29. Mar 2009
Unrest in Kardze continues
(TCHRD) A farming boycott movement is still going on in Kardze (Chin: Ganzi) TAP, in Sichuan province, an area traditionally known as Kham; the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reports that a monk, Phuntsok Rabten from Draggo monastery, was beaten to death on 25 March by Public Security Bureau (PSB) personnel in Draggo (Chin: Luhuo) county. On 27 March a group of farmers from Draggo refused to follow orders to work, and were severely beaten and arrested. Fourteen Tibetans were injured in the incident, some of them seriously. Security forces elsewhere in Kardze county have also severely beaten and arrested two nuns from Dragkar nunnery for shouting slogans on 24 March 2009. In the township of Rongpatsa, also in Kardze county, eight youths were arrested on 25 March for protesting. Among those arrested was the son of the village head, who warned the authorities that the village's 80 families would revolt if their children were not released. All eight were later released. Four nuns belonging to the Hardo Rinpoche nunnery (in the same township), along with two local youths, were arrested after raising Tibetan freedom slogans and demanding the release of Tibetan political prisoners.