Dharamshala, 14th January: Dolkar, a former Tibetan political prisoner from Sershul County in Kardze, eastern Tibet, is bedridden after being tortured and denied medical treatment for nearly a year in prison. For stating the truth about her nephew’s detention, Dolkar was condemned to prison and forced labor.
Despite her release on August 15, 2020, she is paralyzed and unable to walk again due to injuries she endured as a result of police beatings, torture, and forced labor. Her nephew, Wangchen, remains in prison while her health deteriorates, serving a four-and-a-half-year term, while her two children are cared for by relatives.
According to freetibet.org who cited a local source “she was tortured in prison, forced to lift stones and do other hard labor, and her body is all bruised. She was not given timely medical attention and treatment, and that is why her limbs are paralyzed and immobilized. Even after undergoing medication and visiting several doctors for a year, her health did not improve. Instead, she is bedridden and unable to walk and stand on her feet.”
Dolkar’s detention is linked to that of her nephew and three other local Tibetans who were celebrating His Holiness the Eleventh Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima’s 30th birthday. Tibetans in Domda Town have been commemorating his birthday on April 25th for several years, with huge cleaning campaigns and ritual offerings taking place from April 20 to April 29.
Wangchen, Lobsang, Yonten, and an unidentified friend, all in their twenties, erected prayer flags on the mountainside of Sershul Monastery and circumambulated around it on the concluding day of the week-long cleaning campaign. They also demanded that the Panchen Lama be released immediately and reunited with the Dalai Lama in Tibet. They were apprehended by authorities as soon as they returned home at 10:30 a.m. local time. After the authorities discovered he couldn’t communicate, the unidentified friend was released.
Security personnel arrived at Dolkar’s residence at noon on May 3, 2019, and arrested her. The Sershul Intermediate People’s Court sentenced her to one year and three months in prison on charges of associating with unlawful organizations and providing information about the aforementioned arrests with Tibetans residing outside Tibet on May 8, 2019. Wangchen, who was also summoned to the same court, received a four-and-a-half-year term. Yonten and Lobsang, on the other hand, were fined 15,000 yuan apiece and ordered to attend six months of Sershul National Education Department political re-education sessions on “national security concerns.”
Free Tibet launched a campaign against local authorities in response to the prison sentences. Thousands of people joined the action to demand Dolkar and Wangchen’s release. Wangchen’s family has only been allowed to see him once since his detention. Dolkar, whom Wangchen affectionately refers to as Achi Dolkar, or big sister, is shown in two recent images, one lying down in bed near the window and the other supported by a heap of blankets to help her sit upright.
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