Four Tibetans detained as crackdown continues on Tsenden Monastery

Chinese authorities have detained four Tibetan men including three monks from the embattled Tsenden Monastery in Sog (Ch: Suo) County in Nagchu Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), in the Tibetan province of Kham.

According to the information received by TCHRD, local police detained the monks identified as Choephel Dawa, Jigme Wangyal and Choeyang Choega and a layman named Dorjee who were detained on the night of 28 March 2015. No reason was given for their sudden detention. There is no information on the location of their detention raising concerns among family members about their physical and psychological health since torture is routinely practiced in Chinese detention centers.

Choephel Dawa, 27, belongs to Gope Rangdol family at Village No. 2 in Yagla Township, Sog County. He had been detained before and imprisoned. He was first detained on 15 January 2012 and was secretly sentenced to two years in early February the same year.

Jigme Wangyal is a senior monk at Tsenden Monastery. He belongs to Laru Dechen Tsang family of Kharmar Village in Yagla Township. The third monk, Choeyang Choega and layman Dorjee Drakpa, belongs to the same Mi-nyag Abhu Tsang family in Village No. 1 of Yangla Township.

There has been no let-up in the repression of Tibetans in Sog County and surrounding areas since local authorities began implementing a host of monitoring and surveillance measures beginning 2013. The active suppression of freedom of movement and information, facilitated by the massive security build-up and a highly sophisticated surveillance machinery, has led to a spike in arbitrary detention, arrests, torture and disappearances. In March this year, within less than two weeks, TCHRD received confirmed information about the detention and disappearance of nine Tibetans, all monks at Tsenden Monastery.