Asks for free and fair trial
Dharamsala 27 June – “We urgently urge the Chinese authorities to release the three Tibetans who were arrested in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa in the morning of 16 June,” said Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the Kalon Tripa of the Central Tibetan Administrations. “We would also urge the Chinese authorities to ensure that the three Tibetans are given a free and fair trial and that they are not mistreated while under police custody.”
Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche was reacting to news reports that three Tibetans who are identified as Yeshi Gyatso, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference of Lhasa city and Tashi Dawa and Buchung, students at the Tibet University in Lhasa city, were accused by the authorities of “involvement in activities to split the motherland,” a general and ambiguous term that covers everything from the exercise of free expression to possessing a photograph of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
The three arrested Tibetans were accused by the authorities of spreading rumors and instigating other Tibetans to involve in what the authorities consider splittist activities. No one knows where the three arrested Tibetans are detained.
Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche said, he would like to urge the international community to impress upon China to immediately release the three Tibetans and to ensure that they are given the right to a free and fair trial.
On another point, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche has urged the royal government of Nepal to release into the custody of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the 19 Tibetans the Nepalese police has detained on 17 June in the western district of Achham. Kalon Tripa urges the Nepalese authorities not to hand these Tibetans back to Chinese authorities as they have done in the case of 18 Tibetans who were deported to Tibet on 31 May this year.
Contact:
Thubten Samphel, Secretary
Sonam N. Dagpo, Additional Secretary
Department of Information & International Relations
Central Tibetan Administration
Dharamshala, H.P., India
Tel: +91 (1892) 222510, 222457, 224473, 224846
