Chinese authorities has recently conducted a series of court trials of Tibetans arrested and detained for their involvement in the pan Tibet protests in 2008 which swept across the areas inhabited by Tibetans in Tibet. According to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), four nuns and two laymen from Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) County, Kardze “Tibet Autonomous Prefecture” (“TAP”), Sichuan Province were sentenced to a varying terms in January this year for staging a peaceful protest in 2008.
Lunglung Sonam (age unknown), son of Samdak and Pamo from Thamei Village, Kardze County, was sentenced to three years imprisonment in January 2009 by Kardze County Intermediate People’s Court, as per information provided by one of his close contacts in the Kardze region. LungLung was earlier arrested on 17 May 2008 for participating in a peaceful protest in Kardze county.
In a another court trial on 15 January 2009, Kardze County Intermediate People’s Court sentenced three nuns from Yarteng Nunnery to two year and six months imprisonment term. The three nuns are: Poewang, 28, daughter of Choewang Gyatso and Rigah of Yarkhag Village, Kardze County; Yangzom, 31, daughter of Kunga Choegyen and MarMar also from Yarkhag Village, Kardze County; and Lhamo, 29, daughter of Nakad from Thamed Village, Kardze County. They were all arrested for staging a peaceful protest in Kardze County on 18 June 2008. According to information received by TCHRD on 1 February 2008, all three nuns were now held in a unknown prison in Tsithar Township, Chengdu, Sichuan Province. Sources also reported that at least 44 nuns were held in that prison.
A 32-year-old Ngawang Phuntsok, son of Ngawang Kunga and Palden Choetso from Bumshul village, Kardze County was detained for six months in county Public Security Bureau (PSB) Detention Centre for staging a solo peaceful protest on 18 June 2008 in Kardze County. He was arrested from the site of protest with the pictures of the Dalai Lama. On 20 January 2009, Kardze County Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Ngawang to three years prison term. He is currently held in a prison in Woemin Samisa (Ch.) a 70 Km from Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
In a separate court trial on 2 January 2009, a 28-year-old nun of Dragkar Nunnery, Yangkyi, a daughter of late Tha Tsering and late Ten Choekyi of Serchu Teng Village, Serchu Township, Kardze County was sentenced by the same court to one year and nine months following her arrest for participating in a peaceful protest with fellow nuns on 12 May 2008 in Kardze County.
TCHRD strongly condemns the sentencing of the five Tibetans as their freedom to opinion and expression does not violate any of the constitutional components of Chinese law. Since their activities constitute nothing more than an expression of their opinion, thought and exercise of their basic human rights peacefully, TCHRD calls upon the Chinese authorities to release them immediately with any condition.
Over the past year, courts at various levels have sentenced nearly 200 Tibetans involved in a series of protests to varying prison terms including life sentence to seven Tibetans. TCHRD is gravely converned about the fate of the arrested Tibetans and hundreds of other Tibetans who have disappeared since the major protest that rocked Tibet last year