China jails Tibetan writer for 4 years, activist group says

Jul 2, 2011, 10:46 GMT

Beijing - A Tibetan writer was sentenced to four years imprisonment last month in connection with a collection of essays on unrest in Tibet, an activist group said Saturday.

Tashi Rabten, the editor of banned literary magazine Eastern Snow Mountain, was sentenced on June 2 by the Ngaba Intermediate People's Court, the International Campaign for Tibet said in a statement.

The statement did not specify the exact charge that Tashi Rabten was jailed for, but three other Tibetans who worked for the journal were imprisoned last year on charges of inciting separatism.

Chinese authorities often accuse those campaigning for self-determination for Tibet of separatism.

Copies of the journal were among books seized and burnt by security personnel at a school in the Ngaba area of southwestern Sichuan province in April.

Tensions in Ngaba increased after a 21-year-old monk self-immolated on March 16 to protest government controls of Tibetan Buddhism.

Tashi Rabten was held for more than a year in an unknown location prior to his sentencing. He was about to graduate from the Northwest Nationalities University in Lanzhou, Gansu province, when he was arrested in April 2010.

Many Tibetans resent Chinese government restrictions on their religion and the growing number of ethnic Han Chinese people living in Tibetan areas.

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