The New York-based Human Rights Watch released a report on July 6 stating that authorities in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region “fabricated charges against four monks and sentenced them to up to 20 years in prison. The report said the sentences reflect growing pressure on local officials to restrict online communications and to punish peaceful speech as a security threat.
According to the 61-page report, four monks from the little-known Tengdro monastery were given heavy sentences in a crackdown on their contacts with Tibetans outside the country. They were Choegyal Wangpo, Lobsang Jinpa, Norbu Dondrup and Ngawang Yeshe – sentenced to 20 years, 19 years, 17 years and 5 years respectively in prison.
HRW emphasized that the monks “did not violate Chinese law at all by sending text messages or donating money to disaster relief outside of China.
According to the report, in September 2019, public security officials in Lhasa seized a Tibetan monk, Trijay Wangpo, from his lost cell phone and seized the contents of his private communications, including messages he had sent to several Tibetan monks living in Nepal, as well as records of donations made after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal. The Public Security Bureau then searched Dendro Monastery, arresting several people, one who committed suicide, and four monks who were tried in secret in 2020.
Human Rights Watch said they traced the circumstances that triggered the search and the factors that led to the heavy sentencing of the monks at Dendro Monastery, based on interviews with Tibetans outside of China, as well as reports in official media, social media and media outlets in the exile community.
The report also said that in October 2020, shortly after the sentencing of the monks at Dendro Monastery, Human Rights Watch had revealed that two Tibetans had been jailed for sending money to relatives in India, and that one of the Tibetans had died of his injuries in prison.
Since then, according to Tibetan-language media outside of China, local governments in Tibet and across the region have called general meetings to warn residents not to contact their relatives overseas. Some Tibetans have been arrested and beaten by authorities for posting online articles deemed to “endanger national security.
Human Rights Watch said the case of the monks at Dendro Monastery in Tibet shows the “arbitrary and extreme” manner in which Tibetan areas are beginning to tighten controls on online communication.
HRW called on Chinese authorities to immediately release the monks imprisoned in this case and called on countries and the United Nations to pressure Chinese authorities to respect the human rights of Tibetans. These recommendations echo a common call made in June 2020 by 50 UN human rights experts that the UN should establish a permanent China human rights monitoring mechanism.
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