(TibetanReview.net, Jun11, 2015) – Despite its much-publicized claims about having reformed its criminal detention system and introduced the rule of law, Chinese authorities continue to act with impunity when it comes to dealing with Tibetans in occupied Tibet. In only the latest of a long series of such cases, four monks of Tashikyil Monastery in Sangchu (Chinese: Xiahe) County of Kanlho (Gannan) Prefecture, Gansu Province, had been taken away on Jun 5 or thereabouts, with the police giving no reason for doing so, according to Radio Free Asia (Washington) Jun 9.
Three of the monks, named as Chunggey Jinpa, Kalsang, and Jamyang, were seized at around 7:00 pm on Jun 5 while they were walking in a nearby market. Chinese law requires immediate relatives to be informed within 24 hours of detention. However, nothing has been heard about these monks ever since.
The three monks originally belong to Bora Township of Sangchu County, with Kalsang and Jinpa being ritual dance performers at the monastery and Chunggey Jinpa being a Buddhist studies student there.
A fourth monk, Kalsang Monlam, was taken away on or around Jun 5. Plainclothes Chinese police, disguised as electricians, jumped the monks’ living quarters, forced into the monk’s room – which they ransacked – and took him away in handcuffs.
The report gives no probable reasons for the monks’ detention.
Labrang Monastery is one of the biggest in Tibet outside the Tibet Autonomous Region.