Published by Tibet News Digest - December 1995

International Human Rights Day, December 10, was observed around the world by groups protesting China's actions in Tibet. Tibet Information Network has recorded over 218 political arrests in Tibet in 1995 (compared to 98 in 1994), including people briefly detained and later released. The increase is related to the arrest of monks over the Panchen Lama selection process and the Chinese crackdown on monasteries and nunneries in Tibet. The Tibetan exile government reports that 1995 also saw the deaths of four political prisoners of conscience dying as a result of ill treatment and torture in Chinese police custody. In a major crackdown this year against the independence movement, many monasteries and nunneries were raided, resulting in the expulsion of more than 88 monks and nuns in a series of three raids in the early half of the year. This year diplomatic sources in Nepal admitted that by mid June at least 200 Tibetans were known to have been deported by Nepalese police and handed over to Chinese border guard

s, despite protests by the U.S., Australia and the UNHCR in Nepal.