A choked silence; images from Tibet of the crackdown

 International Campaign for Tibet

News of Tibetans facing trial in Tibet following the protests continues to filter through despite the dangers of passing on such information to outside sources, and despite the restrictions imposed on internet and cell phone communications. According to reports received in the last few days, two monks from Kirti monastery in eastern Tibet are appearing in Ngaba county [Chinese: Aba] court this week to face charges linked to dissent in recent months, together with Jamyang Nyima, a 30-year-old monk from Thongri monastery in Ngaba who was arrested on March 30 and several other lay people, whose names are not known. The two Kirti monks, Dorjee and Kungar, are both in their early twenties and were detained on April 23. According to the same reports from reliable exile sources, families of the defendants have not been informed of their whereabouts or status and fear that legal representation is not being made available to them. The same sources said that since the March protests began, around 20 people in the Ngaba area have been sentenced on charges believed to be related to their participation in protests and dissent.

Images taken by a Taiwanese-American tourist in eastern Tibet featured with this report show a heavily armed police presence in summer in the Tibetan area of Kham in the towns of Lithang (Ch: Litang) and Kardze (Ch: Ganzi) in Sichuan province. The visitor described the area as being "like a war-zone". Images of military on the streets of Lhasa in September are also shown with this report, together with further evidence of continued disappearances and detention, with Tibetans experiencing extreme brutality while in custody.

Another American visitor to monasteries and towns in Tibetan areas of Qinghai and Gansu following the March protests described the situation in the area immediately following the March protests: "Young green-uniformed soldiers stood guard, black guns with thick barrels at the ready, before a military transport…The repercussions were underway. Terror is not threatened, it is reality. Monastery after monastery, town after town we traveled, driving hundreds of miles down unpaved roads; the same story, the same choked silence."

Tensions at Kirti monastery

The situation at Kirti, in Ngaba county, Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, remains tense a month after an incident in which monks were severely beaten by up to 100 police wielding clubs, shovels and even meat-cleavers on September 24. Monks had been under lockdown in the monastery since mid-March following a protest in which at least 10 people were shot dead by security forces. Kirti monastery was at the center of the protests in eastern Tibet when monks were joined by laypeople and schoolchildren in calling for a free Tibet, with pictures of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan flags on display.

According to various sources reporting the incident last month at Kirti, there is a total of nine security checkpoints surrounding the monastery, each of which is manned by 10 to 15 armed police officers.1 The checkpoints are reportedly positioned close to the demarcation of the monastery’s perimeter, and the clash on September 24 appears to have been triggered when a Kirti monk crossed – or was accused by police of crossing – beyond the monastery perimeter when he was going to the toilet. The name and other identifying details of this particular monk are known to ICT.

Sources report that police officers from a checkpoint to the north of the monastery fired live warning shots in the air, and also into the ground immediately in front of the monk whom they apparently thought had crossed the monastery perimeter line (see: Free Tibet Campaign report at http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/260908). Sources also report that the officers were shouting at the monk to go back towards the monastery, but according to one source, the monk could not speak Chinese. The officers then approached the monk and beat him so severely that he was still bleeding profusely after managing to walk to a restaurant on the grounds of the monastery where around 50 monks were having their evening meal.

Two senior monks in the restaurant then set out for the checkpoint to find out why the monk had been beaten and to ask for senior officials to come to the monastery to explain. However, police officers at the checkpoint again fired shots into the air and into the ground at the two monks’ feet, and then chased them back to the restaurant. There the officers demanded that the monk who had been beaten should leave the restaurant while several other monks continued to try and persuade the officers to summon senior officials to come to the monastery.

A police officer did apparently place a call to the local town, and told the monks that he had requested senior officials to come to the monastery. Soon after, however, two trucks carrying around 100 uniformed officers arrived, armed with a variety of weapons including clubs, shovels, and even meat cleavers, according to several exile sources in contact with the region. The same sources reported that the police officers set upon the monks as soon as they descended from the trucks. Sources also report that many of the monks immediately sat down and some even took off the outer cover of their robes to show they were unarmed and had no intention of resorting to violence.

Around 30 monks were injured, and another five were injured so seriously they were hospitalized. One of those hospitalized was reportedly one of the two senior monks who asked for officials to come to the monastery. Another was reportedly a member of the monastery's government-appointed 'Democratic Management Committee', and was beaten despite showing his government-issue identification. Another monk who was hospitalized had also been severely beaten during the protests in March and was reportedly still deeply traumatized from the experience, becoming "unstable" and scared whenever he saw uniformed police, according to one source. He reportedly received a foot-long slash wound to his back.

According to ICT's sources, all five monks who were hospitalized (whose names are known to ICT) have now been released from hospital. A blogger, writing on a Tibetan website in Chinese, recently reported that some troops have been withdrawn from the area since the incident, although that could not be confirmed.

Following the devastating May 12 earthquake in Sichuan (Kirti monastery is about 150 miles northwest of the epicenter in Wenchuan) Kirti monks, who had been forbidden from holding religious ceremonies as one consequence of the protests in March, were permitted to conduct a service to mourn the victims of the quake. The monks also issued a statement in which they stressed that their protest had not been against the Chinese people, but the policies of the Chinese government. (The statement is translated in full in ICT's report athttp://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1313).

Footage of the March 16 protests at Kirti monastery

ICT has received several minutes of video footage showing protests by monks and ordinary Tibetans that, according to the source who provided the footage, occurred at Kirti monastery on March 16. Neither of the two clips shed any light on the injuries and fatalities known to have happened during the protests, but they nevertheless contain powerful scenes and provide a striking glimpse of the scale and nature of the protests there and the Chinese authorities’ response to them. China has sought to prevent such images leaving Tibet. Footage of the protests at Kirti on March 16, one of the first in a wave of more than 125 protests across the Tibetan plateau from March and continuing into July, can be viewed below.

In the first of the two clips a group of around 50 monks in robes can be seen standing about 100 yards from the camera through a cloud of what appears to be tear gas. Most of the 150 to more than 200 other people in the large, open area are standing back and watching as tear-gas billows around the monks. Other people appear to be hastily packing away belongings and leaving while others can be seen running towards where the monks are gathered. Water is seen being hosed in the air, but it is not clear where the water is coming from nor why it is being sprayed: the water pressure seems too low to be from a water cannon, and is being sprayed in too random a fashion if the intention is to extinguish a fire. A group of police lined up behind riot shields can be seen in the background in the far right of the open space.

Around halfway through the first clip, two tear-gas shells explode in the center of the frame, seven or eight seconds apart, very close to where a crowd of people have gathered. Several seconds later, a faint smoke trail can be seen arcing away from the group of police officers to another area behind a wall directly opposite the camera and out of sight – smoke is seen rising from behind this wall for the duration of both clips. In the closing seconds of the first clip, a series of small explosions can be heard, which sound similar to the explosions made by the two detonating tear gas cells moments before, suggesting more tear-gas shells are being launched close by.

In the second clip several more tear-gas shells are seen and heard detonating close to and among the crowd of people in the open space, and behind the wall opposite the camera. Just over half way through the second clip, someone runs into view from the far left of the camera's vantage and throws a tear-gas shell towards an unoccupied part of the space against a wall; soon after, someone else appears to throw a smoking tear-gas shell back towards the group of police officers in the corner of the space.

Disappearances and detentions in Lhasa

Images included in this report depict military personnel on duty in Lhasa in September. An ICT source said that security personnel, both uniformed and in plain clothes, can be seen on almost every block of the city. A Tibetan source who has recently arrived in exile told ICT: "Since March 14, everything has changed in Lhasa. Wherever you go and whatever you do you are being watched by Chinese. When I went out for shopping or to do something, police or army were checking ID cards all the time. If they see someone who looks like a Tibetan they copy their ID card numbers and names. Sometimes they take photos for their record. They [army/police] had books that contained a list of wanted people's details and photos to check ID card holders in the list. If someone failed to show their ID card or if they found your ID card numbers, names and photos from their record than there is no doubt about you getting arrested."

A People's Armed Police patrol seen in central Lhasa by a tourist in late September. Photo: © Private

"They were really aggressive and terrifying with their weapons, sniper dogs and equipment for arresting people, such as handcuffs and ropes and so on. Police cars that are designed for carrying prisoners were waiting next to them. These pieces of equipment and cars could be used against any Tibetans who they saw as suspicious. All the time they looked very angry with Tibetans, particularly young Tibetans. I think it is because a few Chinese died and many lost shops and restaurants during the demonstration. If you don’t stop when they call you or are not ready to show your ID card when they ask, you will get beaten up right there. It did not happen to me but I heard of many Tibetans who have been beaten by police and the army while they were checking ID cards."

The same source, whose identity is known to ICT, said that numerous Tibetans had disappeared since the March 14 riot in Lhasa. (For full details of the incidents in March in Lhasa, see ICT report 'Tibet at a Turning Point: The Spring Uprising and China’s New Crackdown' at http://www.savetibet.org/documents/document.php?id=258). He said: "After March 14, many Tibetans disappeared; you can hear many kinds of stories about missing people everywhere nowadays in the Tibetan community in Lhasa. For example, Nyandak who is about 24 to 25 years old and Rinchen who is about 25 to 30 years old [both from Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan] have completely disappeared [after participating in the demonstration]. However no one saw them being arrested or being shot. Their relatives and friends have searched everywhere and have not had any news about them. Most of their friends think they have already been killed. However, some people have been released from prison, after their families and friends thought they had been killed."

A People's Armed Police patrol in full riot gear seen in a central Lhasa street market by a tourist in late September. Photo: © Private

The same source named one individual detained after March 14, who had been identified as one of the most wanted individuals after the rioting on that day in Lhasa, saying: "Since she was arrested, no one has seen her and even we do not know which prison she is in now. The Chinese authorities have not acknowledged a word to her family since they took her from her house on March 16. Some of her friends think she already dead because of torture."

He also spoke of a former monk in his thirties who was detained for several months following the demonstration on March 14. "I saw him [afterwards] with his wife and could not walk without his wife's help. I was so shocked to see that he had suddenly become like that, because he was such an easy-going person and has a great sense of humor as well. Everybody liked to hang out with him. But today he looks totally different. He looks very ill and has become very thin. [When I asked what had happened to him] he could not even speak properly and said, 'During my time in prison I was badly tortured and the doctor said my kidney is damaged. They did not give any food at first for four days, and when I was almost dead then they gave me a little tingmo [traditional Tibetan dumpling] with rice noodles each day. I wish I was dead rather than to be in these difficult times. Sometime later, they left me for many hours on my knees on the gravel with other prisoners. The skin on both my knees broke because of that'."

A convoy of 21 military trucks seen from a window of the Qinghai-Tibet railway by a tourist in early September. Photo: © Private.

'A life drenched in terror and loss': security presence in Qinghai and Gansu after March

An American environmentalist whose name is known to ICT who visited Qinghai and Gansu provinces recalled the atmosphere in Labrang monastery in Sangchu (Ch: Xiahe) county, Kanlho (Ch: Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Gansu province, soon after the March protests: "Arriving in Labrang the golden roofs of the monastery were brilliant under even the dull sky, but so few monks and everyone uncharacteristically distant. Missing was the usual bright welcome, the cheering gait, the gentle reaching-out, the shared cups of tea. Out on the street we were met with downcast eyes and when met they were eyes filled with anguish. Once inside, away from the ever-present police and plainclothes officers, the monks and shopkeepers could not repress their horror with their helplessness, their exasperation with the continued brutal repression. A young shopkeeper burst into silent pantomime of violent kicking, beating, shooting as a phalanx of young Chinese soldiers marched, two abreast, down the main street in stiff green uniforms. 'That is what they do!' She quietly shouted while her husband ceremoniously attended to tidying already tidy shelves, gently urging her to be quiet."

The same visitor observed: "Since mid-March the Chinese Central Television (CCTV) screens have played and replayed the same few images. The country has been subjected to 24-hour propaganda disparaging Tibetans for their ungratefulness to the state, and characterized Tibetans' protest against the Government's unbearable repression as 'ethnic conflict.' On my return while sitting at the airport in Detroit, I heard highly educated visiting overseas Chinese repeat these charges. There is a possibility that the hatred constructed by such propaganda could get out of hand. For Tibetans this use of brutal force to create 'stability' or at least silence has created a life drenched in terror and loss; loss of family members, loss of land, loss of culture, loss of vital monastic establishments, loss of environmental integrity, indeed loss of freedom in any sense." (The visitor’s full testimony is available at:http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=23085&article=A+Cry+for+Help+from+Tibet)

Intimidation and repression in Kham

A Taiwanese-American tourist who was detained and expelled from Kham in August documented an intensified security presence in the region in the wake of the protests from March onwards. Before her expulsion from the area, the tourist, named Wen-Yan King, traveled independently in Kardze [Ch: Ganzi] Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Sichuan province, an area which saw some of the most intense and protracted protests which continued sporadically into August, despite the dramatically intensified security measures in the region. (See a full version of her account of her travels in Tibet on the Huffington-Post blog at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-novick/arrested-in-tibet-a-young_b_118342.html)

Wen-Yan King started her travels in Lithang county2 in western Kardze TAP where she took photographs of armed police officers cleaning their weapons inside a monastery's grounds on the edge of town. The overt nature of the soldier’s actions may have been intended to intimidate local people, who would generally have carried out circumambulations (kora) around the monastery's precincts. She wrote in her account of her travels given to ICT: "Here in Lithang, fear and paranoia lingers in the air to a palpable degree. I’ve never seen so many police and military personnel in one town in my life. Nor have I experienced this kind of heart-pounding fear before."

Armed police seen cleaning their weapons in a monastery courtyard in Lithang. The officers were reportedly positioned in a prominent location behind a row of prayer wheels on a pilgrimage route around the monastery, where their presence would have been impossible for local Tibetans to miss. (Photo: Wen-Yan King)

Despite the intimidating atmosphere in Lithang, people were still seen to be wearing images of the Dalai Lama, and his portrait was also seen on private shrines and in one Tibetan-run business. The proprietor told Wen-Yan King that despite being threatened that the business would be shut down unless the portrait was removed, a smaller image was still in place in a less prominent position. Wen-Yan King wrote: "[The proprietor’s] heart is not at peace unless there is a picture of His Holiness on the wall. It’s a small but brave act of defiance."

A portrait of the Dalai Lama seen above a shrine at a business premises in Lithang. (Photo: Wen-Yan King)

ICT only has records of three protests in Lithang since March – and all of those were in the very early days of the uprising. However, security in Lithang had already been significantly increased by the time the March protests started. The previous August, a local nomad, Runggye Adak, had stepped onto a stage set aside for government officials at a traditional horse racing festival and in front of thousands of Tibetans, called for the Dalai Lama's return to Tibet. Expressions of support among the local population led to an intensified 'patriotic education' in the area, as well an increased police presence to try and deter further protests. (See: "Official petition on Dalai Lama may have provoked Lithang action,” ICT, August 10, 2007. http://www.savetibet.org/news/newsitem.php?id=1157.)

In early September 2008, almost six months after the protests broke out in Tibet, Liu Qibao, the Party Secretary of Sichuan province as well as Chairman of the provincial legislature, went on a five-day tour of Kardze TAP accompanied by numerous political and security officials. TheSichuan Daily reported on September 10, "Maintaining stability in Tibetan areas was the main focus of Liu Qibao's tour," and detailed his visits to government and police offices throughout the prefecture, as well as several monasteries. He reportedly thanked local People’s Armed Police (PAP) units and government officials "for upholding stability in Tibetan regions". ('Liu Qibao: Promote the rapid development and long-term peace and stability of Tibetan regions' [Liu Qibao: Cujin zangqu jiakuai fazhan he changzhi jiu’an] Sichuan Daily, September 10, 2008.)

During his tour of Lithang county, Liu Qibao visited Chokhor monastery – among several others in the prefecture – reportedly telling the monks "stability is fortune, splittism is disaster," adding "We hope that monasteries will strengthen management and that monks will love the country and love religion, and be law abiding citizens."

From Lithang, Wen-Yan King traveled approximately 110 miles north to Kardze county along back roads to avoid the numerous checkpoints. Noting the number and visibility of security forces on the streets, she wrote: "About every half a block, there is a squad of 10 to 15 People's Armed Police in full battle gear. Dressed in fatigues holding rifles and shields, they sat in rows in front of convenience stores, they stood behind raised metal posts with cutout windows as the corners of the street, they camped under blue tarps in the middle of the sidewalk, they marched throughout the city looking for any sign of trouble. It looked like a war zone... In addition to the sea of armed police, bright red government issued banners with patriotic slogans hung in replacement of modern day advertisements everywhere. It reminded me all too much of the Cultural Revolution."

In Kardze town, Wen-Yan King witnessed and photographed the security presence, including an image taken looking down from Kardze monastery into a police barracks on the edge of town showing several large tents within the compound, supposedly for the increased numbers of police. Liu Qibao also visited Kardze monastery during his September tour of the prefecture.

A photograph taken in late July from the vantage of Kardze monastery looking down into the main police station on the edge of Kardze town, showing numerous police trucks and several tents supposedly used for the extra officers drafted in to contain the protests. The slogan painted on the back wall of the compound reads: "The leadership of the Party will not be shaken; the realm of the motherland will not be split; reform and opening up will not be doubted; the unity of the nationalities will not be harmed." (Photo: Wen-Yan King)

According to ICT's records, there were more known protests in Kardze county from March into June than anywhere else in all of Tibet. Kardze monastery and town center was the focus of many of these protests, as was nearby Pangri nunnery. The whereabouts of many of the Pangri nuns – some severely beaten in public in the process of being detained -- remains unknown, as do the whereabouts of the abbot of Pangri, Phurbu Rinpoche, a well-known and respected figure in the area.

Phurbu Rinpoche, abbot of Pangri nunnery, was detained on May 18. His whereabouts remain unknown. (Photo: ICT)

Wen-Yan King was detained in Kardze by police who were likely to have been tracking her movements. Police officers confiscated her camera, cell phone, computer equipment and passport, and filmed her room being searched. After an intense interrogation in the prefectural capital Dartsedo (Ch: Kangding) in which local police threatened to charge her with 'stealing state secrets' – a crime which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison – she was taken to Chengdu, and expelled on August 1, a week before the start of the Beijing Olympics.

Footnotes

1 Kirti monastery and its surrounding terrain can be seen by entering the coordinates 32°54'51.78"N, 101°41'32.45"E into the application Google Earth, available free from www.earth.google.com. The images pre-date these most recent events at Kirti and so do not show evidence of the security measures in place.

2 Lithang county can be located on Google Earth at the following coordinates: 29°59'36.58"N, 100°16'8.19"E.