Chinese authorities have arrested five Tibetan monks who refused to denounce their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and recognise Tibet as part of China, an India-based pro-democracy group says.
The five were expelled from Drepung Monastery in Lhasa and handed over to the Public Security Bureau on November 23, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reports on its website.
They were arrested during a session of a ”patriotic education” campaign under way at the monastery since early October.
Two days after the arrests more than 400 monks held a peaceful solidarity protest at the monastery, the centre said.
Soldiers and police put down the protest and ”resisting monks received severe beatings”, the report said.
Since November 25, ”nobody has been allowed to either enter or leave the premises … The officers maintain strict vigilance of the monastery.”
The centre, based in the Himalayan foothills at Dharamsala where the Dalai Lama lives in exile, urged the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture visiting China and Tibet to raise the monks cases with the Chinese authorities.
China sees its occupation of Tibet since 1950 as a liberation of the region that has saved the Tibetan people from feudal oppression.
Beijing formally established a Tibetan Autonomous Region in 1965, but the Dalai Lama says there is no real autonomy and seeks greater rights for its six million people. – AFP
