By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, June 30: A Tibetan nun missing since her detention during the widespread uprising in 2008 has reportedly died in police custody owing to the torture she sustained in police custody, said the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
According to TCHRD, the family members of Yeshi Lhakdron, a nun from Dragkar Nunnery, were forced to conclude that she had succumbed to torture in police custody after lengthy enquires made by her family.
Yeshi went missing along with two other nuns from the same nunnery eight years ago in Kardze County in Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan Province. The two nuns, Sangay Lhamo and Tsewang Khando were sentenced to two years each and were released after completing their prison terms. However, there is still no information about Yeshi.
Pema Wangyal, Yeshi’s relative and a monk from Drepung Monastery in Mundgod, told TCHRD that they were arrested for staging a peaceful protest in Kardze County, raising slogans such as ‘Tibet belongs to Tibetans’, ‘Tibetans want Human Rights’. They also threw leaflets with slogans like ‘Long live the Dalai Lama’, ‘Freedom in Tibet’.
They were all transferred to a government hospital in the county following their interrogation during which they were subjected to beatings and torture. The monk said her family members were not allowed to meet them.
“Words leaked through nurses in the hospital that one of the three nuns died in the hospital. The other two nuns were released after two years. But Yeshi never returned home,” the monk said.
The other two nuns had no information about Yeshi since they were all detained in separate cells and were in hoods during interrogation.
Yeshi’s family has already conducted funeral rituals for Yeshi in various monasteries.
Yeshi Lhakdron was born and raised in Tsochu Village in Sershiuting Township in Kardze County. She was 25 at the time of her detention. Her father Ngodup Sonam is a former political prisoner who had been imprisoned twice for holding peaceful protest against Chinese rule.
