International Campaign for Tibet

Tibetan environmentalist to stand trial

An award-winning Tibetan environmentalist goes on trial tomorrow (Saturday), the third of three brothers to face jail after clashing with Chinese Communist Party officials.

Rinchen Samdrup, 44, faces charges of “incitement to split the country” – accusations that can carry a very heavy penalty in China and in some cases to be deemed very serious even the death penalty. He is to go on trial in the eastern Chamdo region of Tibet.

He is the eldest of three brothers whose environmental activism and social prominence have angered the authorities.

The middle brother, Karma Samdrup, 42, once hailed by Beijing as a role model for Tibetans, and an award-winning philanthropist, was jailed last month for 15 years on charges of grave robbing. The accusations had been dismissed 12 years earlier because Mr Karma had a licence to trade in antiquities. He has vowed to appeal.

The youngest brother, Chime Namgyal, 38, is serving a 21-month sentence in a labour camp on the vague charge of “harming national security”.Rinchen Samdrup was detained last August, along with his younger brother, after they accused local police in eastern Tibet of poaching endangered species. The formal charges first brought against them was that their Voluntary Environmental Protection Association of Kham Anchung Senggenamzong was an illegal organisation. A reference to the Dalai Lama as a Nobel Peace Prize winner on their website resulted in the case being handled as a more serious political crime. The police chief they alleged had been involved in hunting protected animals has since been promoted.

Their arrests prompted Karma Samdrup to rush to the defence of his brothers, angering local authorites. Many of their Tibetan neighbours and friends had travelled from their village to Beijing to plead for the two brothers and this defiance of local officials may have fuelled their anger and prompted moves to retaliate.

Anti-Chinese unrest that has roiled Tibetan areas of China in recent years may have also prompted officials to find a way to silence three prominent Tibetans – even though they had shown no interest in politics.

A Chinese journalist who has written extensively about the work of Rinchen Samdrup – awarded a Ford Motor Company environmental award in 2006 among many others – said he was stunned at the arrest. “He was a monk when he was young, he paints and does a lot of environmental work. He opens his home to pilgrims and sees the sick because he has studied Tibetan medicine. He appears to be a man of great faith.”However, when he visited Rinchen Samdrup’s hometown to question officials about the charges he was told that there was another side to the personality of the environmental activist that he had not seen. The journalist said: “I still don’t understand this case.”

Zhenga Cuomao, wife of Karma Samdrup, said she had heard no news for many months of her husband’s eldest brother. “My husband told me that when he visited them last year they had been badly treated.”She said the youngest of the three had been moved from his labour camp to a small local hospital for treatment of a back problem that has left him partly disabled. “His family has appealed that he should be allowed to go to a hospital in a big city because he needs to have surgery, but they sent him back to the labour camp in late June.”

Rinchen Samdrup’s lawyer, Xia Jun, told The Times that Saturday’s hearing would be the second in the case. “He looked well when I saw him in January for the first hearing. I have not seen him since.” He said he expected a decision in the case tomorrow.