Dhararamsala, August 25 – A Tibetan youth named Pasang Norbu was detained by Chinese authorities in Lhasa on August 12 for viewing “restricted political information online”, Radio Free Asia reported citing sources.
Pasang had allegedly viewed articles on Tibetan independence, as well as photographs of Tibetan protests against Chinese rule last year.

Pasang, 19, was nabbed from a Zhijian Wang cyber café on the Tsangral Road in Lhasa around noon on August 12, a source told RFA. He is a resident of the Tren Kon subdivision of Lhasa city.

“The Web monitoring unit of the Lhasa Public Security Bureau was tracking him, and they informed the local criminal investigation unit, which rushed to the cyber café and took him away,” RFA quoted the source who did not wish to be named as saying.

Pasang has been accused of viewing seven photos of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, four images of the banned Tibetan national flag, and the Web sites of five different "reactionary" groups.

Authorities allege that Pasang had violated Article 5, Subclause 1, of China’s Public Security Law by downloading the restricted material.

No evidence was however found that Pasang was in direct contact with “outside reactionary groups,” a report by the authorities said, but added that an official investigation was under way, according to the RFA.

China has curbed internet contents and usage ahead of some politically sensitive dates including the 60th founding anniversary of the Communist Party on October 1. Many websites run from exile including phayul.com are blocked in Tibet. An internet user from Lhasa told phayul that social networking sites like facebook and hi5 are useful source for news from exile.

Phayul[Tuesday, August 25, 2009 11:09]