More Tibetans arrested in connection with Internet activities

By RSF
Oct 23, 2009 – 7:28:02 AM

SOURCE: Reporters Without Borders

(RSF/IFEX) – Reporters Without Borders calls for the release of three young
Tibetans from the village of Dara who have been held in Nagchu county since
1 October 2009. The three were arrested in nearby Sogdzong county for
allegedly sending information about Tibet to contacts abroad via the
Internet.

The police have not allowed the three – identified as Gyaltsen, 25, Nymia
Wangchuk, 24, and Yeshe Namkha, 25 – to have any contact with their
families since their arrest.

“The Internet is monitored, censored and manipulated more in Tibet than in
other Chinese provinces,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Despite the
risks, Tibetan Internet users continue to transmit information, especially
to the diaspora and human rights groups. It is deplorable that the Chinese
police devote so much energy to identifying and arresting ordinary Internet
users.”

The three young people allegedly used QQ, a Chinese instant messaging
service, to send photos of the Dalai Lama and speeches by him. It appears
that the Bureau of Public Security had been monitoring their online
activities for some time. The population of Sogdzong country complains of
police harassment, including frequent ID checks.

The monks in Sog Tsandan monastery, for example, were forced by the police
to attend patriotic meetings with the authorities and were forbidden to
observe their end-of-summer retreat (in which they stay within the
monastery to avoid harming the insects that emerge at that time of the
year).

Several bloggers and other Internet users have been arrested in Tibet in
recent months. They include Pasang Norbu, arrested in Lhasa on 12 August
for looking at online photos of the Tibetan flag and Dalai Lama, and Gonpo
Tserang, a guide sentenced to three years in prison in June on charges of
inciting separatism and “communicating outside the country” for sending
emails and SMS messages about the March 2008 protests in Tibet.

http://www.ifex.org/china/tibet/2009/10/22/three_tibetans_arrested/