Rights Group Concerned Over Detention of Three Monks in Nagchu CountyThursday, 30 April 2009, 10:28 a.m.

Khensur Thupten Thabkey

Dharamshala: Three
Tibetan monk, including a former of Shapten Monastery have been
secretly detained by the Chinese authorities in Nagchu County in Nagchu
Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region on 11 April 2009, a human rights
group based in Dharamshala said while expressing its serious concerns  about the monks’ safety and well being. .”On
11 April 2009, Nagchu Public Security Bureau (PSB) detained Khensur
Thupten Thapkhey, 47, a former abbot of Shapten Monastery and a 34-year
old scripture master, Geshe Tsultrim Gyaltsen, for unknown reasons,”
the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said, citing
reliable information.The rights group said Nagchu security
personnel misled the monks of Shapten Monastery by explaining that
Khensur Thupten Thapkhey and Geshe Tsultrim Gyaltsen had gone to Lhasa
City to receive Geshe (Doctorate of philosophy) Degree Certificate from
religious bureau.

Geshe Tsultrim Gyaltsen                Ven Tsundue

However,
it proved to be a ruse, where Nagchu authorities straight away taken
them to a detention centre, where they were currently being detained.Similarly,
another monk Tsundue, 30, a head of the Shapten Monastery’s Democratic
Management Committee (DMC) was also misled by Chinese authorities that
he had to attend a meeting but was escorted to Nagchu PSB detention
centre. The precise reason for which the three monks were detained is still not known.The
parents and relatives of the detainees were trying to make contact with
them in Nagchu PSB detention centre, according to sources.