Current prisoners |
Tashi Rabten aka Therang - Sentenced to four years imprisonment
Tashi Rabten was sentenced on 2 June 2011 in a closed court trial to four years imprisonment on the charge of 'inciting splittism'. Tashi was arrested on 6 April 2010 and was held at a detention center in Barkham County, Ngaba Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, according to Radio Free Asia. Tashi Rabten edited the banned literary magazine Shar Dungri (Eastern Snow Mountain) on the 2008 protests in Tibet and co-authored a collection of work called “Written in Blood”.
Tashi's whereabouts were unknown to his family to six months.
Tashi Rabten is from Dzoege (Chinese: Ruo’ergai) county in Ngaba, Sichuan province in the Tibetan region of Kham and was due to graduate in 2010 from the Northwest Nationalities University in Lanzhou. “He has won great respect and popularity among students, intellectuals and ordinary readers in Tibet as an outstanding and brave young thinker,” a friend of Tashi said.
Referring to Tashi's book 'Written in Blood', his friend said, “It consists of many valuable writings on democracy, freedom and equality. In fact, I didn’t see anything illegal in there. It’s all accurate and true.” The same source said that Tashi’s activities were strictly monitored, and copies of his book confiscated from the university.
Read more about internet information access controls in China and Tibet here.
Another Tibetan blogger said of Therang:
"Isn’t it regretable for the Tibetan people to lose such a young brave person like him? If all the people with affection for our nationalities and the courageous youths are being disappeared like this, then what is the point of just shouting and raising our fists in the air? Are there able people amongst us Tibetans? Shouldn’t the Tibetan people be rising up when faced with such obstruction? How many people like Therang are there amongst us who are not afraid of talking about the plight of our people?"
The following poem (translated into English by Bhuchung D. Sonam) is from his book Written in Blood.
My Tibet
Is it you, the flame that burns in the middle of a storm?
Is it you, the boat that rocks in the sea?
Is it also you, who offers the torch of life in the darkness of night?
Is it you, where there is no freedom?
Is it also you, who is chained and shackled?
Is it you, who writes her history in blood?
Are you a warrior?
Where are your battlefield and the weapons?
Are you a prisoner?
What crimes have you committed?
Is it your sky that the sun shies away from?
Is it your vow to let yourself be silent?
Are these your border guards, the long guns surrounding you?
Freedom is different from restrictions
Because of which you move,
Because of which they tie and bind you, isn't it?
Isn't it you who is being murdered?
Isn't it you who is being jailed?
Isn't it you who is being tortured?
Why is it that you still want to move?
Do you want to move amidst shadows of guns?
No.
Isn't it you who can never be cowed down?
Isn't it you who fiercely burns with passion?
Isn't it you who marches ahead into history?
Don't you need to move even more?
Don't you need to move till the time runs out and the life ends?
