Over 100 Tibetans detained or disappeared, some badly beaten, following protest in January 2012 Press release/ENG

2012. március 7./FreeTibet/TibetPress

Over 100 Tibetans from Drango County, Kandze Autonomous Prefecture, Eastern Tibet (1) have been detained (2) or disappeared following a protest there in January. On 23 January 2012, two Tibetans were shot dead and 34 others shot and wounded when Chinese state security forces opened fire on protesters in Drango– the largest number of Tibetans shot by state actors in a single incident since 2008 (3).
 
County Government officials announced after the protest that everyone involved would be arrested, one by one. State security forces have been using surveillance footage from cameras in Drango to identify people. Locals say that people have been leaving Drango in large numbers, some fleeing to the mountains. Chinese state officials have been making door-to-door inquiries.
 
Eyewitnesses describe several instances when state security personnel have used excessive force while detaining Tibetans suspected of being involved in the protest. Tsering Gyaltsen, one of the monks from Drango monastery, was badly beaten when he was detained. Torture in Tibet is widespread and routine and so Free Tibet has grave concerns for the wellbeing of those detained.
 
At least four senior monastic officials are in detention in Chengdu, Sichuan Province (4). These monks were not actually involved in the protest. Free Tibet believes that their detentions are intended to put pressure on the community. Educated Tibetans, senior monks, cultural figures and former political prisoners are often detained as a way of preventing them from further influencing the people or ‘inciting unrest’; they may be framed as instigators of unrest. One of the lay people who have been detained is a village leader and his detention is seen as punishment for not being able to ‘control’ his people.
 
A patriotic re-education campaign (5) was launched by Drango County Religious Affairs Office and the county United Front after the protest. Between 10 and 20 Chinese state officials are staying in Drango Monastery. A re-education campaign has also been launched in nearby villages and amongst the local people.
 
State actors open fire on a house containing up to nine children, killing two men
 
According to an eyewitness, the manhunt following January’s protest led to Chinese security personnel opening fire on a house containing a Tibetan family of 14 (6). Two of the men of the family were killed and five others were injured, including children and women, one of whom is in her 70s, on 9 February 2012 (7).
 
Yeshi Rigsel, a monk from Drango monastery, was at the protest on 23 January and took photographs. Given restrictions on communication in Tibet, taking photographs may be viewed as a political act and this may be why Yeshi Rigsel was targeted by security forces.
 
An eyewitness reported that three units of Chinese state security forces approached Yeshi Rigsel’s family home in Norpa village very early on the morning of 9 February. A family member came out of the house and, having seen the state security forces, ran back inside, closing and locking the door. The family hid four children in a corner of the house. Security personnel forced entry and there was a struggle inside the house.  
 
The security personnel reportedly then withdrew from the house, which was by then surrounded on all sides by security forces who opened fired on the house – those inside described it as being “like rainfall”.
 
Yeshi Rigsel and Yeshi Samdup were shot dead and their brother Yonten Sangpo was shot in the neck; their mother was shot in the left hand. Three of Yonten’s daughters and his two nieces were also injured. A state security person who was a Tibetan national was also killed.
 
After the shooting, the security personnel re-entered the house and ransacked it, taking 6,200RMB (8) and valuables from the house.
 
An eyewitness said: “I saw Yeshi Rigsel and Yeshi Samdup’s bodies with rope around their necks being dragged away.”
 
A number of witnesses reported seeing Yonten Sangpo, the third brother, being taken out of the house and badly beaten. They saw seven Tibetans (9) being taken to the county police office and reported that Yonten was bleeding heavily from the mouth.
 
Local people went to the police office and appealed for the release of the injured family members so that they could receive medical treatment, and for the bodies of Yeshi Rigsel and Yeshi Samdup to be returned to the family. The brothers’ mother had to have her left hand amputated because of the delay in receiving medical attention. She, Yonten Sangpo’s three daughters and the two nieces are in Kardze County hospital; we do not know if they are free to leave.[P1]  
 
  Free Tibet Director Stephanie Brigden commented:
“Chinese efforts to punish and deter protests are so vigorous that state security forces have opened fire on, injured and arbitrarily arrested Tibetans, including the elderly, women, children and senior monks. Those responsible must be held accountable.
“Until China allows independent observers and the international media into Tibet, we will never truly know the full details of events and their repercussions.”
 
Ends
Notes to Editors
1) Chinese: Luhuo, Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The Tibetan name Drango is also spelled Draggo.
2) For photographs of some of those detained see: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/photgraphs-of-Drango-detainees-March2012  
The following are being detained in Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Lobsang Tenzin, 40, from Gochen monastery. Lobsang Tenzin is a tulku which is a reincarnate being, often a high ranking lama.  As well as religious leadership, many tulkus exercise social and political leadership within their communities.
“Geshi” Tsewang Namgyal, 42, from Drango monastery, an academic/teacher (Geshi) in the monastery;
Thinley, 42, manages monastic business at Drango monastery;
Dralha or Tashi Thupgyal, 31, Drango monastic accountant.
 
The following are in a detention centre Drango County
Tsering Gyaltsen, 40, monk from Drango Monastery;
Shoonu, 43, monk from Drango Monastery, educated in India.        
Lay people
Norpa Yonten Sangpo, 32;
Norpa Shergyam, 53, Norpa Nomadic Village leader;                         
Gyaltsen, 32, farmer;                            
Norpa Phaldor, 35, nomad;
Norpa Gyalkyap, 27, nomad;                     
Norpa  Kyingdor, 23.
 
3)
i) http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/Tibetans-shot-one-dead-many-injured-in-Draggo
ii) http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/two-killed-and-more-wounded-confirmed-draggo
 
4) Tulku  Lobsang Tenzin, 40, from Gochen monastery. A tulku is a reincarnate being, often a high ranking lama; as well as religious leadership, many tulkus exercise social and political leadership within their communities.
Geshi Tsewang Namgyal, 42, from Drango monastery, an academic/teacher in the monastery;
Thinley, 42, manages monastic business at Drango monastery;
Dralha or Tashi Thupgyal, 31, Drango monastic accountant.
 
5) Patriotic re-education is a government-run campaign that aims to change the fundamental elements of belief. In this compulsory programme, Tibetan Buddhists are forced to denounce their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama who they hold as sacred, and to place the state before their religion.
 
6) Yeshi Rigsel, Yeshi Samdup, his wife Namdon and their four children; a third brother, Yonten Sangpo, and his three daughters; the brothers’ 70-year-old mother Ama Sang Lha and two of Yonten’s nieces, one of whom is 14, one younger.
 
7) http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/two-tibetans-shot-following-protest-drango
 
8) 6200 RMB is enough money to buy basic food for a nomadic family for three months.
 
9) Yonten, Yonten’s mother Ama Sang Lha, Yonten’s three daughters and the two nieces.