The Gannan Intermediate People's Court sentenced Choekyi Drolma, a Buddhist nun, to three years' imprisonment for "inciting splittism," according to official Chinese information that has recently become available
The Gannan Intermediate People's Court in Gansu province sentenced Choekyi Drolma, a Buddhist nun, to three years' imprisonment in December 2005 for "inciting splittism," according to official Chinese information that has recently become available and published by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China today at http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=77963.
Choekyi Drolma was among five Tibetan monks and nuns detained in 2005 in Xiahe (Sangchu), in Gannan (Kanlho) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (TAP) in Gansu. Public security officials detained Choekyi Drolma, along with nuns Tamdrin Tsomo and Yonten Drolma of Gedun Tengyeling Nunnery, and monks Dargyal Gyatso and Jamyang Samdrub of Labrang Tashikhyil Monastery, on May 22, 2005, on suspicion that they circulated and displayed letter-sized posters in Xiahe and other locations that were critical of the Chinese government, according to NGO and news media reports. The official information mentions only Choekyi Drolma, but the Gannan court probably tried and sentenced the five monks and nuns together, since they were accused of acting together to distribute and display the posters. Exactly what the posters said is not clear, as unofficial descriptions of them vary. A July 2005 Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy report said that the posters called for "freedom in Tibet." A Radio Free Asia report in December 2005 said that at least one of the posters called on the Chinese government to start a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. According to a February 2006 Reuters report (reprinted on the Web site of Phayul), the posters said that China should not host the Olympics until the Tibet question is peacefully resolved.
Tibetan monks and nuns constitute about 70 percent of the 107 currently detained or imprisoned Tibetan political prisoners, according to information available in the CECC Political Prisoner Database. The actual number of Tibetan political prisoners is likely to be higher. Reports of Tibetan political imprisonment often do not reach monitoring groups until at least one or two years after the detentions occur, and some reports do not include the names of the detainees.
