Chinese Police Torture Tibetan Monk to Death

Friday, April 03 2009 @ 09:21 am BST

Phuntsok

Dharamshala: The Public Security Bureau officials (PSB) and armed military personnel tortured a Tibetan to death for protesting against Chinese authorities in southwest Tibet on 25 March.

The monk has been identified as 27-year-old Phuntsok of Drakgo monastery located in Drakgo (Ch:Luhuo) County, Karze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (parts of which are incorporated into China's Sichuan Province).

Phuntsok distributed flyers urging Tibetan residents to stop farming as a mark of condolence to all those Tibetans who were killed and wounded, and those who are still suffering imprisonment after China's brutal crackdown in Tibet last year.

China's violent crackdown on Tibetan protesters since 10 March 2008, left 220 Tibetans dead, 1,294 injured and 290 sentenced. More than 5,600 were arrested or detained and over 1,000 disappeared. (Click here for casualty figures)

According to reports, on 25 March, Phuntsok pasted the protest leaflets on the walls of a branch office of Drakgo PSB headquarter, on Shara Thang-do bridge and on eucalyptus trees of roads and highways in Drakgo county.

He fled on a motorbike towards Samtenling nunnery after Chinese police saw him with flyers at a motor repair shop near Walong village. Unable to climb his bike on a hill at the base of which the nunnery was located, he was nabbed and severely beaten to death.

The next morning, local villagers found his body at the bottom of the hill. They said PSB officials had thrown the monk's dead body down the hill to give an impression of suicide.

Similar incident of brutal killing of Tibetans occurred in Drakgo county during a peaceful protests organised by Ngangong nunnery, Chogri monastery and local residents on 24 March 2008. The Chinese police shot dead Kunga, a monk of Chogri monastery during the protests. Next day, some Chinese officials were seen burning the monk's dead body.