(Tibet was included under China and following paragraphs are extracts that made direct reference to events in Tibet. The report covers for the year 1994 only. TS)

Repression of dissent [by the Chinese authoritiest] continued in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) as a new security measures were taken to prevent nationalist demonstrations. On 10 May the authorities in Lhasa, capital of the TAR, declared a one-month period of heightened security measures before a series of anniversaries, including Tibetan religious festivals, in late May. By October at least 50 Tibetans, mostly monks and nuns, were reported to have been arrested, and many others beaten by armed police, following a series of peaceful pro-independence demonstrations in the TAR.

Demonstrators were arrested on 27 May in Lhasa during a peaceful protest by up to 200 Tibetan shopkeepers against official tax assessments. According to eyewitness accounts, 17 shopkeepers were kicked and beaten with rifle butts by armed police. They were reportedly released after officials at Gutsa Detention Centre refused to admit them because they were bleeding from head wounds. On the same night a number of suspected political activists, regarded as possible instigators of further protests. were rounded up from their homes.

Tibetan monks and nuns, who make op the majority of political prisoners in the TAR, were reported to have received heavy sentences for their pro-independence activities. In July, five Tibetan monks were sentenced to between 12 and 15 years imprisonment for counterrevolutionary sabotage". They had allegedly broken the name-plate on a government building and pasted up pro-independence slogans in eastern Tibet in March. The sentences were announced by a court in Pakshoe county, Chamdo Prefecture, at a show trial attended by several thousand local inhabitants, end broadcast on Tibetan television.

It was also reported during the year that 14 nuns imprisoned in Drapchi Prison, Lhasa, had their sentences in-creased in October 1993 by up to nine years for composing and recording pro-independence slogans in prison. One of them, Phuntsog Nyidron had her sentence extended to 17 years imprisonment. The nuns had reportedly been arrested between 1989 and 1992 for taking part in pro-independence demonstrations.

Some prisoners of conscience ware released during 1994, two Tibetan human rights monitors, Gendun Rinchen and Lobsang Yanten, who ware arrested in May 1993 (see Amnesty' International Re-port 1994), were released in January. Phuntsog Yangkyi, a Tibetan nun and prisoner if conscience, reportedly died in a police hospital in Lhasa in June, allegedly as a result of ill-treatment, She was one of several nuns beaten at Drapchi Prison in February' after singing nationalist songs. No independent investigation was conducted into her case or those of other prisoners alleged to have been tortured or ill-treated in detention.

Amnesty International continued to urge the authorities to release all prisoners of conscience, ensure fair and prompt trials for other political prisoners, investigate torture allegations and safeguard prisoners from ill-treatment. It also urged the authorities to commute all death sentences, the government did not respond.