Tibet Sun Newsroom
December 3, 2015
Kirti monk, Dukda, aged 49 years, was arrested by police from his room one night in late November 2015.
Kirti Monastery Handout
Exile Tibetans are reporting arbitrary arrests and imprisonment of Tibetans in Kirti in Tibet’s Amdo region, according to Losang Yeshe and Kanyag Tsering of the Kirti monastery in exile based in McLeod Ganj, Dharamshala.
A Chinese court in Li county (Tib: Tashiling Dzong), Ngaba prefecture, has sentenced Kirti monk Gendun Phuntsok to four years imprisonment. He was immediately taken to Mianyang prison near Chengdu where most of the political prisoners in Sichuan are held. No more details of the trial are known.
Eighteen-year-old Phuntsok was sentenced around the end of October. The sentencing was because of his protest in the streets of Ngaba county town on 8 March, marching with a portrait of the Dalai Lama wrapped in a yellow khata [ceremonial scarf] held to his head and shouting “Let the Dalai Lama return! Freedom and equality for Tibet!”
Nothing has been heard of him since his arrest that day. He is from the Chukle Gabma pastoral area in Cha village. He joined the monastery at a young age.
On 2 November, another Kirti monk Lobsang Kelsang, 19, was sentenced to three and a half years by the same court, and was also taken to Mianyang prison. No further details of the trial are available.
Lobsang Kelsang protested on 17 March on the streets of Ngaba county town, holding up a portrait of the Dalai Lama in one hand and scattering lungta [slips of paper printed with prayers] while chanting “Freedom for Tibet!”
Nothing more is known since his arrest. He is also from Chukle Gabma. He joined the monastery at a young age, and was studying in class two at the time of his arrest.
It is also reported that on the night of 30 November, Kirti monk Lobsang Gephel, 28, was arrested by police from his bedroom at the monastery and was taken away. It is known only that he is being detained in the county town, no further details are available.
He is a former political prisoner, previously arrested in May 2011, detained for a long period, and eventually sentenced to three years in prison. He was released early, at the end of 2013.
He is from division no. 2 of the Meruma pastoral district. He joined the monastery at a young age and is presently a manager at the medical college.
Another Kirti monk, Dukda, aged 49 years, was also arrested by police from his room one night around that same time. He is also a former political prisoner, arrested in 2008 and sentenced to one year and four months. He is from Soruma.
