New Details on Cases of Tibetan Political Imprisonment

Information has reached TIN based on official Chinese sources about several cases of political imprisonment in Sichuan, Gansu, and Qinghai Provinces, and in the TAR. Chinese authorities deny that there are any ‘political prisoners’ in the PRC, and characterise these as cases in which someone ‘endangered state security.’ China’s first Criminal Law, passed in 1979, punished criticism or protest against the Communist Party and government as ‘counterrevolution,’ even when it was peaceful and constituted no threat to the state. When the law was revised in 1997, the phrase ‘endangering state security’ replaced ‘counterrevolution,’ but the application of the law remains little changed.

Earlier this year, TIN published a report on current cases of Tibetan political imprisonment. A key finding was the apparent divergence of trends in Qinghai and Gansu Provinces, where levels of known Tibetan political imprisonment have fallen to low levels, and in Sichuan Province, where imprisonment has surged since 1999. The rise in Sichuan has been propelled by the jailing of respected local religious figures such as Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, sentenced in December 2002 to death with a two-year reprieve for conspiracy to cause explosions, and Geshe Sonam Phuntsog, whose five-year sentence for inciting splittism will expire in October. Political prisoner numbers in the TAR continue to decline as inmates completing their sentences outnumber newly convicted prisoners. Sichuan’s exception, according to TIN data, has been sufficient to offset the declining numbers in other provinces.
[See: TIN News Update on 06 February 2004: Current Trends in Tibetan Political Imprisonment Increase in Sichuan; Decline in Qinghai and Gansu]

Based on the new information, TIN records now indicate that there are four current cases of known or presumed political imprisonment in Qinghai Province and none in Gansu. These levels—which obviously cannot reflect undetected cases—are the lowest TIN has documented since 1987-1988. TAR Prison (a.k.a. Drapchi Prison, and formerly known as TAR Prison No. 1), Pome Prison (a.k.a. Bomi Prison or Powo Prison), and Lhasa Prison (formerly known as Utritru) are the TAR’s three formally designated prisons (jianyu). According to authorities, they currently hold a total of approximately 2,500 prisoners. The majority (86 percent) are sentenced for property crimes. Three percent, or about 75 inmates, have convictions that include the charge of ‘endangering state security’ or ‘counterrevolution.’ Most are in TAR Prison.

The number of current cases of Tibetan political imprisonment recorded in the TIN database roughly accords with official enumeration. But in Sichuan, the number of cases PRC authorities acknowledged-less than ten-is a fraction of those recorded in the TIN database as currently confirmed detained, or presumed so.

Prisoners about whom official information is available are listed below, arranged by province. Basic case information is based on TIN database archives. Details based on official PRC sources are in italics following each entry. None of the new details have been independently verified.

Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR)

• Ngawang Phuljung, a native of Toelung Dechen County and a monk of Drepung Monastery, was imprisoned for the second time in April 1989 and sentenced to 19 years for his leadership of a group of Drepung monks who had participated in a peaceful political demonstration in 1987, and used wooden blocks to print copies of speeches by the Dalai Lama, a proposed future constitution for Tibet, and the U.N. Declaration of Universal Human Rights. Charges against him included ‘founding a counterrevolutionary clique,’ ‘inflammatory agitation’ and ‘seriously undermining national security.’ The comment below signals that sentence reduction or early release are not likely.
  “Ngawang Phulhung is in TAR Prison. He has not reformed.”
  [See: TIN News Update on 04 August 2003: Sentence reductions reported for two of Drepung’s “Group of Ten”]
  
• Jamphel Jangchub, a native of Toelung Dechen and a monk of Drepung Monastery, was detained, charged, tried and sentenced along with Ngawang Phuljung and several other monks. His sentence was reduced from 19 years to 16 years in 1994, but TIN did not learn of the reduction until 2003 when the Dui Hua Foundation obtained sentencing information from Chinese authorities. Jamphel Jangchub’s sentence is scheduled to expire on 7 April 2005.
  “Jamphel Jangchub is in TAR Prison. He has received a sentence reduction.”
  
• Nyima Choedron, former nun, wife of Bangrim Tsamtrul Rinpoche (a.k.a. Jigme Tenzin Nyima Rinpoche), and co-director of the former Gyatso Children’s Home, was detained in August 1999 along with her husband and, reportedly, other Gyatso Home staff members. The following year, the Lhasa Intermediate People’s court sentenced Nyima Choedron to ten years and her husband to 15 years on charges that included espionage. Both were transferred to TAR Prison. Nyima Choedron received a sentence reduction of one year six months in 2002. No news has reached TIN of a reduction for her husband.
  “Nyima Choedron received a second sentence reduction of one year in 2003. Her sentence is now seven years and six months.”
  [See: TIN News Update on 06 June 2002: Confirmation of sentence for orphanage director]
  
• Ngawang Tensang, a native of Toelung Dechen County and a monk of Drepung Monastery, was detained in September 1991 after he joined other monks in a peaceful political demonstration near Lhasa’s Jokhang Temple. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and transferred to TAR Prison. After the 1998 prison protests, reports reached TIN that Ngawang Tensang’s sentence had been extended by five years to 15 years for participating in the demonstration. However, TIN has not been able to confirm that the extension was imposed, or its length. If the comment below is accurate, it suggests that he may not have received an extension, or that it was less than five years long, or that he was transferred to another prison. TIN has not received any further details.
  “Ngawang Tensang is not in TAR Prison.” [No other detail available.]
  

Sichuan Province

The TIN Special Report in February listed 46 cases of confirmed or presumed current political detention in Sichuan Province. Official PRC information acknowledges only six of them.

• Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a native of Lithang County (Litang) in Kardze TAP (Ganzi), headed several monasteries, including Jamyang Choekhorling in Nyagchu County, his main residence. He was detained in April 2002 along with Lobsang Dondrub and investigated in connection with a series of bombings in Kardze TAP and one in Chengdu. He was tried and convicted in a closed court in Kangding, the prefectural capital, on 29 November 2002. On 2 December he was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve for conspiring to cause explosions and incitement to separatism. Lobsang Dondrub was accused of having set off the bombs and was sentenced to death. Tenzin Deleg appealed his conviction. On 26 January 2003, the Sichuan Province Higher People’s Court upheld both sentences. Lobsang Dondrub was executed the same day near Kangding. Chinese authorities and media have described the case against the men, but no details have been made public. Authorities claim that the case entails “state secrets,” thus precluding public disclosure of information about any evidence. According to officials, both men confessed, an allegation that Tenzin Deleg reportedly refuted on a cassette tape smuggled out of the prison in January 2003. Based on the information below, which portrays Tenzin Deleg as penitent and well behaved, it appears possible that his reprieved death sentence would be commuted to either life imprisonment or a fixed term sentence of 15 to 20 years.
  “Tenzin Deleg’s two-year reprieve began on the day that the Higher People’s Court upheld his sentence, 26 January 2003, and will expire in January 2005. He confessed, pleaded guilty and has ‘accepted his crimes,’ according to PRC authorities. He has memorized the prison regulations and abides by them. He is permitted to engage in Buddhist chanting, and to read Tibetan-language newspapers. He has a Tibetan-speaking guard, eats meals prepared by a Tibetan cook, and has gained weight. The tape-recording of Tenzin Deleg’s plea of innocence, reported by Western media, is a ‘fake.'”
  [See: TIN News Update on 05 May 2002: Senior Rinpoche detained on “bombing” charges]
  
• Geshe Sonam Phuntsog, a resident of Kardze County, Kardze TAP, and a teacher at Dargye Monastery, was detained in October 1999. He is serving a five-year sentence in Ngaba Prison that is due to expire later this year. According to his sentencing document, which reached the International Campaign for Tibet and has been translated by Dui Hua, his conviction for ‘inciting splittism’ stems chiefly from convening an unauthorized religious ceremony and advising attendees to heed the teachings of the Dalai Lama.
  “Sonam Phuntsog is in prison in Sichuan Province.”
  [See: TIN News Update on 17 November 1999:Demonstration in Sichuan follows arrest of religious leader]
  
• Tsering Dorje, a farmer living in Kardze County, was detained in October 2002, allegedly for his role in a long-life prayer ceremony for the Dalai Lama held at Tibetan New Year (Losar) the preceding February. The Dalai Lama was ill at the time and had cancelled an important religious teaching (Kalachakra) in India. Unofficial information reaching TIN in 2003 indicated that Tsering Dorje was serving a three-year sentence of administrative detention in an unknown location. The comment below acknowledges current imprisonment, but provides no detail about the type or length of the sentence, or the place of detention. Several others from the same village were reportedly imprisoned in connection with the prayer ceremony. “Tsering Dorje is in prison in Sichuan Province.”
  
• Sangga, a native of Sangchu County (Xiahe) in Kanlho TAP (Gannan) in Gansu Province, and a monk of Togden Monastery in Ngaba County (Aba), Ngaba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province, was reportedly detained in July 2001 and accused of copying and distributing photographs of the Dalai Lama. According to a report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), he was sentenced to four years imprisonment the following August.
  “Sangga is in prison in Sichuan Province.”
  
• Tashi Nyima, a monk of Gepheling Monastery in Kardze County, was reportedly detained in September 1998, possibly for putting up posters supporting the Dalai Lama’s recognition of Gedun Choekyi Nyima as the Panchen Lama. According to unofficial information reaching TIN, he is serving a sentence of unknown length in Ngaba Prison.
  “Tashi Nyima is in prison in Sichuan Province.”
  
• Lobsang Tenzin, also known as Butrug, a farmer in Kardze County, was detained in October 1990, allegedly for putting up pro-independence posters and displaying a Tibetan flag. According to reports reaching TIN in 2001, his health was poor. His sentence, believed to be 14 years, is expected to expire later this year.
  “Lobsang Tenzin is in prison in Sichuan Province.”
  

Qinghai Province The TIN Special Report in February listed four cases of confirmed or presumed current political detention in Qinghai.

• Lobsang Dargyal, a monk of Rabgya Monastery in Machen County (Maqin), Golog TAP (Guoluo), was detained in mid-2001 after returning from India, sentenced to 15 years in October 2001, and imprisoned at the Qinghai Hydro-Electric Equipment Plant in the western outskirts of Xining. He reportedly died in hospital in November 2002 while serving his sentence.
  “Lobsang Dargyal was sent to a hospital and died there. Illness, possibly liver disease, may have been the cause of death. His role in a 1997 plan to help a prominent incarnate lama, Shingsang Rinpoche, escape to India, was a factor in his conviction and sentence.”
  [See: TIN News Update on 18 April 2003: New information on laogai in Amdo]
  
• Monlam, from Chentsa County (Jianza) of Malho TAP (Huangnan), was a monk of Ditsa Monastery in Hualong Hui Autonomous County of Haidong Prefecture. He was detained in early 1997.
  The Xining Intermediate Court sentenced Monlam to three years imprisonment for ‘splitting the country.’ Another man, Sherab Gyatso, was sentenced to one year in the same case. Monlam travelled to India in the early 1990s and met someone in one of the exiled Tibetan government offices who urged him to return to and set up a pro-independence organization. In Qinghai, Monlam and Sherab Gyatso wrote letters for the purpose of promoting independence and ‘provoking discord among minorities and seeking Tibet independence.’ [No other details available about Sherab Gyatso.]
  
• Kalsang Dondrub and Ngawang Dondrub, monks of Dragkar Traldzong Monastery in Tsigorthang County (Xinghai), Tsolho TAP (Hainan), were detained in July 2002 and sentenced to three years imprisonment in January 2003 for ‘attempting to split the nation.’ TIN reported in June last year that the two had founded an organization named ‘Chol Sum Dendzin Tsogpa’ (‘Holding the Three Provinces as the Truth’).
  “The two monks established a group, ‘The Three Area Justice Society.’ It was well organised, with membership certificates and a 12-page charter. The objectives were to overthrow the Communist Party leadership, drive the Chinese government out of Tibetan areas, and establish independence.” [No information about place of imprisonment.]
  [See: TIN News Update on 09 June 2003: Two Tibetan monks sentenced for ‘endangering state security’]
  
• Details on another case of sentencing for ‘splittist’ activity in 1999 emerged.
  Namgyal Tsering, from Rebgong County (Tongren) in Malho TAP, studied Tibetan medicine at the Qinghai Medical College in Xining. In 1997 he obtained a large number of photos of Gedun Choekyi Nyima [the Panchen Lama recognized by the Dalai Lama]. He distributed the photos using various means, including the post office. He was detained in May 1999 and sentenced to three years imprisonment in 2000 for ‘agitation and splitting the country.’”
  

Gansu Province

The TIN Special Report in February listed the three following cases of presumed current political detention in Gansu Province.

• Tenpa’i Gyaltsen, a native of Pari Tibetan Autonomous County (Tianzhu) in Wuwei Prefecture, was a student at the Gansu Buddhist Institute in Sangchu (Xiahe), Kanlho TAP. He was reportedly detained in June 2000.
  He was investigated on suspicion of having ‘unlawfully split the country’ and released without charge after confessing and writing a statement of repentance.
  
• Lobsang Samphel, born in Sangchu County, was a monk at Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery, located in the Sangchu county seat. He was reportedly detained in May 2000.
  He was investigated on suspicion of having ‘unlawfully split the country’ and released without charge after confessing and writing a statement of repentance.
  
• Konchog Choephel, a native of Machu County (Maqu) in Kanlho TAP, had been a monk at Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery. According to TIN records, he was detained for a few months in mid-1995 on suspicion of putting up political posters. He was detained again in April 2003, possibly in connection with possessing political literature.
  He was investigated on suspicion of having ‘unlawfully split the country’ and released without charge after confessing and writing a statement of repentance.