News – Page 44

29/12/2013 News

Extrajudicial detention still a major issue despite RTL abolition

On Saturday 28 December 2013, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee voted to abolish Re-education Through Labor (RTL; Ch: laojiao). This fulfills the promise the People’s Republic of China made in the 3rd Plenum Decision on 15 November 2013 to abolish the 56 year old Chinese system of gulags that had been used to imprison people in forced labor camps for up to four years.

When the National People’s Congress Standing Committee announced the abolition of RTL, it stated that it was because changes made to Chinese laws had made RTL redundant and it had fulfilled its historic mission. This justification fails to recognize the fundamental problems inherent in RTL. It ignores the substantial criticism of RTL for being an illegal system of arbitrary detention, forced labor, and torture. Internationally, numerous States, NGOs, and international organizations, including the United Nations criticized RTL for violating international human rights law.

27/12/2013 News / TCHRD Statements

Mao’s legacy in Tibet

On 26 December 2013, China held a grand celebration to commemorate the 120th birthday of Mao Zedong (毛澤東). This involves a careful balance for Xi Jinping and other members of the Chinese Communist Party, who hope to exploit Mao Zedong’s rhetoric and status without endorsing his policies or ideology, both of which are contrary to the PRC’s current policies and announced reforms.

In Tibet, there is no contradiction between Mao Zedong’s legacy and his policies. Both were brutal and led to mass arrests, death, and destruction in Tibet. While the PRC quietly distanced itself from some of Mao Zedong’s worst policies after his death in 1976, many continue to cast a shadow over Tibet.

For the next 26 years since PRC’s invasion of Tibet in 1949, Tibetans were subjected to horrific, inhumane conditions. On 23 May 1980, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) publicly apologized for the failed policies that made conditions in Tibet worse than in 1959 and that the then-party general secretary Hu Yaobang accused the Chinese cadres of throwing the money entrusted to them to help Tibetans into the Lhasa River. Despite this acknowledgement, many of the most brutal and destructive policies from Mao’s rule still continue today.

23/12/2013 News

Diru Crackdown: Three Tibetans sent to prison for up to 13 years, singer gets 9 years in prison

Choekyap has been sentenced to 13 years in prison

Chinese authorities have sentenced three Tibetan men to prison on charges of allegedly “attempting to split the Chinese nation” in the troubled Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region.

According to information received by TCHRD, among the sentenced was Tibetan singer Trinley Tsekar, 22, who was imprisoned for nine years. Two other Tibetans, Choekyap and Tselha, were also sentenced on same charges as Trinley Tsekar. Choekyap was sentenced to 13 years while Tselha was a given three-year prison term.

19/12/2013 News

[Updated]Tibetan monk dies of self-immolation, calls for unity among Tibetans in last note

[Warning: Graphic images in this post]

A Tibetan monk died of self-immolation protest today calling for unity among Tibetans and the return of the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Amchok (Ch: Amuqu) town in Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) County, Malho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province.

According to information received by TCHRD, Tsultrim Gyatso, about 43, set his body on fire at around 2.45 pm local time today and died soon after. He was a monk at Amchok Monastery. He died instantly and soon local Tibetans and monks took his charred body to his monastery.

Sources told TCHRD that over 400 monks have gathered at to recite prayers and conduct rituals at the deceased’s residence at the monastery.

19/12/2013 News

Diru Crackdown: Senior Tibetan Buddhist scholar beaten to death in police custody

Senior Buddhist master and scholar Ngawang Jampel

China’s relentless crackdown in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in the name of Xi Jinping’s ‘mass line’ policy has claimed another Tibetan life, even as sources from Tibet continue to report on increasing number of arbitrary arrests and secret detention.

According to information received by TCHRD, a senior Tibetan Buddhist scholar known for his keen intelligence and mediation skills died while being detained in police custody. Ngawang Jampel aka Ngawang Jamyang, 45, was among the three monks from Tarmoe Monastery who were detained on 23 November 2013 while on a vacation in Lhasa. The second monk has now been identified as Kelsang Choklang (see photo) while the identity of the third monk remains unknown as he continues to be secretly detained. Kelsang Choklang’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Ngawang Jampel’s graduation certificate (see photo) shows his name in English as Ngawang Jampel but his Tibetan name is being spelled as Ngawang Jamyang.

A source with contacts in Diru told TCHRD that on 17 December 2013, less than a month after his secret detention, Buddhist scholar and master Ngawang Jampel died following which the police lost no time in handing over the body to Ngawang Jampel’s family. “It was clear that Ngawang Jampel was beaten to death while in secret detention. He was a healthy, robust man when he left his monastery to visit Lhasa,” said the source.

13/12/2013 News

Video exposé of PAP violence reinforces Tibetan grievances

PAP soldiers arrive in Diru County in October 2013 to clamp down on protests staged by Tibetans. (Photo: RFA)

Earlier this year, TCHRD released a manual from the People’s Armed Police (PAP) that described how many members of the PAP are suffering from nightmares and flashbacks as a result of the treatment they inflicted upon Tibetans in 2008. Now, a video of eight senior PAP firefighters beating five young recruits in Inner Mongolia has gone viral in the PRC.

The over 15-minute long video shows the young PAP officers being beaten while forced to stand at attention. They are slapped, punched and kicked. One victim was kicked by two of his abusers while he lay on the ground. Others are kneed, knocked against a wall, and have their heads slammed against the wall. The senior members of the PAP also beat the victims with belts and sticks that they broke over the victim’s heads. After seven minutes some of the victims clearly had trouble getting back to their feet and standing.

12/12/2013 News

Mandela legacy continues to inspire Tibetans

His Holiness the Dalai Lama's meeting with Mandela in 1996 in South Africa. (Photo: ANC Archives) — His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s meeting with Mandela in 1996 in South Africa. (Photo: ANC Archives)

Nelson Mandela passed away on 5 December 2013. His state funeral on Sunday, 15 December is a time for the world to gather and remember Mandela’s life and legacy. Mandela will be forever remembered as the first black president of South Africa and a champion of non-violence who was instrumental not only in ending apartheid but also for uniting South Africa behind the rule of law, constitutionalism, and racial reconciliation after decades of minority rule by a racist regime. This legacy and the success of the “freedom struggle” against apartheid is an inspiration for Tibetans who live under a discriminatory regime that exists above the law and imposes its will through the heavy-handed use of force.

10/12/2013 News / Thematic Reports

Banned Expression

In his essay, Soul of Poetry, the influential Tibetan poet, Yidam Tsering (1933 – 2004), likened the poets to nightingales who sing through their poems the hopes and aspirations, pain and agony, of their people. Her further wrote, “as long as the people live a life of million years, the poet will be able to sustain a life of million…

06/12/2013 News

China arrests two Tibetan singers in Diru

Cover of the music album, Ring of Unity, shows a photo of singer Trinley Tsekar

Two Tibetan singers have become the latest targets of China’s crackdown in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Trinley Tsekar, 22, and Gonpo Tenzin, 25 have been arrested in separate incidents in late November 2013 in Diru County, according to information received by TCHRD.

Singer Trinley Tsekar was arrested on around 20 November 2013 when he visited the local driving school to get his driver’s license. Sources with contacts in Diru said Trinley Tsekar was arrested because he had distributed a DVD that contained songs he had sung on Tibetan identity, culture and language. One of his most famous DVDs is titled Ring of Unity (Tib: Thundil ki Along). Sources also said Trinley Tsekar was a well-known singer who used to express the pain and suffering of Tibetan people through his songs. He hails from Serkhang Village in Diru Township. His family members including his aged mother, Yangchen Dolker, wife and a child, have no idea where he is being held and in what condition.

03/12/2013 News

Writer among nine Tibetans sentenced to prison in Diru

Tibetan nomad Topden aka Do Ghang Gah has been sentenced to five years in prison. — Tibetan nomad Topden aka Dro Ghang Gah has been sentenced to five years in prison.

China’s ongoing crackdown in enforcing the government’s ‘mass line’ policy has resulted in the sentencing of nine Tibetans in Shagchu (Ch: Xiaqu) town in Diru (Ch: Biru) County, Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). All three identified so far have been charged of maintaining contacts with “Dalai clique” and for “engaging in activities to split the nation.”

Among the nine sentenced to varying terms is Topden, a nomad and a writer who writes under the pseudonym Dro Ghang Gah. Topden, 30, was arrested on 28 October 2013 and sentenced to five years in prison on 30 November 2013, according to information received by TCHRD. He hails from Village No. 4 in Shagchu town and has a wife, Dakar, and three young children.

21/11/2013 News

Banned Expression: Campaign to protect free speech in Tibet

‘Banned Expression: Support Free Speech in Tibet’ is an awareness campaign focussing on the Right to Freedom of Opinion, Expression and Information in Tibet.

Over a hundred Tibetan writers, poets, artists, intellectuals and cultural figures have been arrested, tortured and imprisoned since the 2008 uprising in Tibet. By daring to refute China’s official narrative of events surrounding the 2008 Uprising, these courageous Tibetans represent a significant new challenge to the Chinese authorities.

China is implementing mass surveillance and propaganda campaigns under the rubric of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s “mass line” policy in Tibet. New regulations on the internet and phone use have been implemented since 2011 to block information and censor communication. Book and journals are banned; websites shut down and online contents deleted and censored in real time by armies of Chinese government censors. China has vowed again to block all images, information and teachings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Tibet by setting “nets in the sky” and “traps on the ground” .