Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Jun 2, 1996

From: TIN News Update / 31 May, 1996 / total no of pages: 1

Tibetans in Shigatse Sentenced to Up to 5 Years

Five Tibetans in Shigatse, Tibet's second city, have received sentences of up to five years in prison for calling for Tibetan independence, according to Tibet TV, the first official admission of a political trial in Tibet for nearly two years. The sentences were announced at a rally in a local sports stadium at which eight other people received the death sentence for murder or theft.

Four of the Tibetans sentenced to five years or less for political activity were named as Tsering Lhamo, Ngawang Kelsang, Buchung, Damchoe and Nyima Dondrup or Pema Dondrup. The announcement, broadcast on 27th May, referred to a sixth person but gave no name.

Tsering Lhamo, who was listed first and so probably received a five year sentence, is a woman, and the others are most likely to be men. No information was given about the prisoners except that they were "counter- revolutionaries who called and incited for Tibetan independence".

Six Tibetans described as "premeditated murderers" were sentenced to death at the same rally, and can be assumed to have been executed a few hours later. Their names were given in Chinese but are believed to have been Tenzin, Dondrup, Wangchug, Nyima Gyalpo (or Pema Gyalpo), Dundul and Lobsang Dondrup, all of whom are men. Two others named as Peng Xiangdong and Bao Zita, who could be either Chinese or Tibetan, were sentenced to death for theft. Three other prisoners were given suspended death sentences and two received life sentences for murder or theft.

The sentences were announced by the Shigatse Intermediate People's Court at a "verdict announcement rally" held "recently" at the sports stadium in the town in order "to deal a hard blow to various criminal elements, protect the people's lives and property, and genuinely maintain social stability", according to the announcement, which was monitored by the BBC.

The announcement of the executions confirms that the campaign against crime, launched in Lhasa on 9th May, is being conducted throughout Tibet, as well as in China. Similar mass sentencing rallies are known to have been held in the Tibetan capital on 10th and 21st May, and there are unconfirmed reports that three Tibetans were executed for drug-trafficking or arms-dealing after the first rally in Lhasa, which involved 21 prisoners.

Bai Zhao, head of the Tibet Higher People's Court, told a news conference a few hours after the 10th May sentencing rally that the death sentence should be applied "resolutely" by the courts, and called on people to expose criminals so they become "like rats running across the street with nowhere to hide", according to the Tibet Daily the following day.

The Shigatse announcement, which listed the six activists before the cases of murder and theft even though the activists' sentences were much lighter, supports earlier indications that political dissidents is the primary target for the anti-crime campaign in Tibet. Unlike recent propaganda from Lhasa, the statement from Shigatse did not accuse the activists of acts of violence.

The last political trial to have been publicised by the authorities in Tibet was in July 1994 when five Tibetans in Chamdo, eastern Tibet, received sentences of between 12 and 15 years for putting up pro-independence posters.

Most trials are known only from unofficial reports and often emerge over a year after the event. In one case which has only recently come to light four nuns from Retso nunnery in Nyemo county, 150 km west of Lhasa, were arrested in the Tibetan capital when they tried to stage a pro-independence demonstration on 14th February last year. The four women, believed to be named Tsering Choezom, Tseten Drolkar, Sanggyur Choedon, and Dekyi Yangzom received four year sentences. [end]