Phayul Bureau report

New Delhi, September 17 – A Tibetan journalist was arrested around midnight on September 11, reports Voice of Tibet radio service. Voice of Tibet reported that Rangjhung who was working for the Sertha television station as a news reporter and a newscaster was picked up from his home in Amdo Golok. The whereabouts and the exact reason for his arrest are unknown at the moment.

Sertha Tsuiltrim Woser, a member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile, told the radio service that Rangjhung is an employee at the Sertha Television station, and was responsible for gathering news and reading news for the TV. Tsuiltrim further said that it is not clear where the Tibetan journalist is detained. “I heard that the officials who arrested him were not local but from the Kardze Prefecture or Sichuan. No one knows where he has been held at the moment”, Tsultrim told the VOT.

Rangjhung is 25 years old, and worked as a teacher for a year before becoming a TV journalist. He is man of many talents, says Tsuiltrim. “He composed 2 books, and also wrote a book of lyrics”.

With China putting a tight lid on the flow of information from inside Tibet, news have emerged from Tibet that one nun died of beatings and 2 others were sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment in June. Geshe Monlam Tharchin, a member of the TPIE told the VOT that on 8 June, a Tibetan nun named Tsering from Samtenling Nunnery in Draggo county pasted posters and distributed leaflets calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. The nuns of Samtenling Nunnery marched towards the town to stage protests in support with Tsering but were stopped on the way by the Chinese security officials. The radio service reported that the Chinese soldiers stopped the nuns and tortured them.

One nun named Guru was hit on the head with iron baton. Her hands tied, she was thrown from a moving vehicle which caused her head to hit the hard surface of the ground. She was taken to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries. “The Chinese authorities told her family that she committed suicide but her family later found out that the cause of her death was not suicide but head injury.” Monlam also said that 2 other nuns, Tsering Tso, 27 and her sister Ugen Lhamo, 32, were sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment.