Tenzin Sherab
A Tibetan monk named Tseta, 25, was detained and tortured in an undisclosed location by the Chinese authorities for about seven months on charges of taking and sharing photos of Tenzin Sherab, a 33 year old Tibetan nomad who self-immolated in May 2013, reports the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), a Dharamshala -based rights group. Tseta is a monk from Adril monastery in Chumarleb County of Kyegu (Yushu) Prefecture in eastern Tibet where he serves as disciplinarian – or dean of the monastic institute. According to new information updated by TCHRD on August 10, “he was subjected to severe beatings and torture in custody and forced to confess about his role in making the information about the self-immolation public”. Tseta was accused of secretly working with Tenzin Sherab’s sisters Thubten Dolma and Jigkay,taking photos of the deceased when his body was returned home for his funeral. Tseta had lost his phone during the funeral commotion.
The report further stated that a large number of armed police gathered at Adril monastery, with warnings that the monastery will be closed if any monk was found engaging in “splittist activities”, and to force the monks to express their “gratitude and loyalty” to the Chinese Communist Party through political education sessions.
TCHRD’s report added that the Chinese authorities have dismissed the self-immolation of Tenzin Sherab as a result of personal problems and not because of Chinese policies in Tibet; they have accused him of “distorting suicide as self-immolation”.“He was a sensitive man acutely aware of the many self-immolations that had taken place before him. Each self-immolation caused him great sorrow and he used to anguish over the utter desperation faced by fellow Tibetans suffering under Chinese rule,” said a source in Chumarleb County as quoted by TCHRD.
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