From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.rights.human
Subject: Tibet: Farmers Sentenced
Date: 23 Jan 93 17:16:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1476701023:000:6429
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Jan 23 09:16:00 1993


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: Tibet: Farmers Sentenced

/* Written  2:15 am  Jan 21, 1993 by robbieb@gn.apc.org in
igc:reg.tibet */

Tibet Information Network / 7 Beck Rd London E8 4RE  UK ph:
(+44-81) 533 5458 / fax: (+44-81) 985 4751 TIN News Update / 21
January, 1993 / total no of pages: 3

Tibetan Farmers Get Up to 15 Years in Prison

Five Tibetan farmers have received prison sentences of between 13
and 15 years for their part in a peaceful protest in a Tibetan
village last year, according to unofficial reports from Lhasa.

One man who is said to have received a 15 year sentence did not
even take part in the actual protest, according to the reports.

The sentences, which were handed down by a Lhasa court on 1st
November last year but never publicly announced, are the longest
recorded for political offences in Tibet since 1990.

The average sentence received by Tibetan political activists since
1988 had been just over 7.5 years, according to western monitoring
agencies, apart from two who were executed.

Information about rural unrest in Tibet is scarce, and this is the
first time details of punishments imposed on Tibetans involved in
protests outside Lhasa have reached the outside world.

The unusual severity of the sentences appears to reflect Chinese
concern about the increasing political involvement of lay Tibetans
in the countryside, where 88% of Tibetans live.

The arrests followed a pro-independence demonstration involving at
least 100 people on 30th June last year in the Gyama district of
Meldro Gungkar county, a rural area 60 kilometres east of the
Tibetan capital.

The incident began when four men, all of them 23 year old farmers
from Dashar, one of the neighbourhoods or villages within Gyama
district, interrupted a political education meeting by marching
onto the platform and displaying the Tibetan national flag,
possession of which is a criminal offence in China.

"They were shouting pro-Tibet slogans such as "Tibet is
Independent", and they were walking towards the platform,  an
eyewitness has told Tibet Information Network.

"The meeting was completely disrupted as some people followed the
protestors, pretending to be spectators, while some were just
shocked and others ran away to avoid dangerous consequences".

The eyewitness, who has asked not to be named, said that  the four
farmers took over the meeting, so that "the leaders of the meeting
escaped from the left side of the platform as the protestors
approached the right hand side".

From the platform the farmers turned to face the public and
displayed their flag, which was apparently ornamented with a
picture of the Dalai Lama in the middle, the words "May
Independent Tibet live for thousands of years" on the right side,
and a white Tibetan blessing scarf on the top.

The leader of the protest, Konchok Lodro, and two of his
associates, Sonam Rinchen and Sonam Dorje, are said to have been
sentenced to 13 years in prison, according to unofficial accounts
of the November trial, which was held in Lhasa.

The fourth flag-bearer, named as Lhundrup or Lhundrup Dorje, also
aged 23 from Dashar, received a 15 year sentence, possibly because
during the protest he had tried to resist attempts by armed police
to pull the flag away from the demonstrators.

According to the eyewitness in the struggle, during which the
police did manage to take the flag, Lhundrup was badly injured
with a rifle butt.

The four men were arrested and beaten by the Armed Police but
"continued to shout Tibetan Independence slogans as they were
dragged towards the village", according to the eyewitness.

"As they were taken through the village entrance the emotions of
the crowd were running so high that about 100 people followed
them, shouting "Tibet is Independent"", he added.

Armed Police were later stationed "both near and inside the
village to monitor security, so that nothing more happened", said
the report.

Older Man Gets 15 Year Sentence

One of the longest sentences appears to have been given to a local
man who did not take part in the flag-waving incident.

Thubten Yeshe, a 41 year old farmer from the same village, was
arrested on 1st July 1992, the day following the protest, after
six vehicles carrying security officers and legal cadres from
Lhasa arrived in Dashar village and searched the houses of the
arrested men.

Thubten Yeshe was arrested "on the charge of co-operating with the
demonstrators", according to a local source, and is reported to
have received a 15 year sentence. The reasons for the severity of
his sentence are unknown, but Chinese courts often reserve the
strictest penalties for older people or people in positions of
influence.

Two other men from Gyama were briefly detained on 2nd July for
involvement in the protest. Lhaksam, 27, from Neighbourhood No 7,
had shouted slogans at the police during the arrest of the four
flag-bearers but was released on 16th August. Samten Gyatso, 24,
from Dashar, accused of having helped to make the flag, was
released on 22nd August.

Detained for Wall Posters - Whereabouts Unknown

The whereabouts of three men from the nearby village of Trikhang,
arrested in March 1992 for distributing wall posters calling for
independence and opposing local mining projects, are still
unknown.

 Karma, a 42 year old farmer, arrested on 17th March 1992, had
 been held for some months in 1990 for a similar offence. Monlam,
 a 22 year old farmer, and Gyatso, a 22 year old carpenter, were
 arrested on 18th March, and are known to have still been in
 custody in July.

The Chinese government told the UN last November that there were
no records of the three men being held in any prison, a formula
which Beijing has used to refer to detainees held in detention
centres or labour re-education camps, which are not considered
prisons by the Chinese.

According to an unofficial report from Gyama last July, the three
men had been held "in the custody of the district security forces,
undergoing unspeakable torture and beatings, for the last four
months".

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CORRECTION to TIN News Update 26th December 1992 (9 Years in
Prison for Protestorestors):

The sex of one of the prisoners was wrongly given in one of the
official Chinese documents. Rinchen Dawa, age 25, a farmer from
Lhundrup, serving five years for involvement in a demonstration on
16th May 1992, is a woman not a man.