Human Rights Update 1997

Lhakpa Tsering, 24 years old, from Toelung Dechen Dzong, near Lhasa, was one of the staff at the Dzong (county) Procuracy Office (the Chinese governmental office responsible for investigating and prosecuting criminal cases), earning a salary of 670 yuan (around US$ 85) per month. He confirms the much-reported futility of the Chinese appeal sytem in Tibet and reveals why, despite…

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Ngawang Pekar was halfway through his eight year sentence in Drapchi Prison when his sentence was extended by six years. Already being punished for his attempts to broaden awareness of the situation in Tibet, Ngawang had been caught by the Chinese prison authorities trying to alert the international community to the conditions for political prisoners in Drapchi. Ngawang Pekar (layname:…

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China’s mining practices in Tibet reveal a two-way policy: to transfer massive population numbers into Tibet so as to lessen the burden of its own population problems while marginalising Tibetans and to exploit Tibet’s mineral resources. At a gold mining conference held in Lhasa in 1995, officials of the “Tibet Autonomous Region” announced that minerals account for about 20% of…

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A recent report describing the inhumane treatment of prisoners in Chinese prisons in Tibet has been received. The report recounts the case of a pregnant woman who was arrested on suspicion of independence activities and subjected to intensive interrogations. The woman’s pleas that she felt weak were ignored and two days later, denied recommended hospital care, she miscarried her child.…

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In 1995 Lobsang Lungtok, a monk, was arrested for independence activities. After 18 months imprisonment he was expelled from his monastery in April this year. In January 1997 three other monks and one layman were arrested on similar grounds. 22 year-old Lobsang Lungtok, from Rebkong county (Ch: Qinghai province), Amdo, joined Rongpo Gonchen monastery at the age of seven. There…

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Tenzin Thupten from Michungri nunnery was about to complete her prison term when  she participated in recording songs conveying messages of freedom and words to her friends inside the prison. Today Tenzin Thupten is languishing in one of the worst prisons in Tibet, Drapchi prisn with a prison term of fourteen years.  Tenzin Thupten (layname-Dawa Yangkyi), born in Melldro Gongkar…

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Kalsang Dawa, a 29 year old painter from Phenpo, central Tibet, was reported to have died mysteriously in October 1995 while serving his prison sentence in a Chinese prison in Tibet (reported in Human Rights Update of May 15, 1997). More reliable information has been received from a recent arrival from Tibet, detailing the circumstances of Kalsang’s death. Suffering mental…

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According to a recent arrival from Damtoe township in Taktse county under Lhasa City, the Chinese have extended their religious repression to include hermits who are peacefully living their life in the mountains. A mountain of retreat called the Dhrak Yepa is home to about 80 religious recluses who have built their own small shacks, strive on begged food and…

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China’s on-going campaign to destroy all physical signs of Tibet’s ancient civilisation is leaving piles of rubble across the land. China’s aim to wipe out all traces of Tibetan religion has seen the destruction of more than 6000 Buddhist monasteries since 1949 and the destruction or pillage of countless precious religious statues and artifacts. Secular architecture has also been targeted…

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I am 29 year old and come from Nyen village in Seshen township in Toeling Dechen Dzong under Lhasa City. I come from a very small nunnery of just 15 minutes of which five are still languishing in Drapchi prison for participating in a demonstration in 1949 in front of the Tsuklakhang (Lhasa’s main temple). In 1995, the most senior…

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Nyima Tashi, a 25 year old farmer monk from Lhading village, Ngamring county (Shigatse region) reports on the stifling socio-economic policies the Chinese intend to implement in his village. “It was recently declared in our village that grazing land will be distributed to each household, regardless for whether a particular household rears animals or not. It was suggested that households…

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