THIRTEEN Tibetan nuns and monks were arrested for taking part in pro-independence demonstrations in the past two months, according to the London-based Tibet Information Network.
The three demonstrations, though short-lived and small in scale, took place in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, or in the region.
On March 21, three nuns gathered in Barkor Square, Lhasa, and began to chant slogans calling for ''freedom for Tibet'' and for the long life of the Dalai Lama.
Some called for ''religious freedom'' and asked the Chinese ''to leave and go back to China''.
The protesting nuns were taken away by police and detained in a prison to the east of Lhasa.
A Tibetan source said the nuns seemed about 18 years old. They came from a nunnery in the rural county of north Lhasa where more than 30 women were serving long prison sentences for taking part in protests.