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World Tibet Network Weekly Digest 5/26-6/1 1995
Contents
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1. Weekly Summary
2. U.N. to send senior envoy to Beijing on women's forum
3. Prisoner Faces Execution for Political Protest
4. Tibet's Youngest Prisoner Dies (TIN)
5. TIBET: HUNDREDS OF BUDDHISTS MONKS AND NUNS IMPRISONED TORTURED (AI)
6. Panchen Lama Search Party Abbot and Assistant "Held Incommunicado" (TIN)
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1. Weekly Summary
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Continuing protest over the site and exclusion of Tibetan and Taiwanese representatives from the upcoming International Women's Forum have led to diplomatic intervention by the UN.
Several reports this week focus on torture, deaths, and injustice suffered by Tibetans suffering in Chinese jails. Amnesty International has issued a report outlining the torture and detention of political protesters, specifically pointing to the torture and mistreatment of children. AI calls for the immediate release of such prisoners, the end of torture and the
humane treatment of children.
Since the recognition of the new Panchen Lama, Chadrel Rimpoche, the abbot associated with his discovery and verification in Tibet has been moved to Chengdu and held incommunicado. Leading lamas from the Tashilhunpo have
been summoned to Beijing and remaining monks have been organized into work
teams for re-education.
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2. U.N. to send senior envoy to Beijing on women's forum
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By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS, May 24 (Reuter) - A top aide to Secretary-General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali intends to intervene in the dispute between China and women's
groups following Beijing's refusal on Wednesday to change the meeting sites.
Diplomats said Ismat Kittani, an undersecretary-general and special adviser
to Boutros-Ghali, is expected to go to Beijing in June to seek a compromise for
the international women's forum that may draw more than 40,000 people to the
Chinese capital, beginning August 30.
Non-governmental women's groups have protested China's decision to house
them in a rural resort outside the capital, saying they would not have enough
access to the main conference centre and space for their own strategy meetings.
[...]
NGO Forum leaders are still working out their reaction to the latest
response from China. But Irene Santiago of the Philippines, executive director
of the NGO Forum, said there were only 16,000 beds, at most, in the town of
Huairou to accomodate twice as many participants.
[...]
Several nations, including France, representing the European Community, the
United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, have either spoken to Chinese
authorities or Boutros-Ghali in an effort to seek a solution.
[...]
A second issue of contention is the admission of some Taiwanese and Tibetan
women's organisations, which have been denied accreditation by the United
Nations, most likely under pressure from China.
As a result of protests the U.N. Economic and Social Council is reviewing
applications of these groups and others denied accreditation but will not
complete its work for weeks.
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3. Prisoner Faces Execution for Political Protest
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Tibet Information Network / 7 Beck Rd London E8 4RE UK
ph: (+44-181) 533 5458 / fax: (+44-181) 985 4751
TIN News Update / 29 May, 1995 / total no of pages: 1 ISSN 1355-3313
A Tibetan prisoner is under threat of execution for staging a pro-
independence demonstration in prison three months ago and Tibetans in
Lhasa have appealed for help to save him from the death sentence,
according to sources in Lhasa with connections to the main prison there.
Prison authorities and the Labour Reform Bureau are said to have written
to the Procuracy and to the regional intermediate court calling for the
death sentence to be handed down on the prisoner, 33 year old Lodroe
Gyatso. The exile Tibetan Government reported last week that a lower
court has already passed a death sentence, and that the sentence is
awaiting ratification from the Tibet's High court.
Lodroe Gyatso, a professional dancer who comes from Sog county in Nagchu,
Northern Tibet, has been in Unit 1 of Drapchi prison in Lhasa since 1993,
when he was sentenced to 15 years for killing a man during an argument.
Tibetans in Lhasa say that Lodroe, a member of the Sog County Dance Group,
was acting in self-defence.
The threat of execution arises from an incident in the prison which was
political, say the sources. On 4th March 1995, two days after the Tibetan New
Year, Lodroe Gyatso shouted slogans inside the prison compound at Drapchi and
handed out leaflets he had written praising the Dalai Lama and calling for
Tibetan independence, they say.
[...]Lodroe is said to have
been severely beaten before being placed in a confinement cell, measuring 6
foot by 6 foot.
Lodroe was held in the cell for a number of days and may still be there. "He
is beaten by the prison guards each day", said one report, claiming that
prison staff were taking turns to carry out the daily beating. "No matter how
much they beat him or torture him he still goes on saying that Tibet is a
country and the Dalai Lama is its leader", claimed the source.
[...]
On 17th May 1990 two Tibetans serving life sentences for murder at Drapchi,
Dawa and Migmar Tashi, were executed within hours of losing a similar appeal
to the Higher Court after they were discovered to have joined a secret pro-
independence group within the prison. The authorities said in public only
that the two men had planned to escape, but internal court documents show
they were executed mainly for their political activities.
Local and international pressure can influence the Chinese authorities in
such cases.
[...]
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4. Tibet's Youngest Prisoner Dies (TIN)
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TIN News Update / 30 May, 1995 / total no of pages: 2 ISSN 1355-3313
A Tibetan nun believed to have been the youngest political prisoner in
Tibet died two weeks ago just after release from prison. The death
apparently due to being beaten for pulling a face at prison guards, or
to lack of medical treatment, according to unofficial reports from
Tibet.
Sherab Ngawang was the twelfth political prisoner since 1987 to die in
suspicious circumstance in prison or shortly after leaving, and the
fifth women to die in four years. She is the first prisoner to die while
still a child, but almost all the deaths have involved young people:
eight of the dead prisoners were under 30 years old when they died.
Sherab Ngawang, thought to have been 15 years old when she died, was
released from detention in February 1995 after completing a three year
sentence for joining a pro-independence demonstration in 1992. Five women
were involved in that protest, and Sherab's death means that two of those
five women have now died either in custody or just after being released.
[...]
A Tibetan undertaker who was at the sky-burial, where the body is cut up and
fed to vultures, according to traditional practice, reported that the
kidneys showed signs of acute damage and that there were adhesions on the
lungs. "He said he had never seen the body of a young person in such a
state," said one source. The symptoms could be related to severe beatings or
to a chronic infection that has not been treated in time.
Tibetan sources say that during her detention in the Trisam re-education
through labour camp the child nun had been assaulted by prison guards using
electric batons and that she had been beaten with a plastic tube filled with
sand. "They beat her till she was so covered with bruises you could hardly
recognise her", said one unofficial report.
[..]
The Chinese authorities described reports that her death was related to a
beating in prison as "a sheer distortion of facts". "She was diagnosed as
suffering from cerebral tuberculosis," said China's State Council in a
report published by Xinhua on 26th February 1995.
Amnesty International today rejected the Chinese explanation and called for
an inquiry to be held. "According to medical opinion given to Amnesty
International, provided normal medical care was available, a tuberculoma
would not cause her death," said the human rights organisation.
[...]
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5. TIBET: HUNDREDS OF BUDDHISTS MONKS AND NUNS IMPRISONED, TORTURED (AI)
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Source: Amnesty International AI INDEX : ASA 17/30/95
Date: May 30, 1995
Hundreds of Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns --- some of them child
novices as young as 12 years old --- have been imprisoned simply
for peacefully expressing their support for Tibet's independence
from China.
"Tibetan children accused of political offences have been
tortured or ill-treated, held with adult prisoners and forced to
do hard labour," said Amnesty International today as it released a
new report: Persistent Human Rights Violations in Tibet.
Repression of political dissent has increased during the
past two years in the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's
Republic of China, according to the human rights organization's
report. By the end of 1994, there were more than 600 political
prisoners, nearly one in three being women. The figure includes 45
young people under 18 at the time of their arrest.
Torture, ill-treatment and unfair trials are often part of
the reality for Tibetans of all ages imprisoned in the crackdown
on peaceful pro-independence protests. Buddhist monks and nuns
have taken the lead in such demonstrations, partly because the
Chinese authorities have placed restrictions on religious
activities, such as a ban on photographs of the Tibetan spiritual
leaders, the Dalai Lama, and strict limitations on the number of
monks and nuns permitted in Tibetan monasteries.
[...]
Some of the political prisoners in Tibet detained during the
past two years have been held without charge or trial, while
others were sentenced to prison terms after unfair trials. Amnesty
International is concerned that trial procedures in Tibet, as
elsewhere in the People's Republic of China, fall far short of
international standards for fairness. The right to defence is
extremely limited, while confessions --- often extracted under
torture --- are used as evidence. Defendants have no right to call
witnesses and have little time or facilities to prepare their
defence.
In view of its continuing concerns about human rights
violations in Tibet, including concerns of juvenile political
prisoners, Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese
Government to:
- release immediately and unconditionally all prisoners of
conscience;
- investigate all reports of torture;
- ensure those held in detention are charged and brought to
trial promptly and fairly, or released; and
- fully implement its commitments to observe the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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6. Panchen Lama Search Party Abbot and Assistant "Held Incommunicado" (TIN)
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TIN News Update / 31 May, 1995 full / total no of pages: 3 ISSN 1355-3313
Chadrel Rimpoche, the abbot appointed by Beijing to search for the
successor to Tibet's second highest lama, has been detained in Chengdu,
according to informed sources in China, confirming a report yesterday in
the Hong Kong based paper the South China Morning Post. The news of the
detention signals a significant escalation in the selection dispute and
further loss of face for Beijing.
The abbot is now learnt to have been held incommunicado along with his
secretary since 17th May, three days after the exiled Dalai Lama
announced from his base in India that a successor had been found. The
abbot and his secretary are reportedly under investigation for
communicating with the exiled Tibetan leader over the choice of the
successor, and may now have been moved from Chengdu, capital of Sichuan
province, to Beijing.
The fact that after more than 12 days Beijing has still not been able to
publish any statement from the abbot supporting its claim will be taken
by Tibetans to mean that Chadrel is refusing to co-operate with the
Chinese, an unexpected act of boldness. In 1987 the Panchen Lama was
lionised in Lhasa for waiting 12 days before issuing a statement
criticising pro-independence protests, and Chadrel, who could face severe
punishment, appears to have resisted pressure even longer.
Since the Dalai Lama's pivotal announcement on 14th May most of the
leading lamas associated with Tashilhunpo monastery, the traditional seat
of the Panchen Lamas, have been summoned to the Chinese capital. The
monastery has been closed to visitors, according to unconfirmed reports.
Party cadres are reported to have moved into the monastery and are
running re-education sessions in which each of the monks are invited to
criticise Chadrel Rimpoche, who is the abbot of Tashilhunpo.
[...]
Beijing's anger seems to be partly based on the fact that Gendun Choekyi
Nyima was also the child accepted as the reincarnation by the official search
committee, which was based at Tashilhunpo - implying that Chadrel Rimpoche or
his colleagues had been communicating with the exile Tibetan leader.
The 6 year old child and his family, along with the two other children who
were leading candidates, are reported by some sources to have been removed by
the authorities to Beijing, while China decides whether it dare appoint one
of the other children as an alternative Panchen Lama.
[...]
Chadrel Rimpoche has always been regarded as a Chinese place-man eager to
gain prestige for his monastery, which throughout this century has tended to
side with China against the Dalai Lamas. In June 1993 Chadrel handed over at
least five Tashilhunpo monks to the Chinese police because they had been
secretly reading the autobiography of the Dalai Lama and listening to the
Tibetan language broadcasts of the US-based radio station VOA.
Reports that monks at Tashilhunpo monastery are already being orchestrated by
a "work team" - an emergency team of Party officials sent to carry out "re-
education" and identify those with incorrect attitudes - to criticise their
abbot suggest that the lama has now been ostracised by the Beijing with
unusual speed.
[...]
In Lhasa last week all leading figures in the Tibetan government and the
religious hierarchy were required to take part in meetings denouncing the
Dalai Lama's statement, and an emergency 3 day session of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference issued a statement on 24th May
describing the exile leader's statement as "illegal and invalid".
[...]
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[end of WTN Weekly Summary]
