From: TIN News Update / 18 February, 1996/ ISSN 1355-3313

A Chinese driver was killed when a group of Tibetan prisoners escaped while being transferred between prisons last month, according to unofficial reports from Tibetans arriving in India. A second group of political prisoners also escaped from police vehicles last month and have since fled to India.

Four of the escapees had been arrested for protesting against China's appointment of a new Panchen Lama, the first detailed reports of such arrests since a six year old child was enthroned with official approval last December. The ceremony caused controversy because it contradicted the Dalai Lama's recognition last May of another boy as the correct reincarnation.

The killing took place on or just after 22nd January on the road between the Tibetan capital Lhasa and the town of Powo Tramo, about 500 km to the east, the site of Tibet's No.2 prison, just beyond the area of south eastern Tibet known traditionally as Kongpo but called Linzhi by the Chinese.

The group of ten Tibetan prisoners was being transferred by truck from various prisons in Lhasa when they staged the escape. The prisoners, who included a former soldier convicted of helping refugees escape to India, threw chilli powder in the eyes of the two armed Chinese guards who were with the prisoners in the back of the truck and then fought with the Chinese driver, who was also armed. The driver was killed, apparently when the truck crashed off the road and into a river, where he drowned. It is not clear if his death was an accident or a deliberate killing by the prisoners.

Four of the ten escapees had been arrested for campaigning or speaking against the disputed Chinese appointment of a child as the Panchen Lama, the second highest lama in the main school of Tibetan Buddhism. In December 1995 Lobsang Gawa, age 52, and Tenzin Yeshe, age 34, both monks from Toelung Tsome, 40 km north-west of Lhasa, had put up a poster in their village about the Panchen Lama dispute. They were being taken to Kongpo to serve 3 year prison sentences for putting up the posters, according to their claims, which are so far unconfirmed.

Two other monks, 50 year old Kalsang Wangdu and 29 year old Jampa Damdrul from Lhokha Trandrug, say they had been arrested in Lhokha in early January for criticising the authenticity of the Chinese-approved Panchen Lama, according to people who spoke with them after their escape.

All four claim to have served earlier sentences, apparently for involvement in political protests, in the late 1980s, but it is unclear why these detainees were being sent to Kongpo instead of being kept in prison in Lhasa, where most political offenders are held.

Three of the other escapees were already serving long sentences in Lhasa prisons but were being transferred to Kongpo, apparently to prevent them spreading dissident ideas amongst Lhasa prisoners, after they had been discovered sending political messages or letters from within the prisons.

Karma Thrinley, age 61, from Mindroling monastery in Lhokha, says he had been serving a ten year sentence in Drapchi prison in Lhasa, apparently for taking part in a demonstration in 1987, when the prison authorities intercepted a letter written by him last October which had included a poem calling for Tibetan independence.

Yeshe Donden, age 64, and Tenzin Lhundrup, age 39, both from Amdo, had smuggled an account of their time in custody out of the prison, but were informed on. Yeshe Donden had been imprisoned in Sangyip prison in Lhasa after taking part in a demonstration in March 1993, and met Tenzin Lhundrup in the prison.

Another of the escapees, Wangdu, was a former soldier who had been stationed on the border between Tibet and Sikkim. He was caught after some monk's robes were found in his room and was convicted in about 1992 of helping Tibetan refugees escape to India. He was due to serve a further three years in Kongpo.

The two other escapees were being transferred from Lhasa prisons for unknown reasons. Rabten Phuntsog, age 47, from Lhokha, served six years in Drapchi prison for an unknown offence, and Lobsang Choedon, age 22, also from Lhokha, had served 3 years in Seitru prison and 3 years in Drapchi. Both were being due to serve 4 more years in Kongpo.

The death of the Chinese driver comes as reports of violence in Tibet increase, with a bomb being set off at the house of a Tibetan lama regarded as a pro-Chinese sympathiser on 18th January, according to many sources in the city. One person is reported to have been seriously injured in the explosion.

On about 6th January another group of Tibetans, all of them held for political offences, escaped while being transferred to a prison in Lhasa. Four of the seven escapees had been detained for staging a demonstration in Nagchu, 320 km north of Lhasa, and the other three prisoners, whose offences are not known, were monks from Nalandra Monastery, from where over 30 monks were arrested after a protest a year ago. The seven are believed to have since escaped to India.