Following a week-long extraordinary meeting of the leaders of the Chinese Communist Party in Lhasa, the Tibet Central Committee launched a “Last Battle” against the Dalai Lama, aimed at eradicating any vestiges of the exiled spiritual leader’s influence from all levels of society. Their report stipulated that the anti-splittist campaign, launched in the region’s monasteries this year, must be broadened.…
A farmer from Eastern Tibet (name withheld) arrived in India this month and described the difficulties faced by Tibetan farmers under the discriminatory Chinese occupation. “A good harvest brings a farmer about 10,000 gyamas [1 gyama is approximately equal to 2 kgs]. The farmers are required to pay a tax of about 500 gyamas to the Chinese authorities. The farmers…
Rev. Palden Dhondup, the 80-year-old abbot of Chubsang Nunnery north of Lhasa, was expelled from the nunnery in July 1996. According to our source, on July 1 (“Zamling Chisang”, or the festival of incense offering) four Chubsang nuns were arrested for demonstrating in the Barkhor area of the Jokhang Temple. They were; Phuntsok Youdon (20) from Medro Gong, Thinley Yangkyi…
About 105 Tibetans, at least ten suffering from severe frostbite, were arrested for illegal entry in West Nepal after fleing Tibet, a Nepali daily newspaper reported on 17 November. The refugees entered Nepal via a little-used route from Manang (about 360 kilometres north-west of Kathmandu) while most Tibetan refugees use an eastward route along a mountain pass near Mount Everest.…
Ngawang Sangdrol, a nineteen-year-old nun, has had her sentence extended by nine years. With a total of 18 years behind bars, she will be the longest imprisoned female political prisoner in Tibet. Ngawang Sangdrol (layname Rigchog) was born in Lhasa in 1977, and later joined Garu Nunnery (5 kilometres north of Lhasa). She was first arrested in 1987 when she…
This week the Tibet Information Network (TIN) reported a Tibetan artist who specialised in painting portraits of the Dalai Lama had been found in a state of severe shock in a public toilet in the Lhasa Barkor area soon after being released from a police Detention Centre. Yungdrung, an artist aged 24 or 25 years from Nyemo, 150 km west…
The following is taken from an account provided to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on 26 November by Tsultrim Gyaltsen who arrived in India this week from Tibet. Tsultrim Gyaltsan is a 20-year-old monk from Dunbhu Choekhor Monastery (Sakya Monastery) in Chideshol under Lhokha sub district. A Work Inspection Team composed of 6 or 7 members had…
On 30 October 1996, the PRC sentenced pro-democracy leader Wangdhen to 11 years imprisonment. Just weeks earlier, Liu Xiabo, another prominent pro-democracy activist, was sent to Labour Camp for 3 years for “re-education through labour” without trial for penning an open letter to China calling for Tibetan autonomy and labour reforms. A speaker for Human Rights Watch stated, “The government…
The following is taken from an account provided to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy this week by Jamyang Dhargyal, a new arrival from Tibet. He fled Tibet for India in 1993 but returned to his homeland in 1995 determined to make Tibetans aware of international support for the Tibetan cause. He carried with him speeches of the Dalai Lama, copies of the foreign-produced…
Yulo Dawa Tsering, a 58-year-old abbot at Ganden Monastery and former teacher of Philosophy at the University of Tibet, was the first Tibetan to be arrested when the Tibetan independence movement regained vigour in 1987. He was arrested in December 1987 and sentenced for 10 years as a result of having spoken about Tibetan independence with an Italian tourist six…
During an interview with Le Monde daily newspaper in his recent visit to France, His Holiness the Dalai Lama condemned China’s cultural genocide in Tibet, although he stressed that he remained open to negotiations with Beijing without pre-conditions. His Holiness emphasised that he was not demanding Tibet’s independence, only its autonomy. The human rights situation had worsened in Tibet, said…