UPDATE3: Wife commits suicide after Tibetan protester shot, tortured, and killed by Chinese police

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Tibetans shouting slogans at the protest in Loshu township in Sershul county in Sichuan province's Kardze prefecture, Aug 12, 2014. (Photo courtesy RFA)
Tibetans shouting slogans at the protest in Loshu township in Sershul county in Sichuan province’s Kardze prefecture, Aug 12, 2014. (Photo courtesy RFA)

(TibetanReview.net, Aug28, 2014) –The pregnant wife of an 18-year-old Tibetan man who was shot, tortured and killed by the Chinese police over the period of Aug 12 -18 in Sershul (Chinese: Shiqu) County of Kardze (Ganzi) Prefecture, Sichuan Province, has committed suicide by hanging herself by her neck, reported Radio Free Asia (RFA, Washington) Aug 26, citing a Tibetan in exile with contact in his hometown. The shocked and distressed wife, whose name and age could not be ascertained at the moment due to China’s snapping of communication links to the area, killed herself on Aug 18, the day Chinese police delivered to her home the dead body of her husband, Jinpa Tharchin, along with those of Tsewang Gonpo, 60; Yeshe, 42, in their Shugpa Village of Loshu Township.

It is not clear when or how the three died. The exile Tibetan administration at Dharamshala as well as RFA said Aug 20 that they died from injuries resulting from the paramilitary police firing on hundreds of Tibetans belonging to the county’s Denma Shugpa Village. The villagers were demonstrating in front of Loshu (Luoxu) Township on Aug 12 to seek the release of their village head when the Chinese crackdown came. Available reports say the authorities denied medical care to the at least 10 Tibetans who were seriously injured, including with multiple bullet injuries.

It was earlier reported that a man named Lo Palsang had committed suicide on Aug 17 to protest against continuing torture by the Chinese police while another as yet unnamed detainee, a 22-year-old man, died from injuries on the same day.

During the protest, the Chinese paramilitary police fired teargas shells and live ammunition into the crowd. The brutal crackdown led many people to flee into the nearby hills while all those who remained behind were rounded up, with the result that only the very old and those aged below 12-13 years old remained in the village which has a population of around 700. The RFA report said one Chinese police officer was suspected to have got accidentally shot in the neck by fellow officers and died. The Chinese are tight-lipped about it but apparently taking the anger over it on the Tibetans, which explains their extreme brutality, including the denial of treatment for the bullet injured.

The detained Tibetans were said to have been interrogated and tortured, irrespective of their age or involvement in the protest.

As of now, at least 25 Tibetans are said to be still in detention. They include the detained village leader’s son Kunga Sherab who, lying wounded with bullet injuries, was reported to be in critical condition.

The detainees also include monks, including one named Karma Rinchen, a meditation instructor at the local Miru Monastery, as well as Wangchen, Wangdak’s deputy in Shugpa Village.

Wangdak, 45-year-old leader of Denma Shugpa Village, was taken away at midnight of Aug 11-12 after he had complained to the authorities about the harassment of Tibetan women by senior Chinese officials during a cultural performance which the local community had been forced to host during their visit to the county. But rather than listening to their complaints, the authorities called in security forces to disperse the crowd.

Wangdak had voiced strong objection to the senior Chinese officials’ ill-treatment of Tibetan women during the cultural show and it resulted in a verbal altercation. Enraged Chinese officials then accused Wangdak of having held an illegal ceremony at the beginning of a traditional local horse-racing festival, which included an incense-burning ritual and prayer offerings. Wangdak was the chairman of the Denma Horse Festival Committee which organized the event.

The authorities are now said to falsely accuse Wangdak at forced public meetings of having embezzled public funds as an apparent preparation to put him on trial. They have also severely tortured his aunt Dawa Lhamo, 64, in the detention centre. She is now said to be left “immobile and unable to speak” and to have been taken to a hospital in the prefectural capital Dartsedo (Kangding). None of her family members were allowed to accompany her.

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