China arrests yet another lone Tibetan protesters in Ngaba County

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Tibetan monk Lobsang Kelsang is shown in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy: RFA)
Tibetan monk Lobsang Kelsang is shown in an undated photo. (Photo courtesy: RFA)

(TibetanReview.net, Sep10, 2015) – A young Tibetan Buddhist monk belonging to Kirti Monastery in Ngaba (Chinese: Aba) County-town in Ngaba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, was detained on Sep 7 by Chinese police after he took out a lone street protest, joining at least four other Tibetans who had done likewise in the same area over the past less than two months. Lobsang Kelsang, 19, was arrested at around 3 pm local time, said Dharamshala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy Sep 8.

The centre said video footages received by it show the monk walking along the Ngaba County-town street holding a huge portrait – most probably that of the Dalai Lama – and shouting slogans calling for freedom for Tibet.

The monk was attacked by 10 Chinese policemen who also tried to snatch the portrait he was carrying. However it fell to the ground and broke, the report added.

The centre said another short footage showed a group of Tibetans, including an elderly woman, walking towards the police station and protesting. However, they were attacked and chased by the Chinese riot police. A Tibetan layman who attempted to interfere with the arrest was also detained, with the police at one point firing gunshots into the air to disperse a forming crowd, Radio Free Asia (Washington) Sep 8 cited a local source as saying.

The centre said the monk had witnessed the arrest and imprisonment of many of his close relatives in the recent past. For example, last year, Lobsang Tenpa, his maternal sibling and roommate at Kirti Monastery, was jailed for two years after he protested against Chinese rule.

Earlier, on Aug 20, a woman named Dorje Dolma carried out a protest very early in the morning and was taken away by Chinese police shortly afterwards. The resident of Village No. 2 in the county’s Meruma Township had shouted slogans as she was arrested.

Before Dorje Dolma, Woekar Kyi, an about 23-year-old mother of a four-year-old son and resident of Meruma’s Village No. 1, was taken away by Chinese police on Aug 15 after she carried out a lone afternoon protest on the township’s street. She shouted slogans, demanding freedom and the return from exile of Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

And on Jul 15, Wangmo, 22, of Meruma’s Village no. 3 was held shortly after she started a lone protest march on the township’s main street, carrying a portrait of Tibet’s exile spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

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