By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, April 12: Four Tibetans were given imprisonment sentences for their attempt to reoccupy the land seized by the local Chinese authority for developmental purposes in 2010 in Thangkor Township in Dzoege County in Ngaba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture on April 11, reported RFA.
Rinchen Dorje, Kurde Yeshe and Phurko received two-year term, while Jigjey Kyab, also known as Jigme Kyab was given a three-year term for their alleged misdemeanor, sources said.
Sources also added that in an unusual sentencing agreement, none of them would have to serve out their entire sentence in prison. They would be allowed to serve it out on parole provided they accept to an additional six months, which all of them have agreed to.
Reportedly, during the trial they were asked to disclose the identities of those people who marked and fenced off the land. They were part of the group who had briefly recaptured confiscated community land in Thangkor Township.
“During the proceedings, Jigje Kyab (39) asked the court to spare Rinchen Dorje, who is in poor health, and to send him to prison in his place. However Rinchen Dorje (65) asked that he be sentenced instead of Jigje Kyab, “who is still young and has his whole future ahead of him”,” RFA’s source said.
Kyab played a key role in the January 28, 2015 petition against the forceful confiscation of their land during the meeting of the Sichuan Provincial People’s Congress which led to the arrest of around 11 Tibetans, two among who are still under detention.
Jigme Kyab, the organizer of the petition went into hiding in April, 2015 after two policemen visited his home, reportedly to arrest him, had been entrusted by the fellow nomadic families to keep the documents supporting their claims and justification of their rightful possession of the land.
The Chinese authorities had forcefully evicted around 20 families from their land and nomadic grazing tracts in Thangkor Township in 2010. The houses were demolished under the pretext of an environmental initiative to ‘turn the town green’ by the Chinese authorities.
