Published by: World Tibet Network News, Monday, Apr 29, 1996

BEIJING, April 29 (Reuter) - A court in Tibet has given a county police chief a suspended jail sentence for torturing a suspect and illegally detaining several others, China's Procuratorial Daily said on Monday.

The conviction of the police chief, identified by the newspaper as Qiongda, followed a series of reports by Western human rights organisations that say torture of detainees is widespread in the restive Himalayan region.

A court in Xigatze sentenced Qiongda to two years in prison recently, but suspended the sentence for three years, the newspaper said.

The suspended sentence meant Qiongda did not have to serve his two-year jail term unless he broke the law again over the next three years, legal experts said.

Qiongda, chief of public security in Gyirong county near Tibet's border with Nepal, was convicted of the brutal beating of a woman he detained in January 1995 at the request of a court official, the newspaper said.

The police chief and two others, including the court official, tied up, beat and abused the woman, identified as Danzhen Wangmu, from midnight until the next morning, it said.

"I am the government policy here. It's no use reporting this to anyone," the newspaper quoted Qiongda as telling the woman.

Danzhen Wangmu suffered injuries to the legs, buttocks, and wrists that required 65 days treatment in hospital, the newspaper said.

The newspaper did not say if the court official, Puqiong, and the other accomplice were prosecuted.

The Xigatze court also found Qiongda guilty of illegally detaining four officials for 87 hours in November, 1994, the newspaper said.

Western human rights organisations have repeatedly accused China of suppressing religious freedoms in Tibet and of widespread torture of detainees, particularly of monks and nuns suspected of trying to undermine Beijing's rule in the region.

China dismisses Western concerns about its human rights record in Tibet as interference in its internal affairs and says life for most Tibetans has improved immeasurably since the People's Liberation Army marched into the region in 1950.