Mass Imprisonments in Central Tibet Revealed Seven Years Later
Sources reveal previously unknown arrests from 2013
Free Tibet has learned of mass imprisonments in central Tibet, more than seven years after the event.
According to Radio Free Asia’s Tibetan Service, a Tibetan in exile who spoke on the condition of anonymity revealed that in 2013, mass arrests of Driru County residents took place.
Namdak, who was arrested in 2013 (Photo: RFA)
The source revealed that Namdak, 34 years old, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in around July 2013 for helping Tibetans who were seeking to reach India. Namdak has struggled with appendicitis for the past two or three years but his family has not been allowed to meet him. Namdak hails from Meri Village, Tsala Township, Driru County, Nagchu in central Tibet.
Six or seven other Tibetans from Driru County were also imprisoned for 13 years around the same time of Namdak’s arrest but their details or reasons for arrests were not disclosed as required by the Chinese legal procedure.
The mass arrests and lengthy sentences of Driru residents speak to the heavy surveillance and security crackdown in the area, which is administered as part of the so-called Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR). The TAR is sealed off and notoriously hard to access, with news of human rights abuses often reaching the outside world months or years later.
The information has been shared at a critical moment when the family of Namdak is still hoping to have access to Namdak and have medical attention granted to him immediately.
Also in 2013, 30 Tibetans from Driru County who had returned to Tibet from India were arrested in Lhasa and imprisoned and tortured in the notorious Chushul prison, according to the Central Tibetan Administration’s source. Following their release, they were deprived of their right to harvest caterpillar fungus for around three years, and they continue to face travel restrictions. Tibetans in Driru County who have family ties in India were subjected to “political re-education classes.”
Driru County has been an epicentre of protests since May 2013 following an anti-mining protest at a sacred mountain called Naglha Dzamba Mountain.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
