Two Tibetan Buddhist monastery leaders sentenced for Dege dam protests

[ad_1] Authorities have sentenced two senior Tibetan monastic leaders to three- and four-year jail phrases for his or her roles in uncommon 2024 public protests towards a deliberate Chinese language hydropower dam venture, two sources within the area informed Radio Free Asia.

Sherab, the abbot of Yena Monastery in Dege county’s Wangbuding township in Kardze Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province, was sentenced to 4 years in jail and Gonpo, the chief administrator, sentenced to a few years, stated the sources, who requested anonymity for worry of reprisals. It wasn’t instantly clear when the sentences have been handed down.

The sources stated Gonpo was in crucial situation as a consequence of torture in detention and has been transferred to an intensive care unit in Chengdu’s West China Hospital.

The 2 heads of Yena Monastery have been detained with tons of of Tibetan monks and native residents in February 2024 for peacefully interesting for a halt to the development of the 1,100-megawatt Gangtuo dam on the Drichu river (or Jinsha, in Chinese language) that might submerge a number of monasteries of historic significance, together with Yena and Wonto monasteries, and pressure the resettlement of communities in not less than two main villages.

Most of the protestors who have been detained have been reportedly severely overwhelmed throughout interrogations with some requiring medical consideration, sources informed RFA on the time. Most have been launched by the next month however key monastic and village leaders whom authorities suspected of enjoying a number one position within the protests – like Wonto Monastery’s senior administrator Tenzin Sangpo and village official Tenzin – have been transferred to a bigger county detention heart.

Yena Monastery has confronted significantly extreme repression. Authorities have focused monks for “targeted rectification and re-education” of their political ideologies and for his or her position as “critical informants,” sources informed RFA.

“The federal government actually went all-out towards Yena Monastery, as if venting their anger,” the primary supply informed RFA. Officers stated the 2 monastery leaders must be “severely punished” particularly for his or her resolution to hunt and rent authorized illustration.

In 2024, video emerged of Yena Monastery’s abbot Sherab holding each his thumbs up within the conventional Tibetan gesture of begging, as he, different Tibetan monks and native residents publicly cried and pleaded earlier than visiting officers on Feb. 20 to not proceed with the deliberate venture.

Collective imprisonment

The realm on both facet of the Drichu river stays below strict surveillance greater than a yr after the protests, with motion restrictions imposed on the monks and residents of the monasteries and villages at Wangbuding township, sources informed RFA.

Authorities have established a number of checkpoints on the border between Tibetan areas in Sichuan and the Tibet Autonomous Area, strictly controlling all entry and exit, they stated.

Solely Tibetans holding transit permits issued by the police are allowed passage by the checkpoints put in on roads resulting in monasteries like Yena and Wonto which can be situated close to the river, sources stated. Even ethnic Han Chinese language with transit permits are prohibited from getting into, they added.

“The entire space has been successfully sealed off, with almost 4,000 residents and monks within the villages and monasteries close to the river in a state of collective imprisonment, having misplaced all freedom of motion,” stated the second supply.

During times thought-about politically delicate by Chinese language authorities – equivalent to across the anniversary of the March 10 Tibetan Rebellion Day of 1959 or the birthday of the Tibetan non secular chief, the Dalai Lama, on July 6 – surveillance is much more heightened, sources stated.

Throughout “delicate durations,” Tibetans with out native family registration are refused entry, whereas native villagers touring from rural areas to Dege county seat should apply for transit permits, and are sometimes nonetheless refused, sources stated.

The Gangtuo Dam – which is deliberate to be situated at Kamtok (Gangtuo, in Chinese language) in Dege county – is a part of a Chinese language authorities venture to construct a large 13-tier hydropower complicated on the Drichu, with a complete deliberate capability of 13,920 megawatts.

Chinese language officers had indicated after final yr’s protests that the venture would proceed as deliberate however sources stated there’s no readability but on when the development can be began or if it will in any respect.

“Even when the venture in the end doesn't transfer forward, the monks and residents of the encircling villages have already been deeply harmed,” stated the primary supply.