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TITLE: Monk Deaths Arouse Suspicion |
AUTHOR: Angus McDonald |
PUB: Associated Press |
DATE: February 23, 2001 |
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DHARAMSALA, India (AP) - A Tibetan monk arrested while returning from exile in India has died under mysterious circumstances in the custody of Chinese police, a Tibetan human rights group said Thursday. Another Tibetan, a former political prisoner, died within a month of being released from jail on medical parole last year, the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said, bringing to five the number of Tibetan political prisoners who died last year. "These deaths are further evidence of the Chinese government's continuing blatant violation of fundamental human rights,'' said Lobsang Nyandak, the center's executive director. "We find it appalling that the international community has still failed to actively condemn the Chinese government.'' The monk, Saru Dawa, 27, was arrested at the Chinese border at Dram while returning to Tibet on Nov. 20. Dawa, who left Tibet in 1992 and joined a monastery in Dharamsala in northern India, was returning to visit his sick mother. Dawa's relatives learned of his arrest and made inquiries at the Nyari Detention Center in Shigatse, where prisoners arrested at the border normally are held, the center said. After paying a bribe, the family was told Dawa committed suicide Jan. 9, 2000. Dawa's body was shown to the family Feb. 15 before being cremated, the statement said. Prison officials said Dawa was arrested carrying a photo of himself with the Dalai Lama and a number of books published by the Tibetan exile community. The officials said Dawa was sick when arrested, and this, along with his crime, had driven him to suicide. But a fellow monk at the Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala said Dawa was only carrying religious texts. Another prisoner, identified only as Penpa, 40, was severely beaten by police in 1997 when he was arrested for allegedly raising a Tibetan flag at Lhasa's Jokhang temple, the center said. He was denied medical attention at the time, the statement said. A former political prisoner who arrived in Nepal this week said Penpa was released on parole early last year, six months before the end of his three-year sentence. Following his death, family members discovered he had a collapsed lung, apparently as a result of torture, the center said. The Tibetan Center is based in Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama, the supreme spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and based himself in the northern Indian town. END |