(TibetanReview.net, Feb 7) – Six more Tibetans – four nuns and two laypeople – were sentenced at different times and trials in Jan’09 by the Karze (Chinese: Ganzi) intermediate People’s Court for up to three years in Jan ’09 for involvement in Tibetan protests last year against Chinese rule, reported Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) Feb 5. It said three of the nuns belonged to the local Yarteng Nunnery and the remaining nun to the local Dragkar Nunnery.
It said the three Yarteng nuns were jailed for two and half years each on Jan 15 for having staged a protest in the county on Jun 18 last year. They were named as Poewang, 28 (daughter of Choewang Gyatso and Rigah at Yarkhag Village); Yangzom, 31 (daughter of Kunga Choegyen and MarMar of Yarkhag Village) and Lhamo, 29 (daughter of Nakad from Thamed Village). It said the three were suspected to be held in a prison in Tsithar Township in the Provincial capital Chengdu. It cited sources as saying at least 44 nuns were being held in that unknown prison.
The fourth nun – Yangkyi, 28 (daughter of late Tha Tsering and late Ten Choekyi of Serchu Teng Village in Serchu Township) – was given one-year-and-nine-month jail term for having taken part in a county protest on May 12, 2008.
Of the two laypersons, Lunglung Sonam, son of Samdak and Pamo in Thamei Village, was sentenced in Jan’09 for a three-year jail term. He was arrested on May 17, 2008 for participating in a protest in the county. And Ngawang Phuntsok, 32 (son of Ngawang Kunga and Palden Choetso in Bumshul village) was sentence to three years on Jan 20. He had been arrested after he staged a solo protest on Jun 18, 2008 in the county, with pictures of the Dalai Lama. While Lunglung’s whereabouts remain unknown, Ngawang is said to be held in a jail in Woemin Samisa (Chinese), located some 70 Km from the provincial capital Chengdu.