Ani Nyima Escape From Tibet

[phantom59]

Nyima originally from in Yul-Nga Village, Tsang Shar Township, Phenpo
County, Tibetan Autonomous Region “TAR” is a nun at Phenpo Podo
Nunnery. After completing five years of imprisonment in Drapchi Prison
she was released in March 1999. She spent the following three years attempting
to recover from the inhuman torture and maltreatment that she
had undergone. She was hospitalized for many months until the medical
costs became too high for her family to bear, and she had to recover at
home.

For Nyima and her friends, life outside the prison for political prisoners
was too onerous to tolerate as they were under constant surveillance of the
public security bureau . In addition to their own suffering, all of
their friends and relatives became targets for scrutiny and intimidation.
With no other choice, on 9 March 2004 Nyima began her harrowing journey
into exile leaving friends and family behind. Nyima joined a small
group of fellow Tibetans and trekked over the Himalayas to Nepal, moving
only at night so as not to be seen by chinese forces. The journey took
nearly one month. On 20 April 2004 Nyima reached Dharamsala the seat
of exile Tibetan government.

Nyima testified to TCHRD on numerous torture and inhuman treatment
she and her friends had suffered while in the detention center and in prison.
Following is the short transcript of her testimony:

“In September 1993, my friends and I were expelled from the nunnery
following local authorities’ directive that bans all nuns under the age of
18 from staying and studying at the nunnery. In order to voice our opinion,
I along with two of my friends decided to undertake an activity that
is to change the course of our lives forever. On 19 March 1994 we clandestinely
left for Lhasa to protest against religious oppression. Upon arriving
in Lhasa on the morning of 21 March, we headed to busy Barkhor
market and shouted slogans for fifteen minutes before four officers shoved
leather gloves into our mouths and immediately arrested us. We were first
detained in the police station, and then forced into a van that transported
us to Gutsa Detention Center. On the way to Gutsa we were
violently beaten.

In order to gain information about any outside instigators involved in
our actions, the officials attempted to force me to confess to my crime and
to accept the ‘mistakes’ I had committed. During each interrogation session,
I refused to answer their questions and would not admit to having
committed a crime. It was my belief that the chinese had committed the
crime and had infringed upon my individual human rights. I was not
going to admit to anything, even at the cost of my life. If I did so, they
would have won. For this, I underwent extensive torture.

Each day of interrogation the same questions were asked over and over
again, and each day I refused to comply. chinese officials used whatever
tools were available to them- usually chairs, belts, boots and fists. As the
interrogation sessions continued, the torture became worse. I was repeatedly
burned with lit cigarettes, had boiling water poured over my body,
and my mouth prodded with wooden sticks. I still refused to confess to
having committed any crime. After six months of daily interrogation and
torture, I was formally charged and convicted. I never received access to
legal representation and a trial of any kind. For my ‘crime,’ I received a
five-year prison sentence with three years deprivation of political rights.
My friends and I continued to be detained at Gutsa Detention Center
for one year and five months. In August 1995, we were transferred to
Drapchi Prison. On reaching Drapchi Prison, we were made to study
prison rules and regulation. After a week, I was supposed to have memorized
the entire text to recite before prison officials.

I did not read nor memorized the text, for I knew that I had not committed
any crime. As a result, I was forced to stand outside and stare at the
sun for hours on end without moving. Often, guards placed a water bowl
on my head and newspapers between my knees and under my arms to
make sure that I did not move. If any of the objects fell to the ground, I
was beaten. Staring at the sun for prolonged hours causes one to get dizzy,
vomit and to lose consciousness. Each time this happened I would be
beaten. This form of torture continued for two months.

Following two months of staring at the sun, I and 63 other prisoners were
forced to learn military exercises and drills, where we often had to march
in perfect unison in a half-starved state. Each time someone did not
complete the drill perfectly, the individual was beaten. This continued
for four months.

I once again refused to learn self-incriminating phrases that I accept my
mistakes and would work to reform my mind. Instead I repeated human
rights and pro-independence slogans. For this act of total defiance, all
visiting privileges from my family were cut off, and four guards systematically
beat me. The guards referred to the session as ‘playing soccer,’ and
I was the soccer ball. The guards stood in a square formation and she had
to walk up to each guard so they could kick her to the ground.
A particular brutal torture tactic I underwent was when I and several
other prisoners were forced to stand barefoot on ice for an entire day
without moving.

After several hours of excruciating pain, our bodies went completely numb.
During this time a female prison guard came in wearing
high heels and proceeded to stomp on the frozen feet of each woman.
In the late afternoon we were forced to pull our feet off the ice, ripping the
soles from our feet and leaving the ice soaked in blood. We were then
made stand in the sun, causing our nerves to thaw and subjecting our
bodies once again to extreme pain.

On the third day of Tibetan New Year in 1997, the two cellblocks of
female prisoners consisting of both criminal and political were brought
into the courtyard of Drapchi Prison to sing songs in praise of Mao Zedong
and the communist party. As one female criminal inmate began to sing
the song, Jamdron and I stood up and began singing a song in praise of
the Dalai Lama and a free Tibet. The Prison guards immediately grabbed
us and dragged us into the closest office.

We continued to sing defiantly until we were beaten into submission.
At that time, all of the political prisoners in the courtyard refused to
stand until we were released. Unfortunately,a unit of officers
immediately arrived to quell the women’s protest in the courtyard.
We were then hit with an electric baton and rendered unconscious.
We awoke when the guards splashed water on our faces, only to
beat us again.

This incident landed us in solitary confinement for over one year. We
were kept in a small, dark cell and fed one dumpling and a bowl of water
each day, and given no clothing or blankets to shield from the incredibly
cold Tibetan winter.

After one year of solitary confinement, I was moved into a cell with
Jamdron for eight more months. We could not recognize each other at
first sight as we had both terribly emaciated during our confinement.
After eight months we were returned to cells with the rest of the political
prisoners. Three months later in March 1999, after five years of imprisonment,
I was released from Drapchi Prison.”

[phantom59]

Yankyi Dolma, Ani of Kardze Lamdrag nunnery, 33; was arrested on March 24, 2009 after she and another nun, Sonam Yangchen, staged a protest against the chinese government at the Kardze market square. “china out of Tibet, let the Dalai Lama return to Tibet, stop religious persecution in Tibet,” she shouted while throwing up pro-independence leaflets in the air, according to a statement issued by the Trehor Welfare Society here.

Around 50 armed soldiers beat up the two nuns severely and took them away in a waiting van. Authorities later that night ransacked Yankyi's home and took away photographs of the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, the statement added. Her parents and family members were rebuked for having links with the “exile separatist forces of the Dalai Lama”. The Chinese authorities summoned her brother Tsangyang Gyatso to the local administrative office the next day and questioned him for hours.

Exile right groups fear that she had succumbed to her injuries sustained through beatings and torture while in prison. Tenzin Choeying of Students for a Free Tibet, India, said, “The chinese soldiers beat her up mercilessly in broad daylight in market area of Kardze town. And we can well imagine what they could do behind closed doors of prison.”

[Laurazen]

Thanks for this

[phantom59]

Around sixty local Tibetans from Nyagchuka County Kardze “Tibet Autonomous Prefecture (“TAP”), has been arrested by local public security bureau while appealing for an immediate release of well known local spiritual figure Tulku Tenzin Delek Rinpoche.According to confirmed information received by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). Earlier , a group of seven Tibetans which later swelled to around sixty Tibetans, mostly youth from Othog proceeded to Nyagchuka County government headquarter to appeal for an immediate release of Tulku Tenzin Delek, stating that their revered spiritual teacher was wrongly charged and sentenced by the sichuan higher people’s court in 2002.

It was on the night of 5 December 2009, petitioners who gathered at County government headquarter for the entire day were rounded up and taken to an unknown location.Sources told TCHRD on the morning of 6 December 2009, motorbikes and clothes belonging to petitioners were left unattended with bloodstains. There were also bloodstains on ground as well. The petitioners are largely believed to be detained in a military compound near Nyagchuka County.Thereafter Tibetans from various parts of Nyagchuka County have been flocking to Nyagchuka County government headquarter to obtain the release of around sixty Tibetan detainees. However chinese security forces on the way stopped them from reaching the County Headquarter. Meanwhile a fairly large contingent of people’s armed police has been brought to place called Thang Karma (White Open Field) practicing martial acts and military drills to intimidate the local Tibetans.

Meanwhile, sources say that many elderly Tibetans and children has been going to the chinese government Township office at Thang Karma (White Open Field) to appeal to the chinese government to release Tulku Tenzin Delek. Despite their petitions, chinese officials have been turning their deaf ears to their sincere and legitimate call. Nonetheless, the local Tibetans are still holding on to their hopes for an immediate release of their revered spiritual figure.

[Laurazen]

Thanks

[Ogyen]

As someone who is fully familiar with such kinds of torture from personal survival of said horrors, my heart goes out to all those suffering right now at the hands of human oppressors. I cried while reading this. I too remember the pain, and thank goodness it's only made our hearts bigger, softer, only more for others and "less for me." May all beings be happy and free of suffering!

Ogyen.