Dharamshala: - The Chinese clamp-down on the Tibetan intellectual diaspora continues to gather momentum. Chinese authorities in Central Tibet (Ch: Tibet Autonomous Region) have sentenced a Tibetan author to a two-year jail term on charges of writing a book about the 2008 mass protests in Tibet, according to a report received on February 14th.
Tsering Norbu, aged 28, was handed his sentence by a local court in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet in December 2010, the India based Tibetan government in exile told Reporters Without Borders, citing sources from inside Tibet. His Book was titled "If You Have That Inhuman Act And Violent Crackdowns, I Have The Truth of Compassion." (Translated from Tibetan)"After his sentence, Tsering was taken to Chushul prison in Lhasa," a statement said. Tsering was sentenced by a local court in Lhasa due to his political activities such as writing a book about the 2008 protest, then later distributing to Tibetans in Lhasa and surrounding areas as well as Tibetan scholars, intellectuals, and writers.
The author of the book, "If You Have That Inhuman Act And Violent Crackdowns, I Have The Truth of Compassion" was detained in 2010 and had been held since that time, sources said. He managed to distribute his books in his hometown called Palyul, eastern Tibet and surrounding areas, then was arrested by Chinese police in Lhasa when he was distributing his book.
He was born the son of the late Rigzin in Rachab town, Dege Palyul county, eastern Tibet. He completed his studies at the Rachab Monastery which is located in Rachab town. He joined the monastery when he was young. Sources said, he was a very able student and used to write many articles related to Tibetan history and related issues. His condition and whereabouts are still unknown.
Against the backdrop of a stream of 24 self-immolations in Tibet in protest against Chinese rule, unrest in eastern Tibet with protestors shot by armed security forces and a severely increased military presence, several of the most popular independently-run Tibetan language blog sites hosted in China have gone offline as of February 3rd, according to a report.
Since 2008 Beijing Olympic, China has continued to place a heavy restriction on information inside Tibet, almost all of Tibetan websites related Tibet issues were closed-down in past few years, said sources. The new recent crackdown on some important Tibetan websites; a blog section of the website AmdoTibet has been closed and a notice in Chinese reads: “Due to some of the blog users not publishing in accordance with the goal of this site, the blog has temporarily been shut down, we hope that blog users will have understanding!”
Another very popular blog site Sangdhor.com is also offline, without any explanation. In October 2011, Sangdhor boldly published a poem titled “Mourning” that was about the self-immolations in Tibet. The poem was quickly taken offline.
On February 3rd: a blog site Rangdrol.net is also offline and contains an interesting notice in Tibetan. “Site off-line” suggests that the administrators have removed the site, and the Tibetan text underneath reads: ”For the sake of life, we are mourning and crying.”
