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Unit 3 and the Drapchi protests of May 199893Six nuns have been identified as having been spared beatings. Political prisoners are kept under pressure, after convictionand during their prison terms, to periodically reiterate confessions, openly accept that their political actions constitutedcriminality, and reaffirm their intention to become a “new person”. Those who cooperate are spared the harsh abuse imposedon other political prisoners and may receive reduced sentences. A recent report by Xinhua put the rate of early release from94Drapchi at 35 per cent. Although very few Tibetan political prisoners attempt to become “new persons”, they aresympathetic toward prisoners who cannot withstand beating, solitary confinement, and other forms of abuse or deprivationused to encourage reform.Pema Butri, in charge of the “old” and “new” branches of Unit 3, had arrived in the courtyard and taken charge of theproceedings. She accused the nuns of having had the physical vigour to participate in the protest only because of the prison’slargesse: “The Chinese Communist Party gives you too much to eat and too much to wear. Because you ate and wore too much95you shouted.” Beatings continued as the nuns knelt on the ground. They were only permitted to return to their cells thatevening, where they were made to sleep on the bare concrete floor rather than their thin mattresses.That evening, Chinese construction laborers arrived in “new rukhag 3” to begin two days of work converting the “bathingroom”, a “shop”, and an “interrogation room” into additional solitary confinement cells. The “shop” was transformed intoseven cells and the interrogation chamber was divided into two. Before the extra cells were added, both sections of Unit 3had shared four solitary confinement cells. 96The nuns, debilitated and exhausted, decided that evening to launch a hunger strike protesting the beatings and the removalof their companions to solitary confinement. They were agitated by Pema Butri’s accusation that it was only the care providedby the prison, under the leadership of the Communist Party, that had energized them sufficiently to join the slogan shouting.The nuns pressed their objection, continuing normal work in the wool shop for the next three days, until 4 May, but refusingany food. One explained their efforts to ensure that prison officials were aware of their protest action:“After three days we put all our plates and all our things, apart from our blankets, away in the cupboard, so that ourcells were empty and so that it was clear that we were really on a hunger strike.” 97By the fourth and fifth days of the strike (4 and 5 May) some of the nuns had become extremely weak and a few had begunvomiting blood. On the fifth day, the day after the second prison protest, Lobsang Choezin explains that prison staff assignedthe women a task:“On the fifth day we were all ill and couldn't stand up properly. But we were given brooms and taken to thecourtyard to sweep the [concrete slab]. But we were not even able to lift a broom, we were so weak. On the sixthday, those who were the weakest fell because they needed to be sick, but because we hadn't eaten anything, theystarted to vomit blood.” 98On the sixth day of the strike, 6 May, the weakest nuns were put on intravenous drips. The same day a high-ranking official,described as “the laogaizhu [Tib: lobsotru], who is responsible over all the prisons”, accompanied by officials of the PSB, 99visited the inmates. Officials are reported to have asked, “Why are you on hunger strike? If you don't eat, you will [harm]your own body.” Choeying Kunsang paraphrased the nuns' response:31