16 maart 2009<\/b><\/p>\n
Meer dan honderd monniken die een vreedzame wake in acht hielden op de eerste dag van het Tibetaanse Nieuwjaar op 25 februari, zijn afgevoerd. Ze zijn weggehaald uit het Lutsa klooster in Mangra district in Qinghai provincie, het Tibetaanse Amdo, om \u0091studie\u0092 te ondergaan op een onbekende locatie. Volgens een bron met contacten in het gebied werden ongeveer 100 monniken afgelopen week weggehaald uit het klooster.
<\/b>
De achtergebleven monniken werden ondervraagd, terwijl door \u00e9\u00e9n bron werd bericht dat de monniken werden geslagen. De term \u0091meegenomen voor studie\u0092 betekent waarschijnlijk dat de monniken politieke heropvoedingklassen moeten volgen. Op 28 april 2008 werden honderden monniken van de kloosters Drepung, Sera en Ganden in Lhasa, naar Golmud in Qinghai \u0091meegenomen voor studie\u0092. De familieleden van de monniken werden toen niet ingelicht over hun verblijfsplaats. Sommige monniken werden dit jaar in de aanloop naar 10 maart ook al uit hun kloosters meegenomen. <\/p>\n
Lees vanaf hier verder in het Engels:<\/p>\n
More than a hundred monks who held a peaceful candlelit vigil on the first day of Tibetan New Year (February 25) have been taken from their monastery, Lutsang, in Mangra county (Chinese: Guinan) in Qinghai (the Tibetan area of Amdo), for \u0091study\u0092 at an unknown location. According to a Tibetan source in exile with connections in the area, around 100 monks were taken from the monastery last week while a number of the remaining monks have undergone interrogation, torture and beatings, according to one source. The phrase \u0091taken for study\u0092 means that the monks will be taken to a location where they will undergo political education classes. Hundreds of monks from the Lhasa monasteries of Drepung, Sera and Ganden were \u0091taken for study\u0092 to a military camp in Golmud, Qinghai, from April 2008 for several months. Their families were not informed of their whereabouts. Some were also removed from monasteries in Lhasa in the buildup to the March 10 anniversary this year.<\/p>\n
Tension is high in the area, with the same Tibetan source reporting that there are two or three police vehicles stationed in the middle of even the smallest and most remote villages near the monastery in Qinghai, and that people are being forbidden from traveling from one village to another. \u0093I remember exactly this thing happening during the Cultural Revolution, being forbidden to travel even to the next village,\u0094 said the source, who grew up in the area, and whose name is withheld. \u0093It\u0092s control by terror,\u0094 he added. The source added that according to information from the area, Tibetan students have had their cell-phones confiscated by police in an apparent attempt to stop information about the crackdown reaching the outside world. Students were told their phones would be returned \u0093at the end of the month\u0094.<\/p>\n
On February 25, the first day of Tibetan New Year (Losar) Lutsang monks had marched to the government headquarters in Mangra, where they asked for the central Chinese government to “recognize the will of the Tibetan people,” and called for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, according to the Tibetan service of Radio Free Asia. They said that they were holding the candle-lit vigil in memory of the people killed during the Chinese authorities’ crackdown on the protests last year, and as a “New Year’s gift to Tibetans inside and outside of Tibet.” After half an hour or so, the monks were persuaded by Tibetan government and Party officials who had emerged from the building \u0096 as well as senior Tibetans \u0096 to return to their monastery. However, police later arrived at the monastery and demanded that the organizers of the protest \u0091surrender\u0092 within 48 hours, and that any portraits of the Dalai Lama had to be handed over to the authorities. (ICT report, \u0091Authorities surround monastery; issue 48 hour ultimatum for organizers to \u0091surrender\u0092 after latest protest in Tibet<\/a>\u0092)<\/p>\n Following the 48-hour ultimatum period police took away 13 monks for interrogation, who were beaten in detention before their families were summoned and told to keep the monks sequestered at home, according to a Chinese-language blog posting. On March 2, police again detained 11 of the 13 monks detained previously, according to the same source, and police also acquired the names of around 70 monks who participated in the march and vigil in a list compiled by the monastery\u0092s \u0091Democratic Management Committee\u0092 \u0096 a government-appointed body instituted in monasteries in Tibet.<\/p>\n In the ensuing days, around 120 monks were interrogated both at the monastery and in other locations, with many if not most suffering beatings or torture during the process, according to the same single source. One monk was reportedly deafened in one ear as result of beatings.<\/p>\n The blog posting continues: \u0093The authorities have not said where they are taking the 109 monks and have not said for how long, saying only that they are to be given secluded [bishi \u0096 shut-away style] thought education, including \u0091patriotic education\u0092 and \u0091rule of law education\u0092\u0085 When the 109 monks received this information, they calmly rushed to the temple and presented khatag [Tibetan white blessing scarves]. In actual fact, these 109 monks are facing unimaginable imprisonment, just like the 700 monks from Drepung, Sera and Ganden last year, who were detained in a military prison in Golmud for as long as three of four months.\u0094<\/p>\n