Prisons and detention facilities in Tibet
Despite the Chinese government's attempts to block information on Tibetan prisoners, details of where many Tibetans are being held in custody following the protests that began in March 2008 are now reaching the outside world.
Both prisoners from the TAR as well as detainees from eastern Tibetan areas such as Kardze, have reportedly been transported to prisons in China outside Tibetan areas. According to sources from Kardze, 44 Tibetan nuns who are being held in a prison near Chengdu are "forced to work on the manufacturing of match boxes and all sorts of small children's toys." A Tibetan source said: "It seems that whoever finishes the quota assigned to them first is allowed to make a five-minute phone call as a reward. All the nuns are forced to keep their hair long."
The sheer number of arrests since March 2008 has led to other detention facilities being used to accommodate prisoners, particularly in Lhasa. A military camp known as 'Pating' is referred to as a ‘black’ jail, where the torture and intimidation of prisoners is particularly severe. Also the new Lhasa railway station has been used to hold detainees, due to overcrowding of regular prisons and detention centers.
ICT here lists some of the most important prisons and detention centers in the vicinity of Lhasa:
Drapchi
Drapchi Prison, officially known as Tibetan Autonomous Region Prison, was previously known to be Tibet's most notorious prison. It was built in the early 1960s. Drapchi is located in the city of Lhasa, just a couple of minutes north of the Potala Palace, the former residence of the Dalai Lama and now the most popular tourist site in Tibet.
Drapchi Prison on Google Maps (please note that the International Campaign for Tibet is not responsible for the content of tags at Google Maps):
View Larger Map
Chushul
In Lhasa, Chushur (Chinese: Qushui) Prison has been the main detention facility for political prisoners since 2005. Chushur Prison is visible from the main road leading to Shigatse, 120 km southwest of Lhasa. Signs posted at the entrance read 'Seek truth from facts' and 'Progress with the times'
Chushur prison is in a rural area southwest of Lhasa and although there has been a detention facility there since the 1960s, it was not known to foreign observers until the end of 2005. Since the protests broke out in March 2008, political prisoners at Chushur have been singled out for particularly harsh treatment, according to Tibetan sources. When unrest occurs, political detainees and former political prisoners often come under suspicion and are singled out for reprisals. It is not known whether any prisoners sentenced after involvement in the March protests in Lhasa are serving their sentences in Chushur, but it is likely.
Conditions at the high security facility at Chushur are known to be more stringent for political prisoners even than Drapchi - prison no. 1 in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, situated in the western suburbs of Lhasa. It was Drapchi where most political prisoners were held before being transferred to Chushur in 2005.
A former political prisoner at Chushur told ICT that the "interrogation and torture all the political prisoners receive is worse than in Drapchi." Commenting on security measures, the former prisoner, interviewed in exile in India, said: "In every political prisoner's cell there are two criminal prisoners, one Chinese and one Tibetan, to watch what the political prisoners are doing and talking about. Every week those two criminal prisoners attend a meeting with the prison authorities and report what they saw and heard in the cell... Sometimes they even report our dreams, as we might have said something relating to a political event."
Gutsa
Gutsa, also known as "no. 4 Unit", is a detention centre where prisoners who have not been sentenced are held here. They are "under investigation" and await sentencing. Gutsa is known to be one of the worst prisons for the brutal methods used by Chinese interrogators. Gutsa is situated 3 km east of Lhasa near the Kyichu River.
