TIBET: FOUR MONKS SENTENCED TO LABOR CAMP AFTER

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 001537 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/08/2039 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KIFR CH SUBJECT: TIBET: FOUR MONKS SENTENCED TO LABOR CAMP AFTER FEBRUARY PROTEST IN GUINAN, QINGHAI PROVINCE REF: A. BEIJING 605 ¶B. BEIJING 483 ¶C. BEIJING 419 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Aubrey Carlson. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (S) Four Tibetan Buddhist monks have been sentenced to two years of reform through labor for their participation in a demonstration in Guinan, Qinghai Province, on February 25, according to a "living Buddha" at Guinan's Lucang Monastery. Two additional monks were still awaiting sentencing as of May 15. In addition to arresting the six, local authorities ordered the remainder of the 109 Lucang monks who participated in the demonstration to leave the monastery for periods of up to four months. The living Buddha told us that official orders to "be festive" during the February 25 Tibetan New Year holiday had added to the resentment of the Tibetans in Guinan and surrounding communities. Following the protest, Peoples Armed Police units had entered Guinan and remained through the sensitive March 10 anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Four local officials, including an ethnic Tibetan cadre working for the local office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) United Front Work Department, had been fired or demoted because of the protest, according to our source. In March, the Guinan Public Security bureau installed closed-circuit television cameras and a police kiosk to monitor the monks at Lucang. Our contact complained of continued political education sessions and said local officials had pressured him to publicly praise Chinese leaders. End summary. LOSAR DEMONSTRATION IN GUINAN -------------- ¶2. (S) PolOff met May 15 in Beijing with Luosang Cicheng Pengcuo (strictly protect),a living Buddha (considered to be the 6th reincarnation of the "Jiamao Dalama" Buddha) resident at Lucang (Lutsang) Monastery in Guinan (Mangra),a Tibetan town in Qinghai Province. Pengcuo provided a detailed account of a February 25 protest by Lucang monks that was reported by the Norway-based Voice of Tibet, Radio Free Asia and other overseas media. ¶3. (S) Local Guinan county officials, Pengcuo said, had ordered Lucang's monks to celebrate the Losar (Tibetan New Year) holiday February 25. Not only were the monks required to "be festive," but the celebrations in Guinan, the officials had decreed, "must be better" that those in neighboring communities. As they were being ordered to celebrate, monks and lay Tibetans in Guinan were circulating text messages urging a boycott of Losar out of respect for those who had died in the wake of the March 2008 violence in Tibetan regions. ¶4. (S) According to Pengcuo, on the morning of February 25, he received a call from a member of the Lucang Democratic Management Committee who said a group of monks had marched to a Guinan county government building. Pengcuo immediately went to the government office, where 109 monks were sitting outside the building gate, each with a candle. Pengcuo said he was aware protests would be likely during the sensitive period surrounding March 10, the 50th anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising, but did not have prior knowledge of the February 25 demonstration. He was able to convince the monks to give up and return to the monastery within an hour. PAP ARRIVE, OFFICIALS FIRED -------------- ¶5. (S) That evening, in response to the sit-in protest, "many" People's Armed Police (PAP) troops started to arrive in Guinan, according to Pengcuo. The PAP presence increased until there were "thousands of troops" in Guinan during the March anniversary period. Pengcuo said the protest had led to the firing of several officials, including an ethnic Tibetan cadre who was replaced as head of the Guinan branch of the Communist Party United Front Work Department. Pengcuo said three other low-level BEIJING 00001537 002 OF 003 officials, including one from the Guinan Religious Affairs Bureau (RAB),had been removed from their posts for failing to prevent the demonstration. MONK BEATEN, SIX DETAINED -------------- ¶6. (S) In the days following the protest, local police required 48 monks to appear for questioning. According to Pengcuo, some who had refused to cooperate during interrogations had been "slapped around." One 20-year-old monk, Luosang Xiangba (Chinese spelling),had been beaten severely and returned to Lucang unable to speak. Pengcuo and other monks took him to a hospital in Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province, where he was diagnosed as mentally ill. Luosang Xiangba has since left Lucang monastery and returned home. Pengcuo reported that six Lucang monks who participated in the sit-in were eventually detained by police. Four, including a monk who emailed pictures of the demonstration to the Voice of Tibet, were recently sentenced to two years of reeducation through labor (RTL). Two others were still awaiting sentencing. (NOTE: According to an April 26 report by The Tibet Post, an exile newspaper, the four sentenced to RTL were 22-year-old Lungtok Gyatso, 24-year-old Zoepa Gyatso, 21-year-old Kalsang Gyatso, and 19-year-old Zoepa Gyatso.) PROTESTING MONKS TOLD TO LEAVE MONASTERY -------------- ¶7. (S) Those protestors who were not jailed, Pengcuo said, were ordered to leave the monastery for periods of up to four months. Authorities told seventy of the monks native to the Guinan area to return home for two months. Police and RAB officials ordered an additional thirty monks, who were natives of Qinghai Province but not from Guinan, to return home for four months. Pengcuo said he was especially angry that another living Buddha, who was residing temporarily at Lucang, was also forced to leave by RAB authorities. Authorities told the monks they would only be allowed to return to the monastery "if they behaved" during the suspension. Pengcuo said that by early May most of the group of 70 had already filtered back to the monastery and they expected the rest to return over the summer. CAMERAS INSTALLED AT MONASTERY -------------- ¶8. (S) Pengcuo reported that police surveillance of the monastery had increased since the Losar protest. In early March, the Guinan Public Security Bureau established a police kiosk at the entrance to the monastery and installed a closed-circuit television camera (with a view of Pengcuo's quarters) to monitor the monks' comings and goings. POLITICAL INDOCTRINATION CONTINUES -------------- ¶9. (S) Pengcuo said that local officials were forcing the monks to attend regular political education campaigns. Earlier in May, Pengcuo and other monastery leaders had been scheduled to give a series of lectures to the monks. The Guinan RAB told each senior monk what to say and prepared material for them. Pengcuo said RAB officials pressured him to make positive reference in his speech to statements made by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao about religion. Pengcuo said he decided to travel to Beijing in May, in part, to avoid having to give the lecture. Pengcuo said that while the overall atmosphere remained "tight" at Lucang, Dalai Lama photos were still tolerated. Following the Losar protest, police searched the quarters of several monks but left the Dalai Lama photos alone. "Police know that confiscating them will just lead to more problems," Pengcuo said. OTHER INCIDENTS IN QINGHAI AND GANSU -------------- ¶10. (S) Pengcuo relayed what he knew about a March 21 protest involving monks at Lajia (Ragya) monastery in the Golog TAP of Qinghai Province. (Note: This incident was reported by the Xinhua BEIJING 00001537 003 OF 003 News Agency March 23. According to the Xinhua report, "several hundred people, including 100 monks," attacked a police station. Six people were arrested, and 89 others "surrendered" after the incident.) Pengcuo said the incident started when a monk, Tanshi Sangpo, was detained by police after he unfurled the Tibetan "snow lion" flag in the monastery. Pengcuo said Sangpo escaped from the police station and jumped to his death in a nearby river. Pengcuo said he believed that Xinhua reports calling Sangpo's death a suicide were accurate. Pengcuo also noted that the situation in Xiahe, Gansu Province (home of the Labrang Monastery), remained tense following an April 24 protest there by Tibetan middle school students. Pengcuo said the demonstration started after officials posted articles in local schools denouncing the Dalai Lama. (Note: International Campaign for Tibet has reported this demonstration, see www.savetibet.org.) TRAVEL REMAINS DIFFICULT FOR MONKS/NUNS -------------- ¶11. (S) Pengcuo relayed that travel for Tibetan monks and nuns remained difficult, with those in religious attire singled out for arbitrary police checks. For example, Pengcuo said he had learned of a February 15 incident in which several monks and nuns on a bus traveling from Xining, Qinghai Province, to Xiahe were subject to document checks and questioning by police upon arrival in Xiahe. None of the lay people on the bus were subject to such treatment, Pengcuo said, and this created considerable anger among the Tibetans who witnessed it. PICCUTA