme Wangyal and Choeyang Choega and a layman named Dorjee who were detained on the night of 28 March 2015. No reason was given for their sudden detention. There is no information on the location of their detention raising concerns among family members about their physical and psychological health since torture is routinely practiced in Chinese detention centers.
Chinese police detained seven Tibetan monks from Tsenden Monastery in Sog (Ch: Suo) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The monks were detained on 14 March, which coincided with the 2008 uprising anniversary when Tibetans protested against the Chinese government in Lhasa igniting widespread demonstrations in many parts of Tibet, according to information received by TCHRD.
The detained monks are identified as Namgyal Tsultrim, Lodoe Tenzin, Tsultrim Gojhey, Tsultrim Namgyal, Thabkey Lhundup, Jigme Tsultrim, and Jigme Drakpa. The police gave no reason for their detention. However, local Tibetans suspect that the monks were detained for sharing information and images related to incidents in Tibet. As of now, information regarding their condition, location of their detention and actual reason for their detention remain unknown.
A Tibetan monk has disappeared after sharing his writings criticizing Chinese rule to the mobile phones of Chinese cadres stationed at Tsenden Monastery in Sog (Ch: Suo) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).
Sources told TCHRD that Choeying Kalden, 20, a monk at Tsenden Monastery was detained by Sog County Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers on 16 March 2014. The monk had shared his writings among his friends as well as Chinese ‘work team’ members through social media.
It is still not known where he is detained. Local Tibetans believe that he had been taken to Nagchu area although the exact location of his detention is not known.
Choeying Kalden, whose lay name is Athog, hails from Yeggu Village of Yagla (Ch: Yala) Township in Sog County and is the son of Mr Lhakhyil and Mrs Bumsang. He often used to write essays and poems on Tibetan culture and identity under the pseudonym Sog Thug (Eng: ‘Mongolian Child’). Some of his writings have now become available outside Tibet and are being shared through the popular instant messaging app WeChat owned by Chinese company Tencent (see images).
Chinese authorities in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) are persecuting monks and nuns who travel to other Tibetan areas outside of TAR to pursue religious studies, calling them ‘social prisoners’.
Two Tibetan monks, Bhagdro and Deri, who fled Tibet to India early this month told TCHRD that monks and nuns who earn the label ‘social prisoners’ (Tib: chitsok ki tsonpa) are being detained, harassed and interrogated by local Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers. The so-called ‘social prisoners’ are being persecuted for crossing the TAR border and travelling to other Tibetan areas in Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces to pursue religious education.
Bhagdro, 23, and Deri, 21, hail from Lhari (Ch: Jiali) County and Sog (Ch: Suo) County respectively in Nagchu Prefecture. Both monks had left their respective home monasteries to pursue further studies at Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Sertha (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Sichuan Province). Fearing that they would be stigmatised as ‘social prisoners’, they chose not to return home and fled into exile to India.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) received confirmed information from reliable sources that a commotion between the migrant Chinese Muslim traders and Tibetan youths on 27 June 2007 in Yagra neighborhood in Sog County, Nagchu Prefecture “TAR” and subsequent protest by Tibetans against the highhandedness of the traders has led to the arrest of around 30 Tibetans.
On 27 June 2007, a commotion between the migrant Chinese Muslim traders and Tibetan youths broke out in the Yagra neighborhood of Sog County while transacting medicinal plant caterpillar fungus (Tib: Yartsa Gunbu, Botanical name: cordyceps sinensis). According to sources, during the initial commotion two Tibetan youths were said to have been tied-up and beaten by a group of migrant Chinese Muslim traders of the area. After the incident hundreds of Tibetans gathered to protest against the treatment meted out to the two Tibetan youths. And the subsequent protest incident in Yagra neighborhood has led to the arrest of 30 Tibetans by the Chinese authorities.