One of the 32 detainees is a doctor, Jampa Ngodrup, who is serving 13 years for writing down the names of Tibetans shot by police during a demonstration in 1988. Another is a 72 year old Drepung monk named Lobsang Tsondru, who is serving 6 years for 'failure to reform', while Tsering Ngodrup, a 57 year old restaurant owner, is serving 12 years for 'encouraging reactionary singing' during a 1988 protest. Amongst the four women considered in the decision is a school teacher, Dawa Drolma, who was serving five years for writing a 'counter revolutionary song' on the classroom blackboard. The Chinese Government had earlier refuted the allegations, telling the Working Group that when the detentions had taken place 'the situation was bordering on insurrection' an admission never made elsewhere by Beijing. The remark referred to three days of unrest in March 1989 during which police shot dead an estimated 100 or more demonstrators in Lhasa. The Chinese Government is taking steps to avert further criticism by inviting

certain UN human rights officials to China, and allowed the Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to visit last month. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Jos Ayala Lasso, announced on 16th November that he would visit China in early 1995. He is likely to be under pressure from human rights groups to insist on other UN human rights experts being allowed to accompany him. In its 1993 report the Working Group denounced China's system of 'reform- through-education' imprisonment for up to 4.5 years without trial as a form of arbitrary detention, but the governments in the UN Commission on Human Rights decided not to pass a resolution supporting the indictment". (EuroTibet News N·8)