Former political prisoners from Tibet have expressed their concern about the plight of prisoners who are still being held in the ‘punishment block’ of Drapchi prison following their involvement in protests during the visit of a UN delegation in October 1997 and at the same time as a European Union troika group’s visit in May 1998. Conditions in the unit, known as ‘Tsonkhul’ (detention area) Nine, are the harshest in the prison, and the majority of prisoners held there are reportedly undergoing the strict regime as punishment for failing to express adequate repentance for their political ‘crimes’, or participation in peaceful protests.
Tagna Jigme Zangpo, the elderly school-teacher who served a total of 32 years in prison before his release on medical parole in March 2002, was held in the block for most of the last eight months of his detention as a result of a peaceful protest he made at Drapchi in August 2001. Jigme Zangpo, who is now living in Switzerland, said: ‘We called them the dark cells. So many prisoners are confined in the small dark cells in that unit. I remain deeply concerned about them.’
Inmates being held in the cell-block, which appears to have become operational in 2000, include several political prisoners who were involved in shouting pro-independence slogans during the protests at Drapchi (Tibet Autonomous Region Prison) on 1 and 4 May 1998. Karma Sonam, a criminal prisoner from Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) in Sichuan who is reportedly one of two prisoners who initiated the major protest by prisoners on 1 May 1998, is believed to have been confined to unit Nine soon after it was opened, and even now is still not allowed to have visitors, according to one report.
The protest on 1 May 1998 occurred when both political and criminal prisoners were gathered together to participate in a flag raising ceremony for International Youth Day; Karma Sonam and other prisoners apparently started shouting slogans in support of the Dalai Lama and of Tibetan independence. Political prisoners who were being held in nearby cells joined in with the shouting. Prison officials retaliated by beating political prisoners and inmates involved were isolated from other prisoners in solitary confinement cells. Five nuns and three monks died following the maltreatment that occurred during and after the protests. A delegation of Beijing-based EU ambassadors visited the prison on 4 May, but was unaware during the visit of the protests that took place the same day.
The European Union-China Bilateral Human Rights dialogue will be held in Beijing later this week on 27-28 November, and EU delegates will present Beijing with a list of approximately 65 Chinese, Tibetan and Uighur political prisoners. It could not be confirmed whether any of the prisoners on the list are among those who had their sentences extended following the May 1998 protests.
Monks confined to Unit Nine for failure to repent from ‘crimes’
Two monks, Ngawang Nyima and Ngawang Sungrab, were transferred to Detention Area Nine in spring 2001 for giving ‘unsatisfactory’ responses during political investigation sessions. Ngawang Sungrab, a Drepung monk in his thirties from Lhundrub county in Lhasa municipality, has now been released from Drapchi, according to information received by the International Campaign for Tibet, and there are concerns for his health and well-being. Former prisoners now in exile report that Ngawang Sungrab’s health has not been stable since he was shot and wounded in the abdomen by a prison guard following the protest in the prison on 4 May 1998. Ngawang Sungrab had been among a group of prisoners who rushed towards some prison gates after the demonstration. Ngawang Nyima, a monk from Pema, the county seat of Pashoe county in Chamdo prefecture (Chinese: Changdu), TAR, is also reportedly still confined in a cell in the punishment block.
Detention Area Nine has a total of 24 cells, with two used for solitary confinement, 21 as two person cells and one as a storeroom. Failure to provide acceptable responses during ‘investigation’ into one’s political thinking is a common reason for imprisonment into Area Nine, and as a result political prisoners are frequently held in the block. A small walled courtyard adjoins each cell, but prisoners under the most highly restricted regimen are not given access to that space or allowed activity or exercise outside their cells. Former inmates report that the cells are extremely poorly ventilated, which means they are stifling in summer and very cold in winter. Former political prisoners report that visitors allowed access to Detention Area Nine are only allowed to stay for a short time. Some prisoners in the unit are forced to do strenuous physical exercises and suffer severe beatings from prison guards, according to reports from former prisoners.
Criminal prisoners punished for political actions
Prior to his release last year, the elderly former school-teacher Tagna Jigme Zangpo was held in Detention Area Nine with two criminal prisoners, Sonam Tsewang and Tringa, who were involved in political protests during and after the visit of a United Nations delegation to Drapchi prison in Lhasa in October 1997. Sonam Tsewang was reportedly given an extension of five years to his sentence after he said ‘Long live the Dalai Lama’ during the visit of a delegation from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) to the prison. Two other Tibetans, Tringa and Wangdu, also had their sentences extended by at least three years each for involvement in the protest. Former political prisoner Ngawang Sangdrol, the nun who was released from prison in October 2002 after serving 11 years of a 21 year sentence, witnessed Sonam Tsewang’s punishment following the departure of the UN delegates from Drapchi: ‘They held a meeting to make an example of him. It was really frightening. They tied him with his hands behind his back and dragged him across the floor. All the time they were trying to make him lower his head, but still he tried to look up at us all, and he was still trying to smile somehow.’
Wangdu is apparently not being held in the punishment block because he has ‘accepted his crime’. Reports from former prisoners indicate that if prisoners held in the cell-block accept that their political actions were wrong, they will be removed from the strict regime.
Lodroe Gyatso, another criminal prisoner who made a political protest in Drapchi, is also reportedly being held in the punishment block. Lodroe Gyatso, a 37-year old member of a dance troupe who was serving a 15-year sentence for murder, had his sentence extended by six years after he took part in a prison protest in 1995. He was reportedly confined in the punishment block in November 2000.
Concern for health of two women political prisoners
The prison authorities generally aim to keep political and criminal prisoners apart in Drapchi prison in order to prevent political prisoners influencing criminals with ‘splittist’ ideas. Prison officials’ concerns may have been reinforced by the incidents at Drapchi in May 1998, in which both political and criminal prisoners demonstrated their unity against the authorities, and the recent pattern of criminal prisoners making political protests. But in some cases criminal prisoners are placed in cells with political prisoners and encouraged to act as informants.
Ngawang Sangdrol reports that at the time of her release last year, two female political prisoners were suffering a particular form of isolation by being held in cells with criminal prisoners, rather than fellow political prisoners. Anu, an amputee who is in her late forties and serving four years, and the nun Jangchub Drolma (lay name Palki), who is serving 11 years following a sentence extension imposed after the May 1998 protests, have both been held in cells with ordinary prisoners. Jangchub Drolma, who is in her mid-twenties from Galo nunnery and was detained in February 1995, is now said to be in poor physical and psychological health. Anu, who was imprisoned in March 2001, was in poor health before her detention and now reportedly suffers from severe headaches. Anu, who worked as a tailor in Lhasa before her detention, moves around with the aid of a wooden crutch after an accident in which she was knocked down by a Chinese military truck at the age of 13. Details of the charges against Anu are not known but appear to be linked to the authorities’ suspicions of connections to the Tibetan government in exile and of possessing ‘separatist’ leaflets such as speeches by the Dalai Lama. Both Anu and Jangchub Drolma have been suffering from stress as a result of the ordinary prisoners in their cells being encouraged to inform upon them by prison guards.
This is one in a series of independent reports by Kate Saunders commissioned by the Australia Tibet Council, Free Tibet Campaign and the International Campaign for Tibet.
