Exiled Tibetans say two monks from China monastery detained
BEIJING (Reuters) - Security forces have detained two Tibetan monks from a monastery in southwestern China that has been at the centre of defiance against Chinese religious controls, three exiled Tibetans told Reuters, citing sources there.
Gyamtso, also known as Gyatso, and Losang Gendun, or Lobsang Gendun, were detained at the Kirti monastery in China's Aba prefecture, a heavily ethnic Tibetan part of Sichuan province that has been the site of eight out of 11 self-immolations among Tibetans this year.
Gyamtso, 42, was taken into custody on November 21, while 48-year-old Losang was detained in October, according to two exiled monks from a sister monastery, also called Kirti, in India's Dharamsala, the seat of the exiled Tibetan government.
The detentions in the Kirti monastery in Aba, home to about 2,500 monks, come after a spate of self-immolations to protest against Chinese religious controls over Tibet.
In China, 11 Tibetan monks and nuns -- some former clergy -- have set themselves on fire since March this year, calling for the return of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and for freedom for Tibet.
Kanyag Tsering, a monk with the Dharamsala-based Kirti monastery, told Reuters by telephone that the Aba county government and the public security bureau did not give the monks any reason for the detentions and that he had no information on their whereabouts.
"So far those two monks were not involved in any sort of political activities or immolations," said Kanyag, who received his information through three different sources within Aba. "They were high-profile religious monks in the Kirti monastery."
Gyamtso was a teacher at the Kirti monastery school before the school's closure and many of his essays were published in the region's newspapers and magazines, Khedroob Thondup, the Dalai Lama's nephew, told Reuters in emailed comments.
Lobsang was a former disciplinarian of a college at Kirti, Khedroob said.
When asked to confirm the accounts by the monks, an Aba prefecture official told Reuters: "I don't know, please refer to the relevant department", before hanging up the phone.
A police officer from the Aba prefecture public security bureau said: "I'm not quite clear about it."
PATRIOTIC RE-EDUCATION
China routinely rejects any accusations about mistreatment or exploitation of Tibetans, saying its rule has brought untold benefits to what was a poor and feudal society.
Authorities have sent more than 200 officials to Aba's Kirti monastery since August after a five-month "patriotic re-education" campaign ended, Kanyag said.
"The monks don't know what the identities of these officials are or which departments they belong to," he said. "They are watching the monks' movements, they have set up ... spy cameras everywhere."
Authorities had stepped up "patriotic re-education" campaigns at Kirti since March in an effort to stamp out separatist sentiment and allegiance to the Dalai Lama.
Monks at Kirti played crucial roles in the Tibetan protests in March 2008, when deadly riots against the Chinese presence spread across Tibetan regions ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Losang Yeshe, a 28-year-old monk from the Dharamsala-based Kirti monastery, said the "repressive controls" in Kirti were excessive, compared with at other Tibetan monasteries.
(Additional reporting by Sabrina Mao,; Editing by Ken Wills and Paul Tait)
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