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