Tibet

About 70 Tibetans, many recent college graduates, protested in mid-July outside government offices in the Qinghai provincial capital of Xining, according to a July 14 report by Radio Free Asia (RFA). The Tibetans, who reside in Xunhua Salar Autonomous County in Haidong prefecture, claimed that local authorities discriminate against Tibetans in hiring to fill government jobs and favor ethnic Han and Salar applicants. Police reportedly beat and detained eight protestors, including "ringleader" Dukar Kyab, and ordered the rest to return home on July 13. County officials contacted by telephone refused to comment to RFA about the protests or the eight "missing" Tibetans and denied that they had been arrested.

An official of the Shigatse (Rikaze) Prefecture Intermediate People's Court, located in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), acknowledged that during the past decade the court sentenced more than 20 Tibetans to between one and five years imprisonment for offenses that included possessing photos of the Dalai Lama, according to a September 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. The official, who declined to be identified, asserted the court's authority to "sentence any individual who commits reactionary actions." He confirmed an RFA report on August 11 that an 18-year-old Tibetan had been imprisoned in 2001 for bringing religious material featuring the Dalai Lama's photo with him when he returned from India to his family home in Gansu province.

Chinese security officers in Lhasa detained Sonam, a monk employed at Lhasa's Potala Palace, on or about August 21, according to a September 17 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. In his early 40s, Sonam has worked at the Potala since the 1980s, and was considered a trustworthy employee, according to the report. Authorities sent him on an official visit to Nepal in the mid-1990s, and recently promoted him to the position of chapel caretaker. HRW received unconfirmed reports that two other Potala monks were detained about the same time, and may have been released.

Vice Governor Wu Jingjie of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) has suggested that Gedun Choekyi Nyima, recognized by the Dalai Lama in 1995 as the Panchen Lama, is living in the TAR, according to a Reuters report posted on Phayul.com, a Tibetan news site. "I wish you to believe he is living in his hometown happily," Wu told a group of journalists touring central Tibet on a government-arranged itinerary. Vice Governor Wu's rare hint about the family's location has not been independently confirmed. Wu explained the family's isolation since 1995, saying, "His family and himself do not want interference from the outside world." Gedun Choekyi Nyima's home is in Lhari county (Jiali) in the TAR.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on September 20 called for the Chinese government "to allow an independent body to verify the current status" of Gedun Choekyi Nyima, the boy the Dalai Lama recognized in 1995 as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama. During meetings in Geneva, UNCRC Chairman Jacob Doek said the boy "has been taken against his and his parents' will from Tibet to China," and told the Chinese representative that Chinese authorities could "clear the air" by allowing a visit, according to a report the following day by the exiled Tibetan government. The Chinese official reportedly replied that he would forward the request, and advised Chairman Doek that the Chinese government has not permitted "foreigners" to visit the boy and his parents because "too much interference creates too many problems," and the family does not want "to be disturbed due to security reasons." The U.S.

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has recommended that the Chinese government "allow an independent expert to visit and confirm the well-being" of Gedun Choekyi Nyima, the boy the Dalai Lama recognized as the Panchen Lama in 1995, in Concluding Observations of a report published on September 30. The UNCRC, a part of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, also urges Chinese authorities to "take all necessary measures to ensure the full implementation" of its Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, and to respect the religious freedom of Tibetan children by allowing them to choose to receive a religious education, to participate in religious festivals, and to choose whether or not to attend classes on atheism.

Monks at Drepung Monastery in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), found 28-year-old monk Ngawang Jangchub dead in his room in early October, the day after he argued with instructors teaching “patriotic education” classes at the monastery, according to a November 8 report by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). Ngawang Jangchub apparently refused to comply with a requirement to denounce the Dalai Lama as a "splittist" and pledge loyalty to the Chinese government, requirements under patriotic education, and defended the Dalai Lama's role as a Buddhist leader. In addition, he said that Tibet is not a historical part of China. Ngawang Jangchub reportedly told instructors that he knew he could face expulsion from the monastery for making the remarks, but that he did not regret his words.

Police in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), interrupted a July prayer session at one of Lhasa's principle monasteries, "fired" the presiding monastic official, and subjected him to one year of surveillance (see Criminal Procedure Law, Chapter VI), according to a November 18 Radio Free Asia (RFA) report. Jangchub Gyaltsen, a "disciplinarian" at Sera Monastery who was responsible for ensuring that monks adhere to monastic rules, was reading aloud a prayer request that a Tibetan worshipper asked another Sera monk, Tsering Dondrub, to write. Public security officials heard Jangchub Gyaltsen read a reference to the Dalai Lama and seized the paper slip from him, according to an RFA source who spoke on the condition of anonymity.