Accordong to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy a total of six monks of Wara Monastery were arrested during early morning raids carried out by scores of Chinese Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials at the monks’ residence on Saturday and Sunday.

Arrested in monastery
On 15 May (Saturday), Thinley, 25, and Nangsey, 27, were arrested in their room whereas Soegon, 26, was arrested for sounding alarm on the arrival of PSB into the monastery. Kelsang Gyurmey, 29, whom the PSB officials were looking for could not be traced in the monastery and was later arrested in his home.

All four monks were students of Buddhist philosophy at Wara Buddhist College that comes under patronage of Wara Monastery. The four monks are currently detained at Jomda County PSB Detention Centre.

On 16 May (Sunday) morning, the PSB officials came again to Wara Monastery and detained two senior monks: Sonam Gonpo a.k.a Soegon, 40, and Tagyal, 29. Both have been arrested for their failure to “educate” the monks of the monastery under “Patriotic education” campaign launched at the beginning of April 2008. There is no information on where the two monks are currently held.

Background
On 3 April 2008, monks of Wara Monastery in Jomda County confronted and challenged the “work team” from carrying ‘patriotic education’ campaign by saying ‘even at the cost of our lives we will never defame and denounce our religious leader, the Dalai Lama“.

According to sources, many of the Wara Monastery’s monks were in the forefront during the 2008 protests in Jomda County when they were blocked by the People’s Armed Police (PAP) from advancing towards the main county market to proceed with their protest.

At the beginning of 2010, a novice monk, Jamyang Palden, 14, was detained twice and released after undergoing torture to extract confession for his role in 2008 protest at Jomda.

He was detained for more than a week on both occasions at the Jomda County PSB Detention Centre. Similarly, Gyaltsen, 16, was also detained under suspicion of distributing and pasting speech by the late Panchen Lama to Tibetans during the 2008 protest. He was released after a week of interrogation at the PSB detention centre.

TCHRD
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) condemns in strongest terms over the arbitrary detention of Wara monks. The Centre calls upon the Chinese authorities to immediately and unconditionally release the detained monks and guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of detained monks. The Chinese authorities should put an end to all acts of harassment against the monks so that they are able to carry out their religious studies without hindrances.

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The Norwegian Tibet Committee is a politically independent, nationwide organization formed to promote Tibetan rights. Tibet Committee was established in spring 1989 and has approximately 1500 members. The Norwegian Tibet Committee is one of the largest and most active organisations in the world supporting Tibet. In the spring 1994 The Norwegian Tibet Committee organized a conference in Norway, the European support group.

Norway and Norwegians have a special position among the Tibetans for their religious and political leader, the Dalai Lama, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. Many of the Tibetans, who came to Norway in the 60, still live here, and they are active in the Committee. In 1996 began to broadcast the radio station Voice of Tibet.

Tibet has been occupied by the People´s Republic of China since 1950, and the Tibetan situation is increasingly deteriorating. Fundamental human rights are broken, and the rich Tibetan culture is now in danger of being destroyed.

The Norwegian Tibet Committee aims to:
Get the Norwegian authorities to recognize Tibet as an occupied country;
Inform about violations of human rights, economic exploitation and discrimination against Tibetans;
Making Tibet’s rich culture known in Norway.

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