download the report - International Campaign for Tibet

Rukhag 3: The Nuns of Drapchi Prison“Like the others she was in a bad state, bruised because of the beatings. Her legs were particularly swollen.We were not allowed to talk to each other because the case of the 1 May incidents hadn't been decided yet.I saw her briefly while going to the toilet. She had been beaten with a plank from the bottom of a bed. Wedidn't know the full truth about her death and the deaths of others until after our release.” 143Another account by a “new rukhag 3” inmate describes the condition of Tsultrim Zangmo and Dekyi Yangzom(ordained Drugkyi Pema) on the morning of 7 June:“In the morning, while we were washing clothes, we saw Dekyi Yangzom and Tsultrim Zangmo but wewere not allowed to talk. They were not able to walk properly, they needed the wall for support. Then atlunchtime, when we were eating in our cell, we heard nuns shouting outside, because these five nuns weretaken away in cars. When we later asked where they were taken, the guards told us that they were takento hospital because they had committed suicide in the storeroom. After that [the authorities] continued tolie, saying that they were receiving medical treatment.” 144It is clear from this account that the two nuns were in poor condition shortly before they died, but it less certain whether theirenfeebled state was the result of weeks of abuse, or whether they had been beaten again that morning. The four-day sessionof standing in the sun, which included individual periods of interrogation, beating and electric shocks, had continued untilthe previous evening. This report, and others, states that five nuns were taken away (and died), but does not provide aneyewitness description of the removal of all five. Even though only two nuns were seen being carried away, and it may nothave been immediately apparent who they were, it could not have been long before the women knew whose bunks were empty.If prison staff insisted that the missing nuns had been hospitalised, it would have been reasonable, after a while, for theinmates to presume that the five had been given medical parole and returned to their families. It was not until after theirreleases that the women would learn that all five of their companions had died.Drugkyi Pema, seen with Tsultrim Zangmo on the morning of 7 June, was a member of Nyemo Rangjung Nunnery,known also as Drowa Chorten Nunnery and Ritso Nunnery. Reportedly the daughter of a doctor in Ritso village,she was one of four Rangjung nuns detained in February 1995 and sentenced to four years for demonstrating. Aboutage 19 at detention, it is likely she was one of the group transferred to Drapchi in the summer of 1995 to form “newrukhag 3”. She would also have been among those who experienced intensive military drills after her transfer, andwould have been a participant in the hunger strike at Losar 1997.[see Image 1: Drugkyi Pema]Khedron Yonten and Tashi Lhamo, nuns of Jewo Thekchogling, also referred to as Jiwa Nunnery, in NyemoCounty, were detained in January 1995 at ages 23 and 21 respectively. Both received five year sentences fordemonstrating in Lhasa and would probably have been in the group of transferees to Drapchi in summer 1995. LikeTsultrim Zangmo and Drugkyi Pema, they would also have been subject to military drills upon their arrival atDrapchi, and would also have been among the Losar hunger strikers in 1997. Choeying Kunsang reports that TashiLhamo was one of her cell mates and that Khedron Yonten was her friend. She recounts her discovery, after herrelease in February 1999, that they had died:“From [7 June] onward we were just kept in our cells, and we didn't see anything or anyone outside. Wedidn't know at all what was happening outside, who from our friends was being questioned or not. We were44