Contact is taking a holiday!

Photo: Tibet Times

Rinchen Dhargye and his brother-in-law Namkha from Sershul County in Kham Kardze region in eastern Tibet were arrested by the Chinese police on October 10, reports the Tibet Times.

They were questioned about where they went and who they met; they said that they returned straight home after buying groceries and dining in a Chinese restaurant. The police accused them of not getting permission to go out, handcuffed them and forcibly took them to the county police station.

According to Tibet Times’ source, in the name of prevention of spread of Covid-19, Tibetans in Sershul county region are restricted from travelling freelyto nearby places, and outsiders have not beem allowed into the area during the last two months. In the case of emergencies, local residents need to get permission from authorities: anyone caught travelling without permission is accused of breaking state law and punished accordingly.

Following the arrest of Rinchen Dhargye and Namkha, their families were nether neither informed about their arrest nor allowed to meet them. They are from Sershul County’s Dharmar camp; Rinchen Dhargye lives with his two parents and his wife, Lhamo and three children. Namkha is his sister’s husband, they have a young baby.

Despite China’s attempts to implement their Zero Covid Policy, their failure to contain the spread of Covid-19 is evident from the number of cases of Covid among Tibetans in Lhasa, its neighbouring regions and other parts of Tibet, which have emerged since the beginning of August. These Tibetan regions were put under complete lockdown; the mismanagement of that lockdown by the authorities and the incompetency of their measures to cope with the public during lockdown have been subject to much protest by Tibetans living under this régime who have turned to online platforms to spread the news of the situation. Failure to provide basic needs for those in quarantine centres, and inadequate medical facilities have been exposed through videos and other online posts – there have been reports of the arrests of Tibetans who have violated lockdown rules. The Chinese authorities have not issued an exact number of Tibetans who have died as a result of contracting Covid-19.