Published by: World Tibet Network News, Friday, July 12, 1996

Submitted to WTN News by Bhuchung K. Tsering, ICT

The Human Rights Watch/Asia, came out with a new report on China today (July 10, 1996) titled China: The Cost of Putting Business First. Following is the Tibet section of the report.

CRACKDOWN IN TIBET, MAY 1996

Repression in Tibet, which has steadily increased since July 1994, escalated significantly in May 1996. Even before May, the number of political arrests in Tibet had reached a new high; torture of detainees continued to be systematic; control over monasteries and nunneries had tightened; and security had been increased in an effort to prevent exchanges between the Tibetan community in India and those residing in Tibet. A struggle between Beijing and the Dalai Lama over the selection of the Panchen Lama, the second most important religious leader in Tibet, had led in July 1995 to several detentions, including that of the six-year-old child recognized by the Dalai Lama as the Panchen Lama's reincarnation. In February 1996, the Chinese government issued a directive to close politically active monasteries and ordered the replacement of all monastery leaders by those certified by Chinese officials as "patriotic." On April 5, it issued a new directive banning photographs of the Dalai Lama in monasteries. By the en

d of April, it was clear that the ban would be extended beyond monasteries, and small groups of officials began visiting hotels, restaurants and shops to enforce the prohibition. In May as the "strike hard" campaign reached Tibet and the government intensified efforts to discredit the Dalai Lama, violence erupted at Ganden, one of the three main monasteries in Lhasa.

Fighting broke out at Ganden on May 6, 1996 after a "work team" (gongzuo dui) composed of Party cadres ordered the immediate removal of the Dalai Lama's photograph in compliance with the ban on his picture in all Buddhist temples. When Chinese officials refused to talk with a group of young monks complaining about the restriction, the monks began to dance and sing in the monastery courtyard and then to throw stones. During a five-minute bursts of violence at least one official was badly beaten. (Later reports indicated that two officials had to be hospitalized.) Older monks intervened, gave the official first aid, ordered the evacuation of all children from local villages who studied at the monastery, and told the one tourist who had witnessed the scene to leave immediately.

That evening, ten truckloads of troops approached the monastery but stopped short of the buildings while troops took up positions in the surrounding mountains and began firing randomly. The following morning, on May 7, soldiers fired warning shots before entering the monastery and arresting at least 66 monks. During the incident, three monks were shot and wounded, one seriously. Another, Kelsang Nyendrak, forty years old, reportedly died several days after the incident from a bullet wound at the base of his spine, while a teacher at the monastery, beaten by the police at the base of his skull, reportedly sustained life-threatening neurological damage. On May 10, some 25 more monks were arrested. All those detained, including 13-year-old Gelek Jinpa, were being held in Gutsa Detention Center in Lhasa as of mid-June. In total, as many as 90 monks may have been arrested and the search for hundreds more was underway in June. Chinese authorities offered a reward of 5,000 renminbi (US$ 600) for information about t

hose in hiding and closed the monastery, which houses between 500 and 700 monks, for "consolidation and rectification." On May 22, Chinese officials reported that it would be closed for at least two to three months. The announcement said, "The work team is now educating the monks in the monastery. These lamas are young, they come from remote areas and are less educated, so the work team must teach them." However, one report suggested that only some fifty monks, the very old and the sick, remained in residence at Ganden, the rest having made good their threat to leave en masse if the ban on displaying photographs of the Dalai Lama was enforced.

Monks at other monasteries and temples followed the example of those at Ganden. When Communist Party officials arrived at Sera monastery on May 12 to try to enforce the ban on photographs, the monks there threatened a walkout and closed the gates of the monastery in protest. Monks at Drepung monastery followed suit as did those at the temple of Ramoche. Monks at Jokhang, Tibet's main temple, staged a one-day sympathy shutdown on May 13. By May 18 Sera had reopened. It was unclear as of late June whether Ramoche and Drepung remained closed.

On May 21, Tibetan authorities warned in an editorial in the official Tibet Daily that they planned to use the new "strike hard" anti-crime campaign to "relentlessly pursue" political dissidents and supporters of the Dalai Lama. On the same day, Tibetan newspapers published an ultimatum issued by the Public Security Bureau and the Tibetan courts that all pro-independence activists and criminals turn themselves in by June 30. The same warning went out on Tibetan radio the following day. Exemption from punishment or a reduction of sentence, the announcement made clear, was contingent on "expos(ing) the crime of other law offenders with good results. On May 25, the Tibet Daily reported that a session of the regional People's Congress in Lhasa had concluded "Everyone in the region must understand clearly that the struggle against the Dalai Lama group is a long-term, bitter, complex, 'you die - I live' political battle with no possibility of compromise."

In mid-1996, China officials were still justifying the government's interference in the choice of the Panchen Lama, the most important Buddhist monk resident in Tibet, and its May 1995 detention of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the then-six-year-old-boy whom the Dalai Lama had recognized as the reincarnation the tenth Panchen Lama. After a year of denials, China's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva finally admitted on May 28, 1996 that Gendun Choekyi Nyima "has been put under the protection of the government at the request of his parents." He did not say where the child was being held, but claimed he was in good condition and that his parents were with him. According to Xinhua; "the boy was at risk of being kidnapped by Tibetan separatists and his security has been threatened."

Chadrel Rinpoche, the abbot who led the official search for the new Panchen Lama, also was detained in May 1995 and reportedly physically abused, in part for his alleged consultations with the exiled Dalai Lama. In May 1996, the Chinese government, still trying to discredit him, removed him from his post on a regional committee. In July 1995, when Chinese religious authorities attempted to coerce the monks at Tashilhunpo monastery, the Panchen Lama's traditional seat, into accepting the government's choice for the lama, the monks protested en masse. At least 32 monks were arrested; many were severely tortured. Twenty-one were released in October. In November, eight monks were sentenced to terms ranging from between six months and two and half years in prison Arrests and rearrests in connection with the Panchen Lama dispute continued into January 1996 when nine monks from Palgon Chorten were arrested in the Gyangtse district. They allegedly had bought and burned pictures of the child the Chinese government ha

d determined was the legitimate reincarnation.

The Chinese government has tried to prevent news of disturbances in Tibet from reaching the outside world. On July 4, 1995, a tourist leaving Tibet was stopped at the airport and strip searched. Fifty rolls of film, her diary, and tapes and letters, one containing court documents, were confiscated. Two similar searches had been reported earlier; none were random. The tourists involved all could speak Tibetan or had close connections with Tibetans. On September 2, 1995, the Chinese government accused a New Zealand mountain climber who faxed his wife that he had heard a bomb explode near the Lhasa Holiday Inn, of attempting to "subvert the government, split the country and overthrow the socialist system." The incident was cited as showing that "distorting facts and spreading rumors to confuse people and jeopardize our state security are customary tactics used by Western anti-China forces." Police, some armed, woke the mountaineer around midnight on September 2, refused him permission to notify anyone of his ar

rest and took him to State security facilities in northern Lhasa. After giving a "written statement of repentance," he was made to refax his wife and retract his earlier story. After a week in detention, he was expelled.

Following the violence at Ganden, checkpoints were set up in Lhasa. On May 6, police rounded up tourists at the Snowlands Hotel in an attempt to identify the one foreigner who witnessed and photographed the incident. In the belief that the witness was French, police gave French tourists a particularly hard time. One Frenchman was briefly detained at a mobile checkpoint five days after the incident and released only after proving he had not even been in Tibet on May 6.

Appendix B: Monks detained from Ganden Monastery after the May 6, 1996 protest

Religious name (lay name) age

Yeshe Rabten (Sangye Tseten) 25

Gyatso Rinchen (Lobsang Choegyal) 15

Thubten Ngawang (Ngawang Kelsang) 23

Jampa Tsultrim (Gyurme Tenzin) 25

Tenzin Khedrup (Tashi Dorje) 44

Tenzin Norbu (Yonten Gyalpo) 25

Dragpa Kunsang (Karil) 41

Ngawang Joglang (Thubten Nyima) 25

Lobsang Tenzin (Dawa Tenzin) 37

Phuntsog Dondrup (Tsering Bagdro) 32

Jampa Thamdoe (Gyatso) 26

Lobsang Pelgye (Dondrup Kelsang) 25

Lobsang Khetsun (Lobsang Dawa) 22

Phuntsog Rabjor (Tsering Thubten) 16

Khedrup Tenzin (Lobsang Dawa) 22

Gelek Jinpa (Tenzin Dawa) 14

Phuntsog Serthub (Tashi Lhundrup) 23

(Buyak) 19

Phuntsog Thosam (Tsering Bagdro) 32

Ngawang Palden (Dawa) 27

(Tamdrin) 22

Khedrup Gelek (Jamyang Dondrup) 42

Ngawang Donden (Phuntsok Yonten) 21

Lobsang Tenpa (Lodroe) 19

(Pasang) 20

Ngawang Konchog (Dragpa Tenzin) 19

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