TIN News Update / 15 February, 1997 / no of pages: 2 ISSN 1355-3313

London - 15 Feb, TIN :Three more Tibetan asylum seekers, two of them children, froze to death on the Shargung La pass in Tibet last month while attempting to escape to Kathmandu, Nepal, where the UN arranges safe passage for refugees to join the exile Tibetan community in India. 24 survivors from the same group reached Kathmandu, but were stripped and robbed by Nepalese police on the way.

Last December a 13 year old Tibetan girl died while trying to cross the nearby Nangpa La, and a boy of the same age died in a Kathmandu hospital after getting severe frostbite during his escape over the Larkhye La six weeks earlier.

The three latest cases - a 21 year old nun, a 14 year old boy and an 8 year old girl - died from cold and hunger on about 20th January when they were caught in a snowstorm as they crossed the Himalayan passes, which are called "La" in Tibetan.

DETAILS:-

The 21 year old nun, Tashi Choedon, was one of four women in the group from the famous nunnery of Shungsep in Chushul county, 60 km south west of Lhasa.

The nunnery has a history of opposition to Chinese rule, and a year ago 22 Shungsep nuns were in Lhasa's main prison for having taken part in recent pro-independence demonstrations, representing about 10% of long- term female political prisoners there. Last month a political education team moved into residence at the nunnery, which belongs to the Nyingma or "old" school of Tibetan Buddhism, and is expected to call for the expulsion of half of the 250 Shungsep nuns, according to unofficial reports.

The two children who died were a 14 year old boy from Lhasa called Kunga and an 8 year old girl called Kadon from Nyethang, 40 km south west of the capital.

Last year over 400 children under the age of 14 fled from Tibet to Nepal in order to join exile government schools or monasteries in India. The enrolment rate of school age children in exile is over three times as high as in Tibet, where only primary school teaching is carried out in Tibetan.

The three victims were in a group of 27 Tibetans who left Lhasa with a guide on 9th January, travelling by truck to the southern Tibetan town of Tingri before setting off by foot on the 100 km journey to Nepal. Each of them had paid the guide between 500 yuan (US $60) and 850 yuan (US $100) for the trip, equivalent to six months' average income for a rural Tibetan.

After walking for five days they climbed the Shargung La at about 16,000 feet, and for several days walked high above the Himalayan snow line before reaching the Nepal border.

"While we were climbing up the La there was an avalanche and a cold gust of snow wind," one of the survivors told TIN after reaching Kathmandu. "We carried the small children on our backs, but out of the 28 in the group, three froze to death," said the witness, who asked not to be named.

The group left the bodies in the snow and moved on, although one escapee took Kunga's clothes in order to try to keep warm, he said. The 24 survivors and their guide reached the northern Nepalese settlement of Chogsham, also known as Lama Bhagar, 100 km north east of Kathmandu, on about 22nd January.

POLICE ROBBERY -

At Chogsham the survivors were detained for a day at the local police post, where a group of 12 policemen that night ordered them to remove all their clothes, apparently so the police could search them for cash or valuables.

"They searched us all over our bodies and all our bags, and then they took 300 yuan from me," one of the group told TIN. The total seized by the police from the group that night was 8,000 yuan (US $1,000), an average of 320 yuan per each person, according to another member of the group.

The group were ordered to return to the pass and to re-enter Tibet, and one refugee who spoke Nepali was told that the group would be allowed to stay if he arranged for one of the women to be available for sex with the police. The refugees refused to co-operate and the next morning persuaded the police to release them.

They walked for 3 more days further into Nepal before they were arrested, this time by police who followed the official procedure, which involves escorting the claimants to Kathmandu and handing them over to the local branch of the UN High Commission for Refugees.

Most of the survivors required treatment for frost bite and 3 or 4 are expected to require surgery, according to a report from the city.

Last November police at the same police post at Lama Bhagar, which is 30 km north of the district seat at Charikot, opened fire on a group of 32 refugees, wounding three and beating several others severely.

"It is very tense and uneasy in Tibet because of the re-education campaign and the attacks against His Holiness the Dalai Lama, so it is wise to escape to India to get a better education and to get the blessing of His Holiness," said one of the survivors, asked why the group had fled.

"My main intention in coming to India is to join Sera monastery, to get a better education and to work towards winning freedom for Tibet," said Jawang, a 27 year old monk from Chamdo Monastery in eastern Tibet who was also in the group. A re-education team had arrived at his monastery in August last year and spent 2 months teaching sessions on correct political and legal knowledge. The monk left the monastery after the team announced that it was going to divide the monks into "good" and "bad" categories.

"In our monastery there were about 50 monks who had returned from India. Somehow the Chinese authorities came to know of it and arrested them at different times over the last year," said Jawang. "They were tortured and interrogated extensively, and I think must have been released from prison by now, but none came back to the monastery. They would not have been allowed to re-enter if they had come back", he added.

The monk had been arrested by Chinese police in Lhatse near Shigatse, Tibet's second city, during an earlier escape attempt in December, when he had been robbed by police of 3,600 yuan (US $400) and detained for 5 days.