China detains seven Tibetan monks on uprising anniversary
Chinese police detained seven Tibetan monks from Tsenden Monastery in Sog (Ch: Suo) County in Nagchu (Ch: Naqu) Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The monks were detained on 14 March, which coincided with the 2008 uprising anniversary when Tibetans protested against the Chinese government in Lhasa igniting widespread demonstrations in many parts of Tibet, according to information received by TCHRD.
The detained monks are identified as Namgyal Tsultrim, Lodoe Tenzin, Tsultrim Gojhey, Tsultrim Namgyal, Thabkey Lhundup, Jigme Tsultrim, and Jigme Drakpa. The police gave no reason for their detention. However, local Tibetans suspect that the monks were detained for sharing information and images related to incidents in Tibet. As of now, information regarding their condition, location of their detention and actual reason for their detention remain unknown.
A source with contacts in Sog County said that the local authorities had installed around 50 security cameras around Tsenden Monastery to monitor the activities and movement of the monks, in addition to heavy police and military presence in the area. The monastery has been under constant surveillance even as Chinese security personnel harass the monks including those who go out at nighttime to relieve themselves. Local authorities have been putting pressure on the monastery prohibiting Tibetans under 18 years of age from becoming monks at the monastery.
This is the third time that Namgyal Tsultrim have been detained. In 2011, he was detained for a week on suspicion that he contacted people outside Tibet. Again on 6 October 2012, he was detained for four months and twenty days at a detention centre in Nagchu. He was subsequently charged and imprisoned for three months and eleven days at Toelung Dechen prison in Lhasa Prefecture.
The source said local authorities had shut down all communication lines including the internet since the beginning of March due to the number of protest anniversaries that fall on this month. The suppression of communication line is especially stringent in three counties in Nagchu. Local Tibetans who had engaged in political activities were called for questioning to the local government office.
Sog County along with Diru County has become the prime target of China’s new repressive campaigns implemented in recent years in Nagchu Prefecture such as the compulsory Chinese flag-flying campaign imposed in 2013. In March 2014, a number of monks from Tsenden Monastery were arbitrary detained and disappeared including a 20-yr-old monk Choeying Kalden who was detained on 16 March 2014 for emailing protest writings to the phones of Chinese cadres stationed permanently at the monastery. More than a year after his detention, Choeying Kalden’s whereabouts and condition remain unknown.
