By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, May 2: A Tibetan monk accused of leading a major anti China protests in Zatoe in Kardze during the 2008 nation wide protests has been released after spending six years in Chinese jail.
Lobsang Dhonyoe, 52, a monk of Gonsar Monastery in Dege County, Kardze, was welcomed upon arrival at his native town of Zatoe township by fellow Tibetans with Tibetan wellwishing scarves.
Lobsang, 42 then, was arrested on April 28, 2008 following a protest by monks of Gonsar Monastery during which he raised the banned Tibetan national flag. He was accused of leading the protest against the Chinese government.
Lobsang was sentenced on October 28, 2008 by the Kardze County People’s Intermediate Court to six years’ imprisonment for “splittist” activities against the government, a most common and “arbitrary” charge faced by Tibetan political prisoners.
A Tibetan source who spent prison term with him have said that the Chinese authorities subjected Lobsang to “severe torture” in prison, a common practice claimed by several former political prisoners to have undergone during their imprisonment.
Several protests against the Chinese government by Tibetans have been seen in various areas of Tibet since 2008 when massive anti government protests swept the Tibetan plateau.
131 Tibetans, since 2009, have expressed their opposition to Beijing’s policies in Tibet and demanded the return of the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama to Tibet by setting their bodies on fire.
