Kirti Monastery Under Siege: Rights Group[Tuesday, 12 March 2011, 11:23 p.m.]
DHARAMSHALA:
Kirti Monastery in northeastern Amdo Province in Tibet where a monk
killed himself in protest against the Chinese government’s repression
last month is now under military blockade with severe restrictions on
the movement of monks and food supply, a US-based human rights group
says quoting Kirti monks living in Dharamsala.”The authorities
have now imposed a lockdown on the monastery, with a new barbed wire
fence and wall being built around the back of the monastic complex, and
armed troops within the compound preventing monks from leaving and food
from being delivered,” International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) reported
Monday.The authorities have called in Chinese construction
workers to build a concrete wall in addition to the barbed wire fence
preventing residents to visit the monastery. “As a result the monks are
finding it very difficult to get enough food, and have been reduced so
far to depending upon the tsampa (a Tibetan staple of roasted barley),
butter and so on donated by laypeople, which is distributed by the
monastery administration,” ICT quoted another Tibetan source as saying.Since
19 March, the monastery’s regular programme of religious observances
were cancelled, and monks are not even allowed to burn incense for
their religious offerings. “Armed soldiers and police with dogs prowl
around the monastery by night, beating up any monks they come across,”
the sources at Kriti monastery in Dharamsala said.Meanwhile,
the sources also reported about peaceful protests by Tibetans in Namda
township in Dzamtang county in Ngaba on 23 March. The protesters
expressed their yearnings for freedom and return of His Holiness the
Dalai Lama to Tibet. “The protest was broken up by police who subjected
Tibetans to severe beatings and arrested eight people. Four of them
have been named as 40-year-old Palko, a teacher at the township school;
35-year-old Dorje, a local man; Ador, a 35-year-old local man and Osel
Dorje, a 28-year-old man. The names of the others are not known, and
the whereabouts of all eight is also not known,” the sources said.On
22 March armed police detained a group of Tibetans in Tawa in Ngaba
County. Those detained were Lobsang Jamyang, aged 16, Wangchuk, Sonam.
Other residents of the pastoral communities of Tawa were also detained,
although no further details are yet known of their identities, the
sources said.On 24 March, 24-year-old Kirti monk named Losang
Choepel, from the pastoral area of Kanyag Dewa in Ngaba county, was
detained and taken away from the monastery. On 25 March,
27-year-old Losang Tsepak, a former Kirti monk who had been studying at
university in Beijing, was detained and his whereabouts are unknown. At
around the same time, 32-year-old Kirti monk Losang Ngodrup, from Cha
township in Ngaba county, was detained. Neither their current
whereabouts nor the reasons for their detention are known, the sources
said.Related reports:Monk Sets himself on Fire on Protest Anniversary in Ngaba; Monastery Under SiegeChinese Govt Orders Restriction on Religious Activities at Kirti Monastery
