UN rebukes China as protests continue in Tibet

Thursday, June 09, 2011 00:23
By Sherab Woeser

A day after two Tibetans were severely beaten and detained in eastern Tibet for raising pro-independence slogans, another monk protested against Chinese rule June 7.

Woeser Phuntsok, a 30-year old monk form Kardze Beri monastery led a solo demonstration in Kardze town calling for the return of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and religious freedom in Tibet. Eyewitnesses confirm that Woeser Phuntsok was severely beaten before being taken away by the Chinese police.

His whereabouts remain unknown.

A source in exile with contacts in Kardze said that security in the area has been beefed up with tight restrictions on the movement of ethnic Tibetans.

Meanwhile, on June 8, the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances voiced its serious concern over the widespread occurrences of enforced disappearances in China.

The UN Working Group urged the Chinese authorities to disclose the fate and whereabouts of a group of Tibetan monks who were forcefully taken from their monastery last April.

On April 21, more than 300 monks of the Kirti monastery in the Amdo province of Ngaba were arrested and transferred to unknown destinations in military trucks.

“We encourage the authorities to undertake full investigations into the on-going practice of enforced disappearances and ensure that those responsible are prosecuted and receive sentences appropriate to the gravity of the crime”, the UN Working Group said.

Dubbing enforced disappearance as a ‘terrible practice’ that can never be justified, the expert body called on China to fulfill its promise to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

“China has an obligation to abide by the strictest standards in the field of human rights”, the UN body noted.