FORUMJustice Denied for TibetansThe ‘trial’ of a monk highlights Beijing’s repressionBy WOESERMonday, 27 April 2009, 11:22 a.m.

Woeser, Tibetan poet. (picture provided by Woeser)

Before
dawn on the morning of May 18, 2008, the authorities cut off all forms
of communications in the small rural town — telephones, mobile phones,
the Internet and even roads in and around the area. At around 6 a.m.,
more than 1,000 members of the People’s Liberation Army, People’s Armed
Police and local and special police units prepared to make their
assault on a small house. Around the same time, more than 4,000
soldiers and police divided up to surround and take control of two
nearby nunneries.Their target? Buramna Rinpoche, a 52-year-old
Living Buddha and head of Pangri and Yatseg nunneries in Kardze, a
Tibetan county of Sichuan province. The story of this religious leader,
who operated a home for the elderly and took care of orphans and
handicapped children, is symptomatic of Beijing’s heavy-handed
treatment of Tibetans. It also explains why the so-called Tibet
question is not going to disappear any time soon.The joint
military-police unit easily forced its way into the house, where
authorities say they discovered a rifle, a pistol and more than 100
rounds of ammunition hidden under a bed in the living room. The monk
was arrested under charges of possessing illegal firearms and
ammunition. He was also later charged with the illegal occupation of
state land.The arrest more likely is connected to an incident
that had occurred four days earlier, when 80 nuns from the Pangri and
Yatseg nunneries took to the streets to carry out a peaceful protest
against the Chinese government’s “patriotic education” campaign, which
pressured Tibetans to denounce the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader
who now lives in exile in India. These religious women peacefully
handed out leaflets and shouted slogans criticizing the campaign, but
according to an eyewitness with whom I’ve spoken several thousand
military and police were mobilized to deal with the protest, in which
many of the women were severely beaten and arrested.The
authorities apparently believed that the nuns had acted upon the
instructions of Mr. Buramna, as he is responsible for both nunneries.
So from that day on, his every movement was monitored.Mr.
Buramna was transferred after his arrest to the Luhuo County Detention
Center. There, according to his lawyer, he was handcuffed to a railing
for four days and kept awake day and night by two guards. During these
four days, he says he was tortured and police threatened to arrest his
wife and son if he did not sign a confession to possessing illegal
weapons. Under such duress, Mr. Buramna signed and made a thumbprint on
a confession admitting to the charges. He later recanted this
“confession” in court.Mr. Buramna’s family hired two Chinese
lawyers from Beijing to defend him. The two, Li Fangping and Jiang
Tianyong, are well-known human rights defenders. Mr. Jiang was one of
21 Chinese lawyers who signed a public statement on April 1, 2008,
offering to provide legal defense to Tibetans who were arrested in
connection with protests that broke out in March 2008 in Tibetan areas
throughout China. The government has threatened to close the law firms,
or revoke individual lawyers’ licenses, if these lawyers involve
themselves in the Tibet issue, Human Rights Watch has reported.On
the morning of April 21, the trial opened in Kangding County, a one- to
two-day drive away, rather than Kardze County, Mr. Buramna’s hometown
and scene of the alleged crime, apparently to prevent local Tibetan
monks and lay people from protesting outside the courtroom. Mr. Buramna
appeared in court wearing the bright yellow and crimson red robes of a
Tibetan monk. Seven members of his family, including his wife and son,
were in the court, some crying throughout the trial. Speaking in
Chinese, Mr. Buramna denied the alleged crimes, arguing in particular
that the weapons and ammunition found at his home had been planted
there to frame him.Mr. Buramna’s lawyers say they were allowed
only limited access to their client before trial and they were not
allowed to access all the court documents related to the case, which
limited their ability to cross-examine witnesses. Even so, they noted
at trial that the court did not investigate the source of the firearms
and ammunition, and even failed to check for fingerprints. They argued
that the monk’s living room was a public place that saw a large number
of people coming and going, and that anyone could have hidden the
weapons there. They stated further that an examination of documents
related to the land used for the elderly people’s home, which the
government said was occupied illegally, showed the site was not
state-owned.The lawyers repeated the monk’s assertion that he
was tortured for four days and was forced to sign the confession under
duress, which would make it invalid for use as a basis for conviction.
No verdict was handed down at the end of the hearing, the court saying
it would announce the sentence at another date. If convicted, Mr.
Buramna will face a prison term of between five and 15 years.Yet
Beijing would be wrong to think that will be the end of the matter. The
incident has led to widespread anger among Tibetans in the area. On the
morning of Mr. Buramna’s arrest, a number of monks and ordinary people
in Kardze held a demonstration demanding his release; they were
surrounded by the police and beaten, according to the same witness who
saw the nuns’ original protest. The elderly residents in his welfare
institution also tried to protest, but according to the same source,
their home was surrounded by the police. In June, there were more
protests seeking his release, and several people were beaten and
arrested.Mr. Buramna’s trial is the first of a major religious
leader to be held since last year’s disturbances in Tibetan areas. It’s
a sad commentary on the situation that one can say that at least this
trial is being held in public. But such trials will not bring stability
to the area. The nuns whose protest seems to have sparked this case
acted spontaneously, and their protest had nothing to do with Mr.
Buramna. They, and all Tibetans, want justice in their region. Putting
Mr. Buramna in jail will only increase that thirst.— Ms.
Woeser, a Tibetan poet, writer and blogger, lives in Beijing. This
article was translated from the Chinese by Paul Mooney. The
article is reproduced from The Wall Street Journal Asia. The views
expressed here does not reflect those of the Central Tibetan
Administration.