Tibet
Yang Chuantang, the Communist Party secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) since December 2004, suffered an "attack of cardio-cerebral apoplexy" on September 17 and, following emergency surgery in Lhasa, was evacuated to Beijing, according to an October 3 report in the Ming Pao newspaper published in Hong Kong. The Ming Pao account said that Yang received additional treatment in Beijing and is in stable condition. The TAR government press office confirmed the report, and told Ming Pao that Jampa Phuntsog (Xiangba Pingcuo), deputy secretary of the TAR Party Committee and chairman of the TAR government, has assumed control of "daily work."
The Dalai Lama told approximately 9,000 Tibetans who traveled from Tibetan areas of China to southern India to attend a Buddhist event that education, not guns and knives, would enable them to fight for the rights [that] are enshrined in the Chinese Constitution, according to a January 17 report by the Tibetan government-in-exile. In closing remarks at the 11-day religious teaching, known as the Kalachakra, the Dalai Lama said that he is not seeking Tibetan independence, and that he is working for a solution to the issue of Tibet based on the Middle Way Approach and within the constitutional framework of the People's Republic of China.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports that two monks of Chogri Monastery, Dzokar and Tobden, and layman Lobsang Tsering were detained last July in Luhuo County (Tibetan: Draggo), in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (Tibetan: Kardze), Sichuan province. According to RFA's sources, police suspected the three of putting up pro-independence posters on local government buildings. They were sentenced to three years imprisonment.
The men were among 60 Tibetans detained during a reception for a Tibetan Buddhist teacher visiting from Switzerland. Witnesses told RFA that a religious banner was displayed at the ceremony that featured a snow lion motif, thus resembling the banned Tibetan flag. Most were released after a few days, but authorities continued to hold the two Chogri monks and the third man in connection with posters that had appeared the same month.
The Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, based in Dharamsala, India, reported on October 27 that Buddhist teacher Sonam Phuntsog has been released from Chuandong No. 3 Prison in Sichuan province. On October 26, police drove him to his residence in Rongpatsang township, Kardze (Ganzi) County, Kardze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. He was detained in October 1999 and sentenced to five years imprisonment in November 2000 on charges of separatism after he led a prayer ceremony for the Dalai Lama.
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Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on January 11, 2005, that police in Kangding, the capital of Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Sichuan province, have detained a former monk on suspicion of starting a fire in the building housing the prefectural people’s congress. Police in Ganzi confirmed to RFA that a fire had occurred, but they declined to comment on the investigation or any arrests. The building "burned to the ground" in the early hours of December 23, according to RFA’s sources, but no casualties were reported. On January 11 Tibet Information Network (TIN) reported that the fire began about 3:00 AM and that the extent of the damage was unknown.
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The U.S. Senate passed Senate Resolution 483 by unanimous consent on Tuesday, December 7. The resolution expresses the sense of the Senate that, "China is in violation of international human rights standards by detaining and mistreating Tibetans who engage in peaceful activities to protest China's repression of Tibetans or promote the preservation of a distinct Tibetan identity," and calls on China to release imprisoned Tibetan lama Tenzin Deleg and all other political prisoners.
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Xinhua reported on December 30, 2004, that an official of the Sichuan Province High People’s Court said that the two-year reprieve of Tenzin Deleg’s death sentence will end on January 26, 2005. According to the report, the court sentenced the monk to death in 2003 for “financing and supporting a series of terrorist bombings and secession activities,” but granted a reprieve. In such circumstances, Chinese law requires that the death sentence be commuted to life imprisonment if a convicted person does not violate the law again during the reprieve. The warden of the prison where Tenzin Deleg is imprisoned has said that he has not committed any additional crimes and has abided by prison regulations. The report disclosed that Tenzin Deleg suffered from coronary heart disease and high blood pressure before he was detained, and that he has been receiving medication and quarterly checkups while in prison.
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On January 13, 2005, the European Parliament adopted provisional wording of joint resolution expressing support for the rule of law and calling on China’s government to commute Tenzin Deleg’s reprieved death sentence. The resolution welcomed "the statement by the Chinese authorities according to which anyone who is sentenced to death with a suspension of execution and commits no crime of intent during the period of suspension shall have their punishment commuted to life imprisonment on the expiration of the two-year period." The reprieve will expire on January 26. The EU parliament's daily press summary reported that the resolution was adopted with 99 votes in favor, two opposed, and seven abstentions.
Tibet Information Network (TIN) has obtained new information about sentence reductions and releases from prison for several Tibetan political prisoners. According to the TIN report, the Dui Hua Foundation of San Francisco recently received an unprecedented amount of prisoner information from the Chinese government in response to longstanding requests. The Chinese response involved information about individuals who have been sentenced for crimes of counterrevolution or endangering state security. The response includes information about 13 Tibetans. John Kamm, the Executive Director of Dui Hua, stressed that not only did Chinese officials provide information about prisoners in reply to formal requests from other governments, but they also profferred information about prisoners who had previously been unknown.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported on February 13 that five monks of Dragkar Traldzong Monastery in Qinghai province have been sentenced to prison terms of two to three years, "apparently for publishing politically sensitive poems." The abbot, Tashi Gyaltsen, was reportedly one of those imprisoned. The monks were detained in mid-January 2005 and sentenced about three weeks later, according to RFA’s source, who asked not to be named. The monks were involved in producing a monastic newsletter that contained a poem that officials may have interpreted as praising two monks from the same monastery who were jailed in mid-2002 for pro-independence activity.