Dharamshala November 4 – China arrested a Tibetan monk who, an exile Tibetan right group says, provided rare information about China’s military crackdown on the Tibetan people to foreign media. According to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, 50 men from Sangchu County People’s Armed Police (PAP) and Public Security Bureau (PSB) arrived in trucks and took away Jigme from his home in Labrang.
Jigme was first arrested on March 21 this year while returning to his monastery from a market and was detained and tortured for two months in the detention centre for his alleged participation in Labrang’s biggest protest that took place on March 14. He was released on medical ground months later, TCHRD stated.
The Voice of America’s Tibetan program Kunleng aired on Wednesdays showed a video from Jigme who gave detail accounts of Tibetan people’s aspiration, China’s torture and inhumane treatment of monks. In a telephonic interview with the Associated Press on 12 September, Jigme described Chinese crackdown on Tibetans. He later went into hiding fearing Chinese authorities’ repercussion for exposing Chinese brutal crackdown on Tibetans.
Monks of Labrang Monastery and Tibetans in Sangchu took to the streets in large numbers in March to show solidarity with Tibetans in Lhasa, Tibetan capital, the epicenter of the March uprisings. On 7 April, monks of Labrang Monastery disrupted a government-sponsored media tour. Two monks who defiantly spoke in front of the camera disappeared later.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) condemned Chinese security officials’ arbitrary arrest of Jigme who it said was entitled to freedom of expression. The Centre expressed its deepest concern on the prevailing situation in many parts of Tibet, which have been active in the protests across Tibet.
