Tibet

Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak learned of a new prison holding at least some Tibetan political prisoners during his November 20-December 2, 2005, visit to Beijing, Lhasa, and Urumqi, according to a March 10 "advance edited version" of Nowak’s report on his China visit. The new Qushui Prison is located in Qushui (Chushur) county near Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court commuted a life sentence imposed on Bangri Chogtrul Rinpoche, a Tibetan reincarnated lama, to 19 years of fixed-term imprisonment on July 31, 2003, according to a February 28 statement by the Dui Hua Foundation. Bangri Chogtrul subsequently also received a further one-year sentence reduction on November 17, 2005. Bangri Chogtrul, who is also known as Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche and as Jigme Tenzin Nyima (Jinmei Danzeng Nima), lived as a householder and directed a Lhasa children's home until security officials detained him in August 1999 after another Tibetan attempted to blow himself up in a Lhasa plaza.

Jampa Phuntsog (Xiangba Pingcuo), the Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) government, acknowledged the Dalai Lama's envoys’ February visit to China during "unusually frank" remarks to reporters in Beijing on March 6, according to a Reuters report dated the same day. "We cannot call the talks negotiations now. They are just dialogue, or contact, but the channels for communication have always been smooth," he said, adding that, "We will have further discussions in [the] future. But we haven't yet reached the stage of substantive negotiations." Jampa Phuntsog, who also serves as a Deputy Secretary of the TAR Communist Party Committee, made the comments to the press at a meeting of the TAR delegates to the National People’s Congress (NPC).

Chinese officials in Sichuan province detained eight Tibetan "youths" whom they suspected of involvement in a February campaign to burn wild animal fur used to trim traditional Tibetan garments, according to a February 21 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. Authorities suspect that a "foreign influence" sparked the campaign; Chinese officials usually use this term to refer to the Dalai Lama. The Chinese leadership refuses to acknowledge the Dalai Lama's role as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, and authorities are wary of Tibetan devotion to him.

Thawing permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau could threaten the safe operation of the Qinghai-Tibet railway in as little as 10 years, according to a series of statements by Chinese officials and experts reported by the Chinese news media. In December 2004, a China Daily article described the railway as the "centerpiece of China's ongoing 'develop the west program'." (See the Office of the Leading Group for Western Region Development of the State Council Web site for more information on the Great Western Development program.) Government investment in the railroad totaled about 33 billion yuan, according to an October 15, 2005, China Daily report, and the project will "attract tourists, traders, and ethnic Chinese settlers" to the region.

A court in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP), Gansu province, sentenced five Tibetan monks and nuns in late January to up to three years of imprisonment for displaying and distributing letter-sized posters critical of the Chinese government in 2005, according to a series of reports that emerged beginning in July 2005. Public security officials detained the monks and nuns on May 22, 2005, in Xiahe county, the location of Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery and Gedun Tengyeling Nunnery, where the monks and nuns studied. A January 30 "urgent campaign" document posted on the Web site of the London-based Free Tibet Campaign (FTC) provides the most detailed account available.

The Tibetan government-in-exile announced in a press release on February 15 that the Dalai Lama's envoys, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, arrived in China the same day for the fifth round of talks with Chinese officials on the Tibetan issue. They were accompanied by senior aides. The press release provided no information about the envoys' itinerary or the planned duration of the visit. Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama's Special Envoy, customarily makes a detailed public statement only after the envoys have departed from China and briefed the Dalai Lama in person.