Dharamshala — In an effort to further limit the rights of Tibetan people, Chinese authorities have detained four Tibetans, from Labrang Monastery, Amdo Labrang County, north-eastern Tibet, on unknown charges.
"The three monks from Labrang Monastery identified as Jinpa, Kalsang and Jamyang, were detained by Chinese police while walking around the Labrang market square at around 7:00 p.m. on June 5, 2015. Their current whereabouts and condition remain unknown," sources told the Tibet Post International (TPI).
"Three of the detained monks are natives of Bora township in Amdo Sangchu county, north-eastern Tibet. The authorities did not explained the reason for their arrests," sources said, "The two monks Kalsang and Jinpa are ritual performers of the monastery and Geshe Jinpa is an academic monk from the monastery."
"Another monk Kalsang Monlam, who is also from Labrang Monastery separately arrested on unknown charges on the same day. His whereabouts and fate also remain unknown," the local sources added.
According to the sources, "with plainclothes security personnel came to the Labrang monastery for Monlam and took him away in handcuffs at the night of the same day. Monlam is a native of Chebushi Village, Sangchu County."
"The Chinese authorities forced the monk to unlock his mobile phone and then searched his room and chained him up,” the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Since then, there has been no information about the monks’ condition or whereabouts. Sources said family members of the monks are concerned about the sudden disappearance of the monks.
Sources said that heavy security presence in Labrang and Bora areas; in particular, Labrang Monastery and Bora Monastery is teeming with armed forces and police who closely monitor and carry out surveillance on the activities of the local Tibetans and monks.
The France-based watchdog group Reporters Without Borders Tuesday said it is shocked by the Chinese government’s praise of its human rights performance last year in a white paper published on Monday [June 9] and points out that the regime continues to be one of the worst in the world for persecuting journalists and bloggers and censoring the news.
"The white paper's hypocrisy and presumptuousness would be good for a laugh if they were not matched by the severity of the government's treatment of journalists, bloggers and cyber-dissidents," said Benjamin Ismaïl, the head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk.
It is a fact that the regime has also imposed severe restrictions on internet and phone connections by increasing a wider crackdown on communications across Tibet in an attempt to prevent any news reaching the outside world.
In Tibet today, Tibetans are being arbitrarily arrested, imprisoned and tortured for merely expressing their suffering under Chinese rule. However, authorities in Beijing still claim that "China 'peacefully liberated' Tibet, and that the "Tibetans are living in a Maoist socialist paradise."