HONG KONG—At least 50 Tibetans have been detained or sentenced for passing on information relating to protests that swept through Tibetan regions of China in the wake of rioting in Lhasa last year, a press freedom group said.
“The latest to be convicted is a netizen called Dasher who has been given a 10-year prison sentence on a charge of ‘separatism’ for sending reports and photos of the March 2008 protests,” Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement on its Web site.
It said Dasher was convicted and sentenced by an intermediate court in Lhasa in late February, although the exact date of his trial was unknown.
He is currently being held in Lhasa’s Chushur prison, the statement said.
Father also sentenced
The group quoted “a representative of the National Democratic Party, a Tibetan exile organization” as saying the reason for his conviction was his reports and photos of the protests.
Dasher is also the son of Adri Rinpoche, head of a Tibetan Buddhist monastery who is also being sentenced to prison by the Chinese authorities, RSF said.
U.S.-based lama and Tibetan Buddhist teacher Arjia Rinpoche said the clampdown on those using the Internet shows the ruling Chinese Communist Party is afraid of further demonstrations and protests.
“What is at the root of an uprising? It’s the exchange of information,” Arjia Rinpoche said.
“After the demonstrations in March 2008, the news came out very fast on Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, the BBC, and afterwards it spread very quickly.”
“There are two aspects to their control of information. One is that they are afraid that information will spread quickly, so that the demonstrations will increase, and the other is that other people inside China will hear about the demonstrations,” he said.
“They care very much about public opinion, not just in the Tibetan region but also in the areas populated by Han Chinese as well.”
Downloaded photos
RSF said it had verified at least 50 detentions of Tibetans with the India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, “for sending information out of China.”
“Most of this material was sent via the Internet, which is under very close surveillance in Tibet,” the group said.
It cited the detention in mid-February of Tashi, a 24-year-old Tibetan from Rata, a village in the district of Sog, in eastern Tibet.
Tashi was accused of having contact with people overseas and watching political videos online, and is currently being held in Nagchu district.
Another Sog district resident, known by a single name, Gyaltsing [alternate spelling, Gyaltsen], was handed a three-year jail-term in December for “communicating information to contacts outside China” after he downloaded photos of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, whom Beijing blames for inciting the protests.
The group quoted Tibetan journalists as saying that a campaign of reeducation in Sog had led to the arrest of several Tibetans for refusing to comply with the “Love your religion, love your country” campaign.
Original reporting in Mandarin by Yang Jiadai. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.