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INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR TIBET
DETENTIONS AND DISAPPEARANCES IN TIBET
SINCE MARCH 2008: A LIST OF TIBETANS
IMPRISONED AFTER THE PROTESTS
ICT has been able to identify over 900 people who have been detained since
protests began on March 10. This information has been obtained from first hand
accounts provided by ICT sources, family members, monks, nuns and laypeople
now in exile, and reports by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 1 the
Tibetan Government in Exile, the Tibetan exile media, official sources, Radio Free
Asia, Voice of Tibet, Voice of America, Tibetan non-governmental organizations
including Gu Chu Sum and the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Since March, China has resorted to ever harsher measures to subdue and silence the
Tibetan people, which are having a dramatic impact in terms of information reaching
the outside world. On an official website, the Lhasa authorities have warned that there
would be repercussions for Tibetans who “spread rumors, create disturbances and
deceive the public,” as part of the political campaign against “separatists.”
Similar threats and warnings have been made elsewhere in Tibet as authorities sought
to achieve an information blackout. In Jyekundo (Chinese: Yushu) Tibetan Autonomous
Prefecture in Qinghai, armed police raided households and took away components
of satellite televisions, according to the Tibetan government in exile. The
same report referred to an official circular stating that Tibetans are not allowed to
watch news channels and can only watch state-run television channels (April 22,
Tibetan government in exile).
As a result of the measures to prevent information leaving Tibet, and the climate of
fear on the plateau, this political prisoner list cannot be comprehensive and the full
number of Tibetans in detention since March 10 is not known. Tibetan sources take
great risk in communicating such information to the outside world, and it is a testimony
to the courage of Tibetans in Tibet that ICT has been able to make this information
public.
Reports in the state media in March and April confirm the detention of 4434 people
described as “rioters” who participated in protests in March and had been detained
or surrendered by April 9. 2 This figure apparently covered Lhasa in the TAR and Gannan
(Chinese: Kanlho) TAP in Gansu province (Xinhua, April 9), as well as in Ngaba
prefecture in Sichuan province (People’s Daily, March 25), but does not include every
Tibetan area of the PRC. According to an analysis of state media by the CECC, including
a June 21 China Daily article reporting on the release of “1157 people who
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