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Associated Press BEIJING -- The deaths of 11 prisoners in Chinese-ruled Tibet have been linked to beatings by guards following prison protests in 1998, a monitoring group reported Thursday. One prisoner was executed, three died from beatings and seven others - six of them Tibetan Buddhist nuns - committed suicide, the London-based Tibet Information Network reported. It said one monk was left crippled. The group said a Tibetan who fled the region corroborated previously sketchy reports of the deaths. Monks Lobsang Wangchug and Khedrub, who uses only one name, were among those who died in May 1998 after guards confined prisoners to their cells and beat them with electric cattle prods and rubber pipes, the group said. It said a third monk, Lobsang Choephel, committed suicide. Government officials in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, reached by telephone denied any knowledge of the deaths. The
monitoring group's report said nearly 900 prisoners gathered in Drapchi prison
on the outskirts of Lhasa on May 1, 1998, under orders to sing the song "Socialism
is good!" As guards began to raise the flag, prisoners began shouting for Tibetan
independence. Calls for Tibetan independence are considered seditious under China's
49-year rule over the Himalayan region. The Buddhist clergy, largely loyal to
their exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, have been at the forefront of opposition
to Chinese rule. To put down the prison protest, guards and police beat the prisoners,
the monitoring group said. A second protest occurred later in May 1998 but was
quickly suppressed, it added. The group said one prisoner who distributed the
written slogans, Karma Dawa, was reportedly executed. |
