DHARAMSHALA, September 3: In growing crackdown on Tibetans in connection with the spate of self-immolations in Tibet, two more Tibetans have been arbitrarily arrested in the beleaguered Ngaba region of eastern Tibet.
The arrests follow the twin self-immolations of Lobsang Kalsang, 18, a monk at the Kirti Monastery and Dhamchoe, 17, a former monk at the same monastery.
Dharamshala based rights group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in a release today identified the two as Jamyang Khyenkho, a 60-year-old layman and Lobsang Sangyal, a monk at the Kirti Monastery, who was a close cousin of Lobsang Kalsang.
The well being and whereabouts of both Tibetans remain unknown since their arbitrary detaintion on August 27 in separate incidents.
“Lobsang Sangyal, around 22, was detained on the night of August 28 from his residence at Kirti Monastery in Ngaba,” TCHRD said. “Sangyal was a close cousin of monk Lobsang Kelsang, 18, who on August 27 died of self-immolation protest. Sangyal hails from Raruwa nomadic village in Ngaba County.”
Jayang Khyenkho, a father of three, was detained from his home on August 28 on the “suspicion that he had contacted individuals outside Tibet,” TCHRD cited sources as saying.
“However, it is unclear on what charges he was detained,” TCHRD said.
The exile base of the Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala in a release said Chinese security officials have built new structures around the Monastery in a bid to increase their round the clock vigilance at the monastery.
The Kirti Monastery has been at the centre of the ongoing wave of fiery protests with a number of its monks ‘missing’ or sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
In June, a senior Tibetan monk at the Khashi Geyphel Samtenling Monastery in Ngaba, Lho Younten Gyatso, was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Ngaba Intermediate People’s Court for sharing pictures and information on nun Tenzin Wangmo, who self-immolated on October 17, 2011.
The Central Tibetan Administration has said that Tibet is “effectively under undeclared martial law” and blamed the Chinese government for the increasing number of self-immolations.
“The whole of Tibet is effectively under undeclared martial law, and remains closed to foreign tourists and journalists. Such brutal response from the Chinese government has pushed an increasing number of Tibetans to continue taking drastic steps,” the exile Administration said.
Since 2009, 51 Tibetans inside Tibet have set themselves on fire demanding Tibet’s freedom and the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama from exile. The month of August alone has witnessed seven self-immolations and a spate of protests, leading to the death and brutal beatings of Tibetan demonstrators
The US Congressional Commission on China in a special report noted that the wave of self-immolations is “concurrent with increasing Chinese Communist Party and government use of legal measures to repress and control core elements of Tibetan culture, and with the failure of the China-Dalai Lama dialogue process to achieve any sign of progress.”
