Peaceful protests by one or two people take place over the past week, ending in the protesters’ arrest. Most of them are monks but some are lay people. They all want Tibet’s independence and the return of the Dalai Lama. Police set up roadblocks on roads connecting monasteries and villages.

Lhasa (AsiaNews) – Chinese police arrested at least eight Tibetan Buddhist monks over the past week, including six teenagers for taking part in protests in a number of places where they called for the return of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s independence and complete religious freedom, the Tibetan Centre for Human rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reported.

On 30 March, two students from the famous Larung Gar Monastery, in Sêrtar County (also spelled Sertha, Seda in Chinese), were arrested for raising the Tibetan flag in the market square of the county seat. The flag itself has been banned since Maoist forces took over the region in 1949.

The two boys, 16-year-old Tenzin Gyamtso and 15-year-old Wangchen Topgyal, shouted “Independence for Tibet” and “Human Rights for Tibet”. Arrested by police, their fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

The TCHRD reported that the next day, two other monks from the same county and residents of the same monastery were arrested for a similar protest. Their fate, whereabouts but also their identities remain unknown.

On 2 April, Ugyen Namgyal, 20, from Choktsang village, demonstrated alone in the market square of Sêrtar seat. Before taking him away, police beat him up.

The following day, an unidentified man from Ugyen village was also arrested but he was not a monk.

A 19-year-old reincarnated lama, Tulku Namgyal of Taglung Monastery in Choktsang village, was arrested on 4 April in the same place for handing out handwritten flyers calling for Tibetan independence and the return of the Dalai Lama. On 5 April, 20-year-old Thakchoe was arrested for raising the banned Tibetan flag.

Local sources said that similar protests have taken place over the past two days, but almost nothing has filtered through, sign of Beijing’s enhanced censorship. What is known is that more restrictions have been placed on local Tibetan monks and nuns.

In addition, Chinese security forces have set up roadblocks, manned by plain-clothes police officers, along the 22-kilometre road that separates the Larung Gar Monastery from the Sêrtar County seat.

The TCHRD has called on the Chinese government to release immediately those who were recently arrested, whose only crime is to have demonstrated peacefully for their human rights.

• china
• tibet
• sertha
• larung
• gar
• monastery
• monks
• protest
• independence
• dalai
• lama