2 Tibetan writers arrested in Lanzhou , university hostel ransacked

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Phayul
By Kalsang Rinchen
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Tashi Rabten

Dharamsala, April 7 – China has arrested two Tibetan students of Northwest National Minorities’ University in Lanzhou yesterday, sources said. Tashi Rabten (pen name – Te’urang) and Druklo (pen name –Shokjang) were arrested after around 16 officials from the local Public Security Bureau arrived in the university hostel and ransacked students’ rooms. The officials confiscated cellular phones, laptop computers and books from the students who were shocked at the ‘breach of privacy’ by the government. “They checked our rooms, beds, books and drawers. They even took away our study materials,” a student had told our source on phone.

Tashi was the editor of the banned literary magazine the Shar Dungri (EasternSnowMountain) on the 2008 protests in Tibet, and also edited a collection of work called “Written in Blood”. His “fearless” writings had led to his arrest last year in July. His fellow schoolmates said last year that he had won “great respect and popularity among students, intellectuals and ordinary readers in Tibet as an outstanding and brave young thinker.”

Droklu