Monks of Drepung Monastery detained during Patriotic Education campaign TCHRD:
A number of monks of Drepung Monastery in Tibet were detained by the Chinese security officials in and around 12 April 2008 following the monks’ protest against Chinese “Work Team” who paid a visit to the monastery to conduct “Patriotic Education” Campaign, according to confirmed information received from reliable sources by the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).
The “Tibet Autonomous Region” (“TAR” ) authorities sent the “Legal Information Education” “Work Team” as a part of the “patriotic education” campaign to Drepung Monastery in and around 12 April 2008, according to the official mouthpiece, Xinhua, dated 13 April 2008.
According to reliable sources, a new “Work Team” on “Legal and Information Education” arrived in Drepung Monastery to start “Patriotic Education” campaign to the Drepung monks, however, the monks protested in unison against the campaign. Later security forces were called into the monastery by the “Work Team” to control the protesting monks. Number of Tibetan monks were immediately detained and taken away to unknown location by the security forces for interrupting and protesting the campaign. There is no information on the condition and whereabouts of those detainees.
Freshly obtained pictures depict peaceful protest by monks of Drepung Monastery on 10 March 2008:
Monks of Drepung Monastery peacefully
marching towards Barkhor street in Lhasa
Police stop the marching monks mid way
