Point 12: Violent Events with Images

http://dalailama.com/messages/dolgyal-shugden/violent-events

An extract from the ‘Sternstunde’ transcript (Swiss television) of an interview conducted with Mr. Prithvi Raj, SP Kangra on the triple murder at Dharamsala:

Prithvi Raj (PR), Chief Police of Kangra District:
We have identified two of the murderers, and we have clear indications that the murderers are directly linked to the Shugden association and directly connecting these murderers with the case. But so far we have not been able to arrest them. One is called Tenzin Chozin, the other is called Lobsang Chodrak. Before the murder, the principal received threatening letters from the Shugden association.

PR: First of all, on the location where the murders took place, we found a letter, written by the Shugden association and signed by Chime Tsering, who is the president (secretary) of Dorje Shugden Charitable Trust. This letter is the threatening letter to the monk Lobsang Gyatso, and it proofs the direct connection of murderers with Shugden. This is one of the links.

(Ed: Helmut Gassner, who was a translator for the Dalai Lama from 1979-1995, has made a shocking statement with regard to this letter. In summary, he stated that the allegation of threats in the letter was thoroughly untrue. This indicates that there is malicious intent to smear the reputation of Chime Tsering of the Dorje Shugden Charitable Trust. Here, Mr. Gassner says, “I speak and read the Tibetan language fairly well (for many years I have served H.H. Dalai Lama as interpreter). So I paused my video deck and read the Tibetan original of the threat letter. To my great surprise, I could not find any murder threat in the letter.

Apparently the murdered abbot has published several books abusing the old Tibetan guerilla organization as well as the Tibetan deity Dorje Shugden and others. Reading the letter I realized that it was a request by the secretary of the Shugden society to the abbot, to stop his abuse of the deity, as there was plenty of sacred literature on this subject, that apparently the abbot had not read. The significant statement of the letter is the request to the abbot to come to Delhi, in order to verify truth and untruth. And if the abbot felt too guilty to come to Delhi, then they would also be willing to come to Dharamsala in order to find the truth. Finally the abbot was requested to give a date for such a meeting, in order to decide this matter.

The word ‘louse’ appears only once in this letter, in a passage that literally means: “Verify louse and finger”. In the meantime I have confronted many Tibetans with this idiom. All of those familiar with it, described its meaning as “to verify what is truth and what is lie”, and confirmed that this was an idiom of daily life usage. My insistent question, if this idiom is ever understood as a threat to murder, was always denied with a clear NO.

I transcribed the original Tibetan letter as shown on television and transmitted it to the secretary of the Shugden society for verification. The secretary confirmed that he was the author of this letter and that its complete contents had been shown on TV. The meaning I could draw from the letter was also confirmed by him as well as other Tibetans.

Several incidents after the murder repeatedly raised the suspicion, that circles around H.H. Dalai Lama may have an interest to frame the Shugden society with this murder. There has been repeated talk about clear proofs, but nevertheless there has been no arrest and no trial in this case up to date. Could the reason for this be, that other ‘proofs’ are manipulated as well? Concern of a similar kind has been raised by the Indian police in a news article in the Indian Express on Dec. 21st 1997.”)

Then these murderers were living in Majnu-ka-tilla in Delhi, another evidence that they maintained contact with the Shugden Centre.

This made our label on the case file: linking these two murderers with Chime Tsering. Because on the day on which Lobsang Gyatso returned from Singapore, he spent the night in Delhi. On the next day, when he was coming to Dharamsala, he was followed by these murderers. At Ambala they somehow had a car breakdown. They then called to Delhi. They dialed the number of the president (secretary) of the Shugden association, at the number of Mr. Chime Tsering. They talked to him, and we have word traced that call.

PR: On the basis of some evidence we have found in Kalsura, in the district of Mandi, some pictures, which show the president (secretary) of the Shugden association along with the murderers. This is another evidence that links the murderers with the Dorje Shugden association. We from the police are convinced that these murderers were engaged to assassinate the principal of the Dialectic School, Lobsang Gyatso. The principal was always opposing the Shugden worship and he was propagating the ideas and ideologies of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

(Ed: According to Helmut Gassner, the Director of the Dialectics School was famous for his slanderous writings in which he would drag through the mud anything that veered even slightly from the course established by the Tibetan government-in-exile: famous masters, the big monastic universities and even the Tibetan guerilla were his targets. In one of his last articles he wrote, ” …these people will not cease to criticize the Dalai Lama until blood flows from their bodies…”

Given the character of the assassination and the humiliations the Tibetan guerilla movement had been subjected to in earlier years, we could have assumed that the search for the murderer would eventually also lead to them. But that obviously did not occur; the next day, Dharamsala’s local newspaper claimed that the murderer would certainly be found among the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi. Aside from who committed the murders, this gruesome act was exploited by the government-in-exile with only one aim: where they tried to incriminate the Dorje Shugden Society in Delhi in order to put its leading monks in jail. For the benefit of the press, the image of a Dorje Shugden sect with bloodthirsty, cultish, terrorist and fundamentalist attributes was successfully established, linking it effectively with the traditionally depicted wrathful appearance of the deity while cleverly neglecting to mention that many wrathful Buddhist deities are represented in considerably more terrifying ways.)

The Station House Officer (SHO), Bylakuppe, Mr. M.M. Mahadevaya’s statement regarding the assault on Mr. Phurbu Sithar; when he was the representative of the Tibetan government in exile at the Deckyi Larso settlement, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India.

According to our investigation, the assault which has taken place on Dekyi Larso representative Mr. Phurbu Sither and his wife reveals that these accused persons belong to (monks of) Pomra Khangtsen group. I know there are a lot of differences about worshipping of god Shugden Dorjee amongst Tibetans as well as lamas of this area, particularly this Shugden group, Pomra Khangtsen.  I can say they are responsible for attacking the Representative and his wife.

(Ed: None of these accusations and declarations have proved conclusive, and all the ‘hot leads’ are gone with the wind; “the six murderers have fled to Tibet where they live under protection from China.”

This statement by Mr. M.M. Mahadevaya is unsubstantiated and could be said to be libelous as there is no evidence for this conclusion.

The investigations seem to have simply ended there, while more likely threads have not been followed. This doesn’t keep various ‘experts’ from repeating the allegations over and over as if it were proven fact and, of course, claim it as proof of the wicked nature of the ‘Shugden cult.’ It is a sad truth that people are often so quick to believe hearsay and rumors without looking deeper into the evidence and basis behind the allegations. Fortunately for respected credible people like Helmut Gassner, we are able to get to the truth of the story.)

The original article at dalailama.com in full:

Violent Events with Images

An extract from the ‘Sternstunde’ transcript (Swiss television) of an interview conducted with Mr. Prithvi Raj, SP Kangra on the triple murder at Dharamsala:

Prithvi Raj (PR), Chief Police of Kangra District:
We have identified two of the murderers, and we have clear indications that the murderers are directly linked to the Shugden association and directly connecting these murderers with the case. But so far we have not been able to arrest them. One is called Tenzin Chozin, the other is called Lobsang Chodrak. Before the murder, the principal received threatening letters from the Shugden association.

PR: First of all, on the location where the murders took place, we found a letter, written by the Shugden association and signed by Chime Tsering, who is the president (secretary) of Dorje Shugden Charitable Trust. This letter is the threatening letter to the monk Lobsang Gyatso, and it proofs the direct connection of murderers with Shugden. This is one of the links. Then these murderers were living in Majnu-ka-tilla in Delhi, another evidence that they maintained contact with the Shugden Centre.

This made our label on the case file: linking these two murderers with Chime Tsering. Because on the day on which Lobsang Gyatso returned from Singapore, he spent the night in Delhi. On the next day, when he was coming to Dharamsala, he was followed by these murderers. At Ambala they somehow had a car breakdown. They then called to Delhi. They dialed the number of the president (secretary) of the Shugden association, at the number of Mr. Chime Tsering. They talked to him, and we have word traced that call.

PR: On the basis of some evidence we have found in Kalsura, in the district of Mandi, some pictures, which show the president (secretary) of the Shugden association along with the murderers. This is another evidence that links the murderers with the Dorje Shugden association. We from the police are convinced that these murderers were engaged to assassinate the principal of the Dialectic School, Lobsang Gyatso. The principal was always opposing the Shugden worship and he was propagating the ideas and ideologies of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The Station House Officer (SHO), Bylakuppe, Mr. M.M. Mahadevaya’s statement regarding the assault on Mr. Phurbu Sithar; when he was the representative of the Tibetan government in exile at the Deckyi Larso settlement, Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India.

According to our investigation, the assault which has taken place on Dekyi Larso representative Mr. Phurbu Sither and his wife reveals that these accused persons belong to (monks of) Pomra Khangtsen group. I know there are a lot of differences about worshipping of god Shugden Dorjee amongst Tibetans as well as lamas of this area, particularly this Shugden group, Pomra Khangtsen.  I can say they are responsible for attacking the Representative and his wife.