By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, April 1: The New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Tuesday called on China’s Public Security Bureau in Gansu Province to disclose the whereabouts and legal status of Kunga Tsayang, who was detained by the authorities last month.
Kunga, a monk from the Amdo Labrang Tashi Kyil Monastery, has written political commentary and his reported disappearance is part of an under an ongoing sweep of Tibetan online writers that began in March 2008 amid Tibet unrest, CPJ said in a statement.
According to the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), which said it had received the information from several sources, Tsayang was arrested by the Public Security Bureau during a late-night raid on March 17 and has not been heard from since.
“We are concerned for the welfare of Kunga Tsayang and call on the Public Security Bureau in Gansu to reveal where and why he is being held,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator.
Tsayang wrote under the pen name Gang-Nyi (Tibetan for “Sun of Snowland”), mostly for the Web site Jottings. According to the Web site Students for a Free Tibet, he was an environmental activist and photographer, but also wrote online political essays with titles such as “Who Is the Real Disturber of Stability?” and “Who Is the Real Instigator of Protests?” A translation of one of his columns (“Who are the Real Separatists?“) can be found on the Web site, Tibet Writes. Tsayang maintained his own Web site as well.
According to CPJ, Tsayang is the third writer to be detained without explanation by authorities in Gansu in recent weeks.
On March 18 CPJ called on China’s public security officials in Gansu to release two Tibetan journalists recently detained or charge them with an offense.
Kunchok Tsephel Gopey Tsang, who ran the Tibetan cultural issues Web site Chomei (The Lamp), was arrested on February 26 and Golok Jigme Gyatso, the monk who assisted the filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen of “leaving fear behind”, was rearrested on the night of March 17.
CPJ said the later two were also still being held without charge.
