By Choekyi Lhamo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 13: Prominent Tibetan writer Go Sherab Gyatso has been sentenced to ten years in prison by a Chinese court in a secret trial, Dharamshala based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said on Monday. The Tibetan monk’s sentencing was also confirmed by Radio Free Asia.
The 45-year-old monk from Kirti monastery in Ngaba, Amdo was arrested in Chengdu city on Oct. 26 in 2020. No details about the conviction and charges are known as of now, except that he would soon be sent to a prison near Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
The reputed writer has been a vocal critic of Chinese policies, and had been previously sentenced several times by the Chinese government, first in 1998 for protesting Chinese ‘re-education’ programs that resulted in a 4-year prison sentence. Later, he participated in the 2008 uprising during the Beijing Summer Olympics and was sentenced for over a year for mobilizing a group of monks from Kirti monastery in Lhasa. In 2011, he was held in Chengdu by the authorities after a monk from Kirti monastery self-immolated in Ngaba.
The Chinese government had confirmed his detention in October last year when they responded to a July letter from U.N. human rights experts enquiring about the case. China responded that Gyatso had been placed in criminal detention “in accordance with the law on suspicion of inciting secession.” It further said all accusations of ‘secret detention’, ‘arbitrary detention’ or ‘enforced disappearance’ never took place.
The highly respected Buddhist intellectual has authored eight books since 1998 until his detention in 2008. His books include, “We Need to Wake Up” published in 2007 by Gansu Nationalities Press, which was popular both inside Tibet and in the exile community. According to a TCHRD, his father Khashul Go Nyun Tsondue was a minister at the court of Pelgon Thinley Rabten, the last king of Meu kingdom in Ngaba. His maternal grandfather Thutop Wangchuk was one of the king’s most senior ministers during the mid 20th century.
One Response
The unlawful incarceration of Go Sherab Gyatso by the Chinese communist occupiers is another act of ruthlessness by the CCP dictatorship that is so paranoid, it imprisons any one who is perceived as a threat to sooth its own insecurities. Go Sherab and all the 1,809 prisoners currently languishing in Chinese prisons are all totally innocent. Their only crime is to protect Tibet’s precious Buddhist religion, its rich ancient culture and language. Their resistance against the destruction of Tibet’s identity is their only “crime”. The most brutal and ruthless CCP regime is hell bent to Hanify the Tibetans and “homogenise” the Tibetans with the Chinese. This is the most evil and dastardly act of a criminal Han Chauvinist regime that is as Grace Meng, the wife of former Interpol Chief Meng Hongwei, termed as child eaters. In her own words, “They eat their children” and added the CCP is a monster!!! Who wouldn’t agree with her? This is coming from a patriotic Chinese and not from so called anti-Chinese forces. It goes to show the depth of animosity of the CCP among decent Chinese people like Grace Meng. This is a cause for joy!
The pusillanimous exile Government has not helped the Tibetans but helped the CCP enemy to commit a silent genocide in whole of Tibet. Despite such appalling and inhuman treatment of the Tibetans inside Tibet, the exiles are engaging internecine war based on regional bigotry. Instead of exposing the crimes of the CCP against the Tibetans, the CTA self-censors itself in order to curry favour from the evil regime. The classic example is the ridiculous utterance of an elected member of the Tibetan parliament who opined if saying, བོད་རྒྱལ་ལོ་ would in fact offend the CCP!!!
Just imagine the thinking of such Tibetan representatives who are more concerned about offending the enemy than alleviating the suffering of our fellow Tibetans! Owing to such stupidity, the Tibet issue has disappeared from the headlines of international news since the year 2000 despite the fact that 156 Tibetans have set themselves alight to highlight the grotesque oppression of the CCP colonisers. The CCP is only tightening the noose around the Tibetans to strangulate them just as Adolf Hitler did to the Jews.
The imprisonment of Tibetan intellectuals, monks/nuns, singers, environmentalists and activists is the CCP’s attempt to smother Tibet into oblivion. With the CCP facing international incrimination, it’s time to swing into action and expose the CCP’s crimes against the Tibetan people and revoke spurious Chinese claims over Tibet and fight for total independence.
There are some pro-CCP elements who have been doing the dirty work of the CCP in exile. Such poodles will immediately jump and cry, “independence is not possible”. These people are ignorant of world history. No matter how powerful they may be, no power is immune to disintegration. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 after 70 years of communist rule. This was followed by the breakup of the Soviet Union and with it Yugoslavia broke up as well. Keeping a people oppressed cannot last forever. All the British, French and Dutch colonies in Africa and Asia gained freedom when the colonial powers themselves went bankrupt. So, why do they believe, the CCP colonialist will survive forever? Haven’t they learnt the Buddhist dictum ལྟ་བ་དཀར་རྟགས་ཀྱི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་བཞི་ནི་འདི་ལྟར་ འདུས་བྱས་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་རྟག་པ་ ཟག་བཅས་ཐམས་ཅད་བསྡུ་སྔལ་བ་ ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟོང་ཞིང་བདག་མེད་པ་ མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་ཞི་པའོ། །་All composite objects are impermanent and therefore given to disintegration,
All contaminated objects are source of suffering, All phenomena are inherently non-existent, Nirvana is the blissful state peace!
Therefore, nothing lasts forever and the communist regime is no different. In fact, it very much looks like the rot is setting in. An outfit that has no respect from the outside world will gradually face the wrath if it’s people from inside. It’s human nature that when some one is despised by others, even those close to them will also loose their trust and respect for them. Thus the regime will implode!