New refugee details previously unreported political imprisonments in Tibet

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(TibetanReview.net, Aug15, 2014) –Much more number of Tibetans were held and sentenced for taking part in peaceful protests over the period of 2008-2009 than were known or reported in the outside world, said Dharamshala-based Tibetan centre for Human Rights and Democracy Aug 13 while presenting a smuggled list containing details about 45 such people held in one prison in Sichuan Province. The centre said 18 of those in the list of Tibetan prisoners, who were held in the province’s Huang Xu Town, Deyang City, were not known to it before.

List of Tibetan Prisoners new
Gonpo Trinley’s laogai prison release order issued by Deyang Prison near Chengdu city, Sichuan Province. Photo courtesy TCHRD

The centre said 10 of those in the list, being jailed for more than six years, were still serving their sentences, including two who are undergoing life sentences. Among them is a layman named Pema Yeshi from Nyagri County in Kardze (Chinese: Ganzi) Prefecture who was sentence to death with a two-year reprieve and which was later commuted to life imprisonment.

The centre said the list was compiled by former monk Gonpo Trinley, 25, of Village No. 7 in Serkhar Township of Kardze County. He was jailed there over 2009-10 – having spent a year before that in Darstedo (Chinese: Kangding) Prison in Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture – after being sentenced for staging a protest outside the county police station on Jun 21, 2008. He arrived in India on Aug 2, 2014. He is said to estimate that the prison, located some 2km from the provincial capital Chengdu, had about 2,700 inmates, including the 45 Tibetans.

Most of the Tibetans in the list, which included 25 monks, were held in 2008 when the Tibetan Plateau was hit by a surge of protests against Chinese rule. The Tibetans in the jail were sentenced to periods ranging from two years to life, besides the one sentenced to death with two-year reprieve. They belonged to the Tibetan counties of Nyagri, Kardze, Tawu, Serta, Lithang, Dege, and Palyul in Sichuan Province, with one being from Gonjo County in Chamdo Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region.

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