A lost cellphone led to a raid on a monastery, multiple arrests,a suicide and a secret trial of four Buddhist monks in 2020, says a recently released Human Watch Report.

Chinese authorities in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) have prosecuted four monks who received up to 20 years in prison for dubious offenses, says Human Rights Watch (HRW).

In the 61-page report, “Prosecute Them with Awesome Power: China’s Crackdown on Tengdro Monastery and Restrictions on Communications in Tibet,” released on July 6, HRW provided the first detailed account of the raid on Tengdro monastery and its consequences, including multiple detentions and a suicide.

In September 2019, police in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, found private messages on a cellphone lost by Choegyal Wangpo, a Tibetan monk. Several messages had been exchanged with Tibetan monks living in Nepal, including records of donations after the 2015 Nepal earthquake.

What followed was a police raid, and the arrests of several monks for being a ‘threat to national security’

Monks Choegyal Wangpo, Lobsang Jinpa, Norbu Dondrup and Ngawng Yeshe received sentences of 20, 19, one and five years respectively even though sending messages abroad or making humanitarian donations does not violate Chinese law.

HRW said the sentences reflect the increasing pressure on local officials to restrict online communications and punish peaceful expression as a security threat.

The authorities have also detained and beaten Tibetan netizens for posts deemed by the authorities to endanger national security

The report drew on interviews with Tibetans outside China, official media, social media and exile media reports to examine the circumstances that led to the raid and the factors that could explain the extreme punishment meted out to the Tengdro monks.

It reported on the detention of two Tibetans for sending remittances to relatives in India in October 2020, shortly after the sentencing of the Tengdro monks. One of the Tibetans died from injuries inflicted in custody.

Since then, there have been several reports in Tibetan media outside China of meetings held by local officials both in the TAR and other Tibetan areas to threaten residents against contacting relatives outside China.

The authorities have also detained and beaten Tibetan netizens for posts deemed by the authorities to endanger national security. The Tengdro monks’ case demonstrates the arbitrary and extreme manner in which restrictions on online communications are being enforced throughout Tibetan areas.

[based on UCA News]

  People’s Republic of China, Stan Swany, Tengdro, Tengdro Monks, Tibet, Tibet Autonomous Region