ICC Note: Though this Tibetan activist had been previously jailed and was warned by the Chinese authorities not to continue his religious activism, he apparently saw no other choice but to pursue his legal rights to freedom of religion under the Chinese constitution.
By Chakmo Tso
10/12/2015 China (Radio Free Asia)
Authorities in China have taken into custody a Tibetan for violating the terms of his release from prison and carrying leaflets in northwest China’s Qinghai province, calling for the return of the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, sources said.
Samdrub Gyatso, believed to be in his early 30s, had finished serving a five-year sentence in May for launching a solitary protest in front of the Jokhang temple in Tibet’s regional capital Lhasa, sources said.
Gyatso was arrested in early May 2010 after wrapping himself in a Tibetan flag and calling out for the return of the Dalai Lama, the release of the Panchen Lama, and the resettlement of Tibetans expelled from the Kyegudo (in Chinese, Yushu) area of Qinghai province following a devastating earthquake, a Tibetan in exile told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
After he served a five-year sentence in Lhasa’s Drapchi prison, authorities escorted Gyatso to his hometown Serthang in Dashi (Haiyan) county, Tsojang (Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture), in Qinghai.
“He was instructed not to travel outside the county premises,” said one of Gyatso’s relatives.
Gyatso was taken into custody again in early September when traveling from eastern to western Qinghai with the politically sensitive leaflets, a Tibetan source from Tibet told RFA.
“He was being followed and watched even after his release,” he said.
Gyatso now suffers from kidney disease and requires medication on a regular basis, the source said.
Authorities are holding Gyatso in the Dashi county jail, said one of his relatives.
“No one is allowed to see or visit him,” he said.
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