Six United Nations experts have called on China to give more information about the arrest, detention and subsequent enforced disappearance of three Tibetans: writer Lobsang Dhondup (pen name: Dhi Lhaden); musician Lhundup Drakpa and teacher Rinchen Kyi, all arrested in connection with their cultural activities promoting the use of Tibetan language and culture.
The UN experts have focused on these three cases, saying in their joint communication that the three cases are representative of the situation faced by a larger number of Tibetans engaged in the defense of the Tibetan language, culture and traditions, or in expressing critical views about the policies in the region. Their communication continued, saying that the arbitrary arrest, detention and enforced disappearance of the three are “linked to the legitimate exercise of their freedom of opinion and expression, which includes artistic expression and freedom to take part in cultural life as well as their rights, as members of an ethnic, religious and linguistic minority, to enjoy their community”.
The UN group demanded information about the three’s health status and whereabouts, and details of the legal grounds for their arrests as well as an explanation of why their places of detention are not shared with their family members or representatives.
“Without expressing at this stage an opinion on the facts of this case and on whether the arrest and detention of Mr Lobsang Lhundup, Mr Lhundrup Drakpa and Ms Rinchen Kyi are arbitrary or not, we would like to appeal to your Excellency’s Government to take all necessary measures to guarantee their right not to be deprived arbitrarily of liberty and to fair proceedings before an independent and impartial tribunal, in accordance with articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” said the joint letter, dated February 17. The letter added that the reason for the appeal is to safeguard the rights of the three political prisoners and prevent them from harm.
Lobsang Lhundup, 50, is a Tibetan teacher and writer from Golog Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture who has published two books under his pen name Dhi Lhaden, Tsesok Le Trun Pe Kecha (Words Uttered with Life on Risk) and Tungol Trimtug (The Art of Passive Resistance, 2015), as well as many articles. He travelled widely in Tibet in 2008 in the runup to writing Words Uttered with Life on Risk which was published in 2011, the third anniversary of the widespread protests across Tibet in 2008. His books are critical of China’s rule in Tibet. Lobsang Lhundup is a former monk and taught Tibetan language and Buddhism in various places around Tibet. He was arrested in June 2019 while working in an education centre in Chengdu. After two years of detention without an update, or fair trial about his case, in 2021, following a secret trial, he was sentenced to four years in prison on a charge of “creating disorder among the public” – this allegedly refers to his books.
Lhundrup Drakpa, 38, a popular singer from Driru County, was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2020. He released and performed his song Black Hat in 2019, a song criticising repressive government policies; he was arrested two months later and held for more than a year in pretrial detention before being sentenced. The authorities said Drakpa’s song was a “crime against humanity.” His family members have no information about his whereabouts.
Rinchen Kyi, in her 40s, was a teacher at Sengdruk Taktse middle school in Darlak County. The forced closure of her school left her without work and her health subsequently deteriorated when she was unable to eat. She was arrested on August 1, 2021 from her home in Golog on charges of “inciting separatism”, allegedly for fasting. She was taken to hospital but not diagnosed with any medical condition. When her family arrived at the hospital following a call to see her there, she had already been removed to another location, since when her family has no information about her health or whereabouts.
The UN experts stressed that in each of these cases, the family members are “extremely concerned” for their relation’s wellbeing. The experts’ joint appeal also demanded that measures be taken to ensure the free exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and the freedom to take part in the cultural life of Tibet, with the right to enjoy their own culture, religion and language of their minority group.
China failed to respond within 60 days to these demands, at which point the letter was made public.
The six UN Special Procedures’ mandates include Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances; the Special Rapporteur on the right to education; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the Special Rapporteur on minority issues.
Print
Email