Date: 21 Jan 93 02:15 PST
From: Tibet-Relay@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Newsgroups: reg.tibet
Reply-To: tibet.info@gnosys.svle.ma.us
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Subject: Farmers sentenced to 15 years
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Nf-From: gn.UUCP!robbieb    Jan 21 02:15:00 1993
 
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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".
 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
 
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.
Newsgroups: talk.politics.china