Tag: tibet autonomous region

Senior Buddhist scholar Geshe Ngawang Jamyang was beaten to death in police custody less than a month after his arrest in December 2013 in Diru County.
Senior Buddhist scholar Geshe Ngawang Jamyang was beaten to death in police custody less than a month after his arrest in December 2013 in Diru County.

Latest information received by Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) demonstrates escalating violence and crackdowns including extrajudicial killing and arbitrary detentions in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), in the eastern Tibetan province of Kham.

A source with contacts in Tibet informed TCHRD that a popular and respected village headman became a victim of extrajudicial killings on 21 November on the orders of the local Communist Party authorities. Bachen Gyewa aka Ngawang Monlam, the headman of Ushung Village in Gyashoe Yangshok Township (also known as Sentsa Township) in Diru County was removed from his post, arrested and then killed on the orders of the secretary of the Diru County Party Committee.

The exact circumstances of his death remain unclear but it appears that Bachen Gyewa posed a formidable challenge to the Chinese government’s ongoing ‘stability maintenance’ measures that have been implemented since late 2011.[i] It did not help either that the late village headman was a former monk at the local Pekar Monastery which has witnessed sporadic yet intense demonstration against new religious measures implemented by the Chinese government.

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Zhou Yongkang, China's former security czar used the prevailing anti-terror mood or 'war on terror' to engage in widespread and systematic abuse of human rights in Tibet [Photo: siweiluozi.net]
Zhou Yongkang, China’s former security czar used the prevailing anti-terror mood or ‘war on terror’ to engage in widespread and systematic abuse of human rights in Tibet
[Photo: siweiluozi.net]
As part of Chinese president Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign, investigators are being sent to the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) for disciplinary purposes. They will investigate not only official corruption, the focus of the campaign, but also officials who do not follow the central government’s policy of systematically violating human rights in Tibet. Since Xi Jinping was appointed President of the PRC, he has paired reform and repression. The repression has often been disproportionately harsher and longer lasting than the promised reforms, especially in Tibetan areas. The anti-corruption campaign is not an exception to this rule. However, if the goal of the anti-corruption campaign is to address the causes of social unrest, it is doomed to fail unless the government stops supporting the wanton violation of human rights in Tibet.

On Monday, discipline investigators were sent into the Tibet Autonomous Region [1] to investigate corruption. This is part of an escalation and expansion of the crackdown on systemic corruption within the Chinese Communist Party. After months of speculation [2], the PRC officially began [3] investigating Zhou Yongkang for corruption. Zhou Yongkang is a former member of the standing committee and the highest-ranking official to be openly investigated for a criminal offense since the Cultural Revolution. [4] Earlier this summer, the investigation of two executives of a State owned oil company [5]was also announced.

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Title page of the temporary regulation passed by Diru County government
Title page of the temporary regulation passed by Diru County government

The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) recently published an update on the escalating repression in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), in the Tibetan province of Kham.[i] The report quoted a source within Tibet who said that in addition to the continuing arrest and disappearance of Tibetans in Diru County for protesting Chinese policies including against mining activities, local government had issued a temporary regulation prohibiting “freedom of movement, speech and religion.”

The report mentioned that failure to abide by these regulations would result in severe punishments for the Tibetans, such as “dismissal from the monastery, cancellation of welfare provisions, and prohibiting the harvesting of the prized caterpillar fungus.” TCHRD has received scanned copies of the Tibetan version of the regulation. Due to the difficulty and risk involved in getting the regulation out of Tibet, TCHRD’s source was unable to scan the complete regulation.

The original regulation includes 4 chapters and 26 articles mainly focusing on the cracking down on separatism, the “Dalai clique”, putting restrictions on participation in religious gathering such as the Kalachakra Empowerment given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in July 2014 in Ladakh in northern India. The regulation is referred to as “Information Handbook for the Enforcement of Two Separate Regulations issued by Diru County People’s Government” (Tib: diru mimang sizhung gi tenbep khag nyi kyi dril drak lad deb). According to the document, the regulation was passed in June 2014. Its subtitle encapsulates the essence of the regulation: “A temporary regulation on the illegal activities by participating, on one’s own [initiative], in the ‘Great Prayer Festivals’, through crossing the national boundaries, creating and spreading rumors in the public, propagating harmful information, traveling to areas outside of your own locality to [engage in religious] study.”

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Kundak
Kundak

Chinese authorities have detained 17 known Tibetans in separate incidents following the outbreak of popular protests against China’s ‘mass-line’ campaigns in Diru (Ch: Biru) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

According to information received by TCHRD, on the night of 3 November 2013, local authorities arbitrarily detained 15 Tibetans at Tengkhar Village in Shamchu Township in Diru County. Among them, three were women, who were identified as Sarkyi, 49, Tsophen, 47, and Yangkyi, 25. Sarkyi is the mother of two sons: Lamsang 24, and Tsewang Lhakyap, 19, both of whom were also detained. Others detained in Tengkhar village are Tsering, 22, Tsering Phuntsok, 21, Tador (perhaps a shortened form of Tashi Dorjee), 21, Kundak, 17, Gabug, 41, Tsering Tenpa, 22, Thupchen, 27, Soeta, 25, Tsering Jangchup, 21, and Jigme Phuntsok, 23.

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In a Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) Communist Party meeting, held on the afternoon of 30 October, the Chinese government approved to carry out law-abiding patriotic re-education principles including a “model monastery,” according to the official chinatibetnews.com report on 1 November 2011. This is a new strategy to further intensify the control over Tibetan monasteries and nunneries in Lhasa.

The principles also include an annual “contest” among the various monasteries and nunneries in TAR. Additionally, all monasteries and nunneries shall not engage in creating social disturbances and should oppose strongly against the Dalai cliques. Monks and nuns should not participate in any ‘separatist acts’. There shall be a half-yearly assessment carried out in all monasteries and nunneries, and an annual award is promised to be given to the one that best obeys all the rules set by the Chinese government. That ‘winner’ shall be labeled the ‘Model Monastery,’ whose students (monks/nuns) will be given certificates and monetary rewards. This ‘Model Monastery’ will be set as an example for the other monasteries and nunneries which shall further strive to become one, states the principle.

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On 25 August 2011, China replaced Zhang Qingli, the region’s highest ranking official, the Party Secretary of TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region). The CPC Central Committee announced the appointment of Chen Quanguo in the seat of Tibet’s hard-line party boss Zhang. Zhang Qingli, Chen Quanguo’s predecessor, will be moved to another position, said the official Xinhua News Agency, neither mentioning the reason for this move nor about the new position given to Zhang.

Zhang Qingli was in the position since May 2006 for a period of over five years. During his tenure Tibet faced aggressive policies and harsh clampdowns. The 2008 rioting that broke out all over Tibet became the most severe and biggest uprising in decades. The 60 years old Zhang is known for his repressive ideologies that often reflected in his management of issues related to Tibet. He also expressed harsh reference to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, calling the exiled Buddhist leader a “wolf in monk’s robe” and his supporters “Dalai clique”, hurting the sentiments of Tibetans on many occasions.

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A new “Re-education-through-Labour” (Ch:laojiao) camp has been established in Senge Township, Ngari County, Tibet Autonomous Region (“TAR”). The camp which will accommodate about two hundred inmates became functional in July 2004 when the construction work was completed.

According to Tibet Daily on 21 July 2004, “The “Re-education-through-Labour” camp located on the Fren Xin Highway on the 4300 Meter high Senge Township in Ngari County has now become functional. The Development Department invested eight million Yuan in building the new camp. The camp can hold two hundred inmates and is 40 thousand square feet in size. The 1760 Km distance between Lhasa City and Ngari is very long and is not secure in transporting people to the “Re-education-through-Labour” camp. The Tibet Autonomous Region (“TAR”) Law Enforcement Department, in an attempt to establish social stability in Ngari Prefecture and to improve the economic status of the Tibetans, have communicated to the concerned national department and in June 2003, the State Development Authority sanctioned eight million Yuan and work formally began on the “Re-education-through-Labour” camp in Ngari region. The newly established “Re-education-through-Labour” Camp will bring social stability in Ngari Prefecture.”

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In a white paper published by the central Chinese government on February 24, 1998, entitled “New progress in human rights in the Tibet Autonomous Region”, China has exerted considerable effort in providing the claim that Chinese ‘Democratic Reforms’ have led to vast improvements in almost all areas of Tibetan society. The dominant theme of the White paper is the “liberation”…

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