DHARAMSHALA, August 18: A Tibetan woman has been detained by the Chinese police on August 15 in the restive Ngaba town in Amdo following a solitary protest, according to Kanyag Tsering, a Tibetan monk of Kirti monastery here.
23 year old Woekar Kyi shouted slogans demanding “freedom in Tibet” and return of the exiled Tibetan leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Tibet. She also shouted slogan saying the Chinese government had crossed all limits of repression against the Tibetans.
Kyi, a mother of one, is one of the several individuals of Ngaba’s Meruma township, which has been in the news of several self immolations and lone protests by Tibetans.
Kyi was immediately arrested by Chinese police on patrol in Ngaba town that has been at the centre of anti government protests since 2008. Several Tibetans from Ngaba have laid down their lives through self immolations or being shot at by armed security personnel during protests against the government.
Kyi’s whereabouts remain unknown with the Chinese authorities stepping up restrictions on communication.
Kyi arrests follows the detention on 15 July of Wangmo, another nomad from the same area although she was released after a week in detention. Wangmo, a 22-year-old mother of two, had carried a portrait of Dalai Lama and shouted slogans for Tibet’s freedom and Dalai Lama’s return.
Woekar Kyi is a native of nomadic division no.1 of Meuruma town in Ngaba County.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy has expressed its concern about Kyi’s condition and whereabouts of Woekar Kyi and called upon the Chinese authorities to guarantee her physical and psychological integrity.
The TCHRD has documented 17 known solo protests since 2013 and has found all of them to be peaceful. “Despite their non-violent actions, many of the protesters have faced beatings at the hands of local police while being detained. All of them had been arbitrarily detained and held for prolonged time at undisclosed locations subjected to interrogation and more beatings. Some have been given heavy prison terms,” it said.
The right group said Kyi’s detention, like other solo protests, is illegal under international law such as the right to peaceful assembly as well as right to freedom of expression and opinion.
