Three Tibetan businessmen and poet sentenced up to eight years in restive Driru county
DHARAMSALA, July 2: China has sentenced three Tibetan businessmen from restive Driru county in Traditional Kham province’s Nagchu prefecture (now incorporated into Tibet Autonomous Region) to eight years each in prison and a poet from the same county to seven years in prison in May this year.
All four of them were natives of Chonyi or Lenchu township in restive Driru county where scores of Tibetans have been arrested under various trumped up charges since September 2013, when Tibetans in the county protested against Chinese government’s flag campaign requiring local Tibetans to hoist the Chinese national flag from their homes.
The three businessmen, Sonam Dharwang, Lhawang and Tsering Lhadrup from Kado village in Chonyi township were arrested last year after Chinese immigrant businessmen in the county complained to the relevant Chinese authorities that the three aforementioned Tibetan businessmen deliberately sold commodities from their shops at cheaper rates to local Tibetans. Their act was given a political twist and their motives were also questioned.
“As a result of Chinese government’s policy of encouraging mainland Chinese to settle in Tibetan areas, many Chinese businessmen had settled in various Tibetan areas, including Driru county’s Chunyi township. These Chinese businessmen unreasonably raised the price of commodities creating difficulty for the local Tibetans, who could not complain about the issue to the authorities fearing such an action might backfire and make matters even worse for the local Tibetans as many of the senior authorities were Chinese. Few years back, the three Tibetan businessmen ran shops from where they sold commodities of daily use to Tibetans at a cheaper rate compared to the Chinese shop in an attempt to ease the difficulty faced by the local Tibetans. Chinese businessmen in the area who were visibly miffed by the Tibetan businessmen’s actions complained about them to the authorities who, giving their gesture of empathy a political flavor, arrested them in 2014 and were sentenced in May 2015 to eight years each in prison,” a reliable Tibetan source told Tibet Express on Jun 30.
Separately, Tenzin Kalsang, a Tibetan poet aged around 25 and a native of Sakar village in Chonyi township has been sentenced in May 2015 to seven years in prison.
Tenzin Kalsang had written a book titled ‘Tsol Nyeg’ (meaning pursuing something with great hope) which he intended to publish from Gansu Nationalities Publishing House but was denied the permission to publish the book by the authorities.
After completing primary school, Tenzin Kalsang became a novice monk and from 2005 onward, he studied at the famous Larung Gar Buddhist Institute in Serta County in Kardze prefecture and Jophu monastery for more than three years. He also studied for several months under Khangkar Tsultrim, a scholar at the Northwest University for Nationalities. Later he returned back to his native place as Chinese authorities ordered Tibetan natives of Tibet Autonomous Region studying in monasteries and institutes outside TAR to return to their native places. After returning, he taught Tibetan culture and dialectics to monks in his hometown for more than a year and also taught Tibetan language and grammar to Tibetan youth in the neighbouring villages.
Tenzin Kalsang was arrested in late 2014 and remained disappeared until it was learned recently that he has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Whether his arrest and imprisonment is linked to his book or other activities could not be confirmed yet due heavy restrictions placed in the area making it difficult to confirm the details of such reports.
