DHARAMSHALA, April 15: A Tibetan man has been missing since Monday after a visit by officials from the local Chinese government in Tibet’s Dzoege County, a Tibetan source said. The visit by officials was in connection with his involvement in a protest against forced land grab five years back.
Jigjey Kyab, a 39 year old Tibetan living in Thangkor township in Dzoege County, disappeared shortly after officials from the local Chinese government came to his home reportedly to arrest him in connection with a protest against county government’s forced acquisition of land five years ago.
A police officer named Tashi from the county police had asked Kyab on April 12 to report to the County authorities, said the source. However, Kyab refused to go.
Tashi, accompanied by other Chinese Policemen, came to Jigjey’s house to arrest him in the morning of April 12 but local residents prevented the arrest. However, neighbors and his family members found him missing from his home in the afternoon.
Jigjey had been entrusted by the fellow nomadic families whose land had been seized by government to keep the documents supporting their claims and justification of their rightful possession of the land.
Family members and relatives approached the local police but were told that JIgjey has not been detained. However, local residents are certain that he had been detained secretly.
A video circulating on the Internet shows a man from the Karuma Nomadic community in Thankor Township speaking about Jigjey’s disappearance and their resolve to take the matter to higher authorities.
In 2010, the Chinese government authorities in the county had seized land of around 20 nomadic families of Karuma Nomadic community. The local residents have voiced their concerns through appeals to the county authorities but no action has been taken until now, the source added.
Local residents believe that the county officials are retaliating against the local Tibetans’ threat that they would take the forced land grab matter to the prefecture level, provincial level and even central government.
Tibetan nomads from the same community of Dzoege sat on protest outside the venue of 12th Sichuan Provincial People’s Congress in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, demanding justice.
Jigjey’s wife has, in a letter written in Chinese and now on the Internet, expressed hope that the government will do justice to her husband and the nomadic community. She expressed concerns that her husband had already been arrested in 2010 for protesting against forced acquisition of nomadic land by the county authorities.
