download the report - International Campaign for Tibet

Rukhag 3: The Nuns of Drapchi Prisonstill they wouldn't help. During the drills we really had to run like hell. Even if we had bought a fairly strong pairof shoes, they didn't last longer than about five days.” 31Weakness, sickness and injury were generally not accepted as reasons to miss a session:“Nuns would carry those who had been beaten unconscious or who had fallen down during the drill to their beds atthe end of the sessions. There would be no medical help. The next day, the PAP would call those sick nuns out oftheir beds, and they would be forced to do the drill again.” 32Norzin Wangmo, a Shugsib nun detained in December 1993 for demonstrating in the Lhasa Barkor who was transferred fromGutsa to Drapchi with a five year sentence in September 1994, describes PAP refinements to this “exercise” as follows:“Starting in the 15th day of the fourth Tibetan month [early summer] to the 12th Tibetan month [late winter], theymade us exercise. They would make us run for a long distance and then chase us on bikes. They said it was for ourhealth, but in fact this was a punishment. We understood this. We are not stupid. They would punish us in thisway. [The exertion] would make most of us fall unconscious. Everyone running would fall on the ground, ourbodies would frequently be swollen and bloated, but they would come and make us stand and then beat us. Theywould brutally punish us. If we needed to urinate we were not allowed to ask to go to the toilet for two hours andeven if we had stomach pains we were not allowed to ask. We were living in pain. They would force us to standoutside in the sun, rain and snow. When it was raining hard, they would leave us in the rain. When the sun wasshining brightly, they would leave us in the sun for a long time. We were already so weak because they only gaveus cabbage and hot water. “ 33She also highlighted PAP ability to utilize nature’s elements to intensify discomfort or pain:“[When] it hailed they would put it in our mouths and the blood vessels were in pain. When the sun was shiningthey would make us stand up for two hours or more, with arms stretched out under the sun, and balance books onour arms and head, and we wouldn't be able to move. This would go on for a long time and our bodies wouldfrequently become swollen and painful. Then they would hit us in the face, and check whether or not the bloodvessels were swollen. Once the blood vessels were swollen, we couldn't bend our arms if we wanted to. Then, theywould beat us and leave us in the sun. I was so weak and I bled two times.” 34Another account by a woman detained in 1993, sentenced for helping to distribute pro-independence leaflets, and held in “oldrukhag 3”, describes the sessions in similar terms:35“The soldiers [PAP] also tortured us by teaching us exercise. They told foreign visitors to Tibet that they wereteaching exercises to the political prisoners to make them healthy. Actually it was not for our health but to tortureus in a more sophisticated way by calling it an exercise for our health. If we failed to follow exactly according towhat the soldiers were doing during the drills they would start beating us with bamboo sticks and with their heavybelts. They punished political prisoners by forcing them to sit erect in the sun on a hot day for many hours, whichfrequently made them bleed from the nose and mouth in large amounts. Sometimes they would fall to the groundunconscious. [...] We were never allowed to help [and if we tried] they threatened to beat us.” 36The death of 25 year old Garu nun Gyaltsen Kelsang has been linked to this military-style routine in its early days. She wasdetained in June 1993 and sentenced to an unusually short two year sentence, and collapsed at the end of 1994 after a session14