L.A. Times (6/8/08) "China silences a Tibetan folk singer" by Barbara Demick. [[email protected]]
Drolmakyi, a 31-year-old single mother and Tibetan folk singer in Dawu, in the Golog perfecture about 150 miles outside the Tibetan Autonomous Region was arrested "...as she was hanging laundry from the balcony of her apartment. She didn't even get to say good-bye to her three children, ages 9 to 13, who were playing outside. They came back and found their mother gone."
"At least six other Tibetan cultural figures were arrested in recent months under similar circumstances with no warning or formal charges." ...They were eventually released "...by paying large fees [ransom] and promising to keep quiet."
After 2 months in custody Drolmakyi was able to return home on the condition that she "...cannot appear in public or discuss her arrest."
"Tserng Shayla, a Tibetan historian based in Canada who knows many of those arrested, said the detainees are not subversives. ' If anything, they were the people the Chinese could have worked with...The Chinese are misreading the desire for autonomy and cultural identity as asserting independence.'"
The article contains a great deal of background information and is accompanied by 2 photos; one of Drolmakyi and the other of her children and mother.
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