According to a radio broadcast from VOA on 27 January 1997, the long-anticipated regulations on all publications has been formally declared by the Chinese Government’s State Council. Materials including books, radio, television and audio cassettes must first undergo a thorough scrutiny before they are permitted to be published. The publications should propagate the merits of socialism and educate the masses…
Five Serwa monks, all from Chamdo Prefecture, are presently serving sentences of 12 to 15 years for pasting posters and shouting slogans calling for an independent Tibet and the long life of the Dalai Lama. They have been tortured and used as public examples of what can happen to those who disagree with Chinese policy. Chime Dorje, now 29 years…
According to unconfirmed reports from Tibet, Rinzin Wangyal was sentenced on December 13, 1996, to 16 years imprisonment. Rinzin (alias Rinwang), a 49-year-old worker at a cement factory in Lhasa, was arrested in August 1995 by the Public Security Bureau for political reasons. Prior to his arrest in 1995, Rinzin was arrested once before between 1966-67 for allegedly organising an…
The above informer expressed great concern over the possible destruction of two revered spiritual sites in Tibet. The first relates to the notion propagated by the Chinese that a large diamond lies at the bottom of Lake Lhamo Lhatso, in Gyatsa district 332 Km S.E of Lhasa, one of the most sacred lakes in Tibet. This legend is being used…
The following is an excerpt of an appeal letter received from Lhasa, Tibet. The letter, dated December 1996, describes the new problems of unemployment and prostitution found in the capital today under Chinese rule. Tibetan people are suffering tremendously from Chinese suppression. It is very hard to live under Chinese occupation. In Tibet’s major cities, Tibetans are outnumbered by Chinese.…
A former political prisoner of 13 years, (name withheld for security reasons) recently fled Tibet, arriving in India in late 1996. He reported the arrest of three monks from Rabten Monastery in Rong Village under Nagchu, in the beginning of 1996. They were charged for pasting wall posters which condemned the Chinese choice of Panchen Lama and praised the Dalai…
The following is the testimony of Rinzin Choenyi, a 26-year-old nun of Shugseb Nunnery, who spent six years in Drapchi Prison. She, and other female political prisoners, suffered a variety of torture methods whilst in prison and, in some cases, this has resulted in death. Rinzin Choenyi was expelled from her nunnery in 1988 because of her participation in a…
According to new arrivals from Tibet, on 19 April 1996 female political prisoners in Drapchi Prison went on a hunger strike as a protest against a prison order forbidding the families of the prisoners from bringing them food. The prisoners also protested against the poor prison diet. 81 of the 145 female political prisoners in Drapchi participated in this hunger…
Phuntsok Yangkyi, a 20-year-old nun of Michungri Nunnery, died on 4 June 1994. Choenyi reports that, while in hospital, Phuntsok Yangkyi was injected twice in her back and a Chinese doctor extracted a body fluid (Tibetan: Geychu). Chinese believe that this fluid is good for increasing vitality. Phuntsok Yangkyi went into a coma after the doctor extracted this fluid from…
On 1 July 1997 Hong Kong’s democratically elected Legislative Council will be replaced by a Beijing backed provisional body. Plans to amend laws so as to ban protests on the grounds of “national security” have prompted grave concerns that Hong Kong will be subjected to many of repressive policies imposed on Tibet. While China has vowed to allow Hong Kong…
Sonam Dekyi is 59 years old, is suffering from tuberculosis and poor health, and has just one wish before she dies: to see her son, Ngawang Choephel, who has recently been sentenced to 18 years imprisonment by Chinese authorities. Sonam Dekyi fled Tibet in 1968. Heavily pregnant at the time, she made the treacherous journey across the Himalayan mountains with…