By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, November 18: Chinese authorities Chabcha County in Tsolho (Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have on October 28 released a Tibetan man, the last person to be released among 27 Tibetans detained in June for protesting against an illegal mining by Chinese miners.
According to US funded Radio Free Asia, Donkho was held for over five months, longest period in detention among those arrested as authorities believed him to be the ringleader of the protests against mining. All others were released after being in detention for a few weeks.
In June this year, Chinese authorities detained 27 Tibetans for protesting against the mining activities that ran beyond the expiration of its contract and had begun to encroach on sacred sites in Karsel village. Tibetans had pledged to block the Chinese mining activities that had begun to affect the local environment.
The Chinese have been reportedly mining white marble from the region since 1989, past its expiration of contract.
A number of illegal mining activities have been reported this year with Tibetans continuing to resist the escalating rate of illegal mining in Tibet.
In May, 32-year-old Phakpa Gyaltsen died on the spot after stabbing himself and jumping from a building in protest against Chinese mining activities in Tongbar region of Zogang County in Chamdo
Since 2009, 133 Tibetans have set themselves on fire protesting against China’s occupation of Tibet and its hard-line policies. The Tibetan government in exile maintains that the self-immolations “represent a new threshold of Tibetan despair and resentment” and attributes the current crisis in Tibet to China’s policies of “political and religious repression, economic marginalization, social discrimination, cultural assimilation and environmental destruction in Tibet.
