Chinese police beat Tibetan monk to death
A Tibetan monk was beaten to death by Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers in Drango (Ch: Luhuo) County in Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Sichuan Province.
According to a reliable information received by TCHRD, Phuntsok, 27, a monk from Drango Monastery, who hailed from Zongpa Village, in Drango County was brutally beaten to death for his peacefully protesting against China’s repressive policies in Tibet.
On 25 March 2009, PhuntsokĀ pasted leaflets on the walls of a branch office of the Drango PSB headquarters on Shara Thang-do Bridge and on roadside trees. His campaign was connected with the last yearsā unprecedented unrest in Tibet, particularly in Drango County, when hundreds of monks who took part in a peaceful demonstration against the Chinese government on 25 March 2008. The protest was subsequently quelled down with force and resulted in arrests, torture and detention of hundreds of monks.
However, while pasting leaflets on the walls of an automobile service centre in Drango County, he was detected by PSB personnel who came straight to arrest him. Sensing it he fled on a motorbike. The PSB forces pursued him. He was arrested and severely beaten with batons and died.
In an attempt to conceal the incident, the PSB personnel dropped his corpse on the base of a hill. A day later, local Tibetans learnt about his death and found body lying at the bottom of a hill and cremated it. The Chinese authorities adamantly maintained that Phuntsok died after committing suicide while the local Tibetans were not convinced. There were bruises and cuts on his body, which clearly indicated that the Chinese security police beat him to death.
In commemorating the arrests, torture and detentions of Drango monks, Phuntsok called on the local Tibetans in Drango County to forego crop cultivation and harvest as a solemn gesture of mourning for monks who were tortured, detained and imprisoned by the Chinese authorities. As a form of civil disobedience and non-cooperation movement, the message of his leaflets read:
“Let it be, if we die of hunger and starvation,
but for those of our brothers and sisters who
were tortured, injured, detained and killed in
the last year’s peaceful demonstration, we must
forego planting crops in fields as a gesture of
respect, mourning and to express our solidarity
with them. Those who had already planted crops in
the fields must not tend and reap the harvest.
This is a request for all of you. If anyone who
still goes on to plant crops in fields and
harvest them, I will come with a black scarf to greet them.”
However while pasting leaflets on the walls of an automobile service centre in Drango County, he was detected by Drango PSB personnel who came straight to arrest him. Sensing that PSB personnel were coming to arrest him, he fled on a motorbike behind Baatak Nunnery, situated at a base of a hill. Immediately Drango PSB forces pursued him for a while till at a waist of a hill, where his motorbike couldn’t climb any further. He was arrested and severely beaten on the spot with batons. He died shortly after receiving inhuman beatings from the Chinese PSB personnel.
In an attempt to conceal the circumstance of his death, the PSB personnel dropped his corpse to a base of hill to conjure up a suicide scene. A day later local Tibetans learnt about his death and body lying at the bottom of a hill. The local Tibetans then cremated the body after three days. Right to the end, the Chinese authorities adamantly maintained that Phuntsok died after committing suicide while the local Tibetans were not convinced.
Sources told TCHRD that there were bruises and cuts on his body which clearly indicated that he was beaten to death by the Chinese security police on 25 March 2009.
Meanwhile on 27 March 2009, the People’s Armed Police (PAP) arrested 11 Tibetans from Da-do Village for defying the Chinese authorities order to till their farm lands.
In what has been seen as desperate move by the Chinese authorities to reign in the protesting farmers, on 26 and 27 March 2009, a contingent of Chinese security forces came to Drango Township, carrying sacks full of fertilizers to extort the locals to plant and till their farmlands.
The 11 arrested Tibetans were surrounded by PAP forces and were taken on a parade in the village. They were last seen in a hospital, surrounded by the PAP forces. At the moment, there is no information about their current whereabouts.
