by Tom Myers

Chinese authorities have recently arrested five Tibetan monks in an ongoing attempt to stomp out support for the Dalai Lama and there appears to be no end in sight. The Kirti monks, members of one of the larger monasteries, were arrested in November, December, and more recently in late January. The arrests are the result of the Chines authorities tightened controls on religious activities. One of the imprisoned monks has been sentenced to a three-year prison sentence, said Dawa Tsering of The Office of Tibet. Tsering added that a Tibetan businessman and former monk were arrested and two 24-year-old monks were released this month after being beaten severely in detention.

The detained monks were identified as the leaders of protests last year at Kirti, said Chinese authorities. The mountainous area of the southwest Sichuan provinve, six hundred miles east of Lhasa, Tibet's capital, is where the arrests were made. In March,, monks were ordered by Chinese officials to release speeches and documents pertaining to the Dalai Lama.

Chinese officials then denounced the exiled leader of the Tibetan Buddhist as a separatist who had to be opposed. Authorities ordered that monks who resisted their orders, and all monks under age eighteen, would not be allowed to stay in the monastery, said the Tibetan Information Network [TIN]. Many monks walked out of a meeting with the officials, and some tore down posters and threw stones at their rooms in frustration, TIN said. Many Tibetans remain devoted to the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed coup against Chinese rule. From exile in India, the Dalai LAma led an international campaign for Tibetan independence. In an attempt to thwart support for the Dalai Lama, Chinese authorities have subjected monasteries to "patriotic education" campaigns in which monks have been forced to denounce the Tibetan leader as a separatist. With these most recent arrests, it has become a reality that this is something Chinese authorities will continue with in the months ahead.

Dr. Ngwang Rabgyal of The Office of Tibet said, "I strongly believe that many more arrests will follow. The Chinese government is 'hell bent' on making sure that there is as little support as possible for the Dalai Lama; even if it means forcing the people to denounce him or simply by arresting them."