Whilst we are pleased to be able to share this news with you, and would not be able to without your support, there are still hundreds of Tibetans who have been unjustly detained. This is why our vital work campaigning for the release of political prisoners must continue but we can’t do it without you. Please donate today.
Rinchen Kyi released after eight months in detention
The teacher and political detainee has returned home following an international campaign for her release
The Tibetan teacher and political detainee Rinchen Kyi has been released after eight months in detention.
According to information supplied by Tibet Watch, Free Tibet’s research partner, Rinchen Kyi was secretly returned home by police at 8pm local time on Sunday 24 April.
Rinchen Kyi is from Golog Prefecture in eastern Tibet, which under the Chinese occupation is governed as part of Qinghai Province. She was detained at her home on 1 August 2021 and charged with “inciting separatism”, a state security crime. There is no suggestion of her having committed any crime.
The arrest followed the closure of Sengdruk Taktse Middle School, the school where Rinchen Kyi taught. The school was forcefully shut down without any official clarification on 8 July. The closure of the school left Rinchen Kyi deeply upset and unable to eat.
The motivation for Sengdruk Taktse Middle School being closed appeared to be because the school’s primary language of instruction was Tibetan and it taught lessons about Tibet’s culture. Tibetan experts have noted that the Chinese government has imposed increasingly tight restrictions on the Tibetan language and Tibetan culture as part of a policy of eradicating them.
Shortly after her arrest, Rinchen Kyi was moved to Xining, the capital city of Qinghai Province, and then disappeared. All details of her whereabouts and well-being were kept secret by local police authorities.
Free Tibet responded to Rinchen Kyi’s arrest by launching an international campaign demanding that she be immediately released. Over 2,000 people took online actions targeting Chinese embassies and local authorities in Qinghai, while numerous other Free Tibet supporters sent postcards with her face to the Chinese embassy in London. A vigil was also held by Free Tibet and the Tibetan community for Rinchen Kyi on 30 August, to mark the International Day of the Disappeared.
Most recently, in February, six United Nations special experts and working groups contacted the Chinese government, raising her case alongside the cases of two other political prisoners. In the joint communication, originally sent on 17 February 2022, the UN experts asked China to explain the legal grounds for the three arbitrary detentions and to disclose the fate, health status and whereabouts of the three political prisoners. The letter was made public last week.
Rinchen Kyi’s release came as a surprise, not least because China has consistently had a conviction rate of over 99 percent and releases of Tibetan political detainees are particularly rare.
We continue to follow this story and will follow up with any updated information when we receive it.
Whilst we are pleased to be able to share this news with you, and would not be able to without your support, there are still hundreds of Tibetans who have been unjustly detained. This is why our vital work campaigning for the release of political prisoners must continue but we can’t do it without you. Please donate today.
Information supplied by Tibet Watch
