As reports emerged of massive protests staged by Chinese public against the government’s zero-Covid policy, sources in Tibet informed TCHRD about the discriminatory treatment and arbitrary detention of local Tibetans in the last three months in both Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) and other Tibetan areas.
Chinese authorities released a Tibetan man named Sherphel from prison after almost five years in Serthar (Ch: Seda) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
Sherphel was released last year on 25 November after serving four years and ten months in prison for taking part in a protest against Chinese rule in Serthar County in 2012. The news of Sherphel’s release took time in reaching the outside world due to security clampdown including restrictions on sharing information in Tibet. Upon his arrival home in Onsa Village in Shomar Township, he was greeted by his family members and friend Samdup who was also released the same year in August.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) is deeply concerned about the fate of two monks who remain ‘disappeared’ two months after their detention by Chinese security personnel. Lobsang Sherab and Gendun Dakpa, both monks at Thangkor Socktsang Monastery, were arbitrarily detained at Thangkor (Ch: Tangke) Town in Dzoege (Ch: Ruoergai) County, Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.
A group of Tibetan graduates staged a peaceful protest against unfair dismissals from jobs that later ended in detention in Machu (Ch: Maqu) County in Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu Province, in Tibet’s Amdo province. The protest took place at around 3:30 pm local time on 8 April 2016 in front of the county government office. About 29 graduates took part in the protest holding a banner in Tibetan and Chinese that read: “Reform public sector employment practices by blocking outside graduates!”
Local police later broke up the protest and detained the protesters at the county detention centre. At 3 am the next day on 9 April, the police officers summoned the parents of the protesters to the detention centre to warn them before releasing the protesters. Sources with contacts in Tibet reported that while in detention, the protesters has been beaten up and intimidated. Parents of the protesters were warned against storing or sharing any pictures or information related to the protest on their mobile phones failing which they would be jailed for three to four years.
A Tibetan woman has died after setting herself on fire in protest against China’s repressive policies on 27 August 2015, according to information received by TCHRD. Tashi Kyi, age 55, self-immolated on the night of 27 August 2015 and died the next day, 28 August 2015. She was from Ngulra Village in Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) County, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan…
Chinese security forces have detained at least 10 Tibetan residents of Chumey Village in Nyakla Township in Nangchen (Ch: Nangqian) County, Yulshul (Ch: Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, according to exile Tibetan sources. The arrests were made after Tibetans from the village staged a peaceful protest, calling for an equal distribution of welfare benefits provided by the government…
A Tibetan man from Khangsar township in Tawu (Ch: (Daofu) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, passed away after his peaceful solo self-immolation protest to challenge the continuous and yet intensified repression in the region and Tibet at large.
As per the information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), at around 8:00 pm on 20 May 2015, Tenzin Gyatso, 34, died after setting himself ablaze near a bridge close to a Chinese government office. Soon after his self-immolation, armed police arrived at the scene and started to beat the Tibetans who had gathered near the site and were shouting slogans, and also arrested a few of them.
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has been informed by a reliable source that Chinese paramilitary forces detained a monk for staging peaceful protest and detained another for unknown reasons in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) County in Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, in the Tibetan province of Amdo.
Losang Trinley, about 21, a monk from the local Kirti Monastery was beaten up and detained from the main road in Ngaba County shortly after about 4 pm on 26 December, after he carried a portrait of the Dalai Lama draped in Tibetan national flag on his forehead and shouted slogans such as “May the Dalai Lama live for hundreds of years” and “Tibet needs freedom”. The peaceful protest lasted for some minutes before paramilitary police arrived on the scene and took the monk away.
A Tibetan businessman has been detained incommunicado for staging a lone protest in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) County in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Sichuan Province), according to information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
Passang Wanghuk aka Ngodrug, was arrested on 4 October 2014 following his protest against the Chinese government at the main market in Kardze County.
“In front of a huge assembled crowd at the main market in Kardze [County], Passang Wangchuk staged a protest against the Chinese government at around 10.50 am Saturday, 4 October 2014,” a source told TCHRD.
Passang Wangchuk was holding a white banner, emblazoned with slogans demanding human rights, freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) presents an analysis of a secret Chinese document on Tibetans killed by Chinese security forces during the March 2008 protests in Lhasa. The document, obtained recently by TCHRD, was written in Chinese by the Lhasa Public Security Bureau (PSB) based on the autopsy reports prepared on 21 March 2008 by the medical department of Lhasa PSB.
TCHRD has obtained exclusive information that provides irrefutable evidence that Chinese security forces used disproportionate force including live ammunition and machine guns to kill Tibetans during the March 2008 protests in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The document obtained by TCHRD contains the list of the names of Tibetans killed by Chinese security forces and whose dead bodies were kept at Lhasa’s Xishan mortuary. The official document also consists of autopsy reports of four Tibetans. Li Wan Zhan (李文展) and Wang Zhi Xue (王志学), both heads of criminal and medical examination department of the Lhasa Public Security Bureau performed the autopsy.
Despite strict restriction on communication, information is coming out of Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province that Chinese paramilitary forces opened fire on unarmed Tibetan protesters on 12 August 2014. At least ten Tibetans were injured. The injured Tibetans suffered gunshot wounds to their heads and torsos. Photographs of the injuries appeared on social media sites shortly after the shooting.
The Tibetans were protesting the detention of Wangdak, 45, a widely respected village leader, the night before. Local police officers detained Wangdak at midnight from his home in Denma Shugpa Village in Loshu (Ch: Luoxu) Township in Sershul (Ch: Shiqu) County, Kardze TAP.
Wangdak had advocated for Tibetans to be allowed to observe the Denma Horse Festival. According to a reliable source with contacts in Tibet, Wangdak argued that banning the observance of the festival was a violation of the religious freedom of Tibetans because the festival was part of Tibetan cultural and religious practice. Wangdak is also the chairman of the Denma Horse Festival Committee.