By TIN News Update /18 September, 1996

Arrests during a re-education drive in Tibetan monasteries climbed to 13 as monks at a major monastery in Lhasa issued a statement saying they are refusing to comply with official demands. Propaganda teams have carried out daily re-education sessions for over two months to try to get the monks to denounce the pro-independence movement and its leader, the Dalai Lama, and to accept that Tibet is part of China.

The four page statement, received in London today, was written in late August by an unknown group of monks at Sera monastery, 3 km north of Lhasa. It says that the monks have not yielded to pressure from the team of 70 propaganda officials in the monastery, who since 17th June have been trying to educate the 400 or more monks there in "patriotism".

"We, the monks of Sera, are keeping to our commitment and are united", says the statement. "We are therefore sending our greetings to you", it concludes, apparently addressing the outside world.

The handwritten declaration, which took nearly a month to smuggle out of Tibet to the outside world, is in line with reports by travellers that Sera monks have so far rejected demands to condemn the Dalai Lama.

The re-education campaign at Sera, officially known as a patriotic education study session or "Loving the Motherland and Loving Religion", is due to finish there this week, when monks who still refuse to accept a five point declaration of oppostion to the pro-independence movement are expected to be refused permission to remain at the monastery.

"The number of the monks in the monastery is going to be fixed and we believe that most of the monks are going to be turned down," says the monks' statement.

Similar three-month re-education campaigns are going on at monasteries throughout the Tibet region, but the one at Sera will be the first to conclude.

The number of people arrested at Sera since the re-education campaign began has now risen to ten, according to reports from various sources in Tibet. The Sera monks' statement confirms the names of seven of the detainees, of whom three are already known: Ngawang Oeser, arrested on 28th June for writing a pro-independence leaflet; Norbu, also known as Lobsang Sherab, arrested on 30th June on suspicion of involvement in producing the leaflet; and Kelsang, also known as Kelsang Phuntsog or Lobsang, a wood-block printer at the monastery, arrested on 9th July for printing a similar document. Kelsang had been released from a previous three year sentence for a similar offence the previous year.

A second printer, named Bu-zhon, is now reported to have been arrested on the same night as Kelsang, apparently for a related offence, along with two laywomen living near the monastery. The names of the women are not known.

At about 11.15pm on 15th August four more monks were arrested from Sera: Lobsang Nyima, the kunyer or caretaker-monk of the Tamdrin chapel at Sera; Tashi Peltar, the kunyer at Sera Mey college in the monastery; a student monk called Bu Tsering and a monk named Lobsang Samten.

The four arrests on 15th August took place "at the time that the photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama was being taken down", according to the Sera monks' statement, without giving further explanation. The Chinese authorities announced on 4th April this year a ban on the display of photographs of the exiled Tibetan leader, and earlier attempts to enforce the prohibition have led to conflict, notably at Ganden monastery 40 km east of Lhasa where at least one monk died after police opened fire on monks on 6th May to punish monks for a brief protest.

THREE DREPUNG ARRESTS -

Three monks are now known to have been arrested at Drepung monastery, where the re-education campaign began in early August, six weeks after the beginning of the Sera campaign.

Yeshe Changchub was detained from the monastery on 20th August, and Ngawang Choegyal, whose layname is Gyatso, was detained on 30th August. Both monks are about 23 years old.

The reasons for the arrests are unclear, with some reports saying the monks had refused to denounce the Dalai Lama, while others say one of them had been discovered arranging for food from the monastery to be passed secretly to political prisoners in a nearby jail.

A third monk, Jampel Wangchug, was arrested at around the same time, probably because he had recently returned from an unapproved trip to India.

Monks at Drepung face the same restrictions as their counterparts at Sera, according to a set of regulations issued to each Drepung monk, a copy of which was obtained today. The Drepung rules order the monks to attend each education session, to take notes at each of the lectures and on the four set textbooks, and to do an hour's homework each day. The rules, issued on 21st August, warn that monks "with bad attitudes and poor results" in the education campaign will face expulsion from the monastery.

The Drepung rules are expressed more courteously than the Sera rules, and emphasise incentives as well as threats: "if you study really hard and if you behave well we will include you in the list of monks [who will be allowed to remain in the monastery] whether you were registered before or not," Drepung monks are told. The Drepung rules note that monks will be examined on their studies on patriotism in writing as well as orally.

"About 180 Chinese have come here and are staying in the monastery for 3 months", one Drepung monk said in a personal statement received from Lhasa today. "Everyday we study and listen with them for four hours, with each monk having to speak one by one."

"If we are against them, then we will be sent out from the monastery", he added.

An official Tibetan newspaper said last week that the officials had decided to focus on Sera, Drepung and Ganden monasteries as test cases in order to gain experience with which to direct the reorganisation of monasteries throughout the region, according to a Reuters report from Beijing on 15th September.

"A lot of monasteries have already become bases for splittist activities, and a minority of monks and nuns have become the backbone of the splittists," said Raidi, deputy party secretary in Tibet, in a speech published in the Tibet Daily on 7th September. "We must resolutely overthrow the strongholds of the Dalai Lama clique," he added.

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