Published by: World Tibet Network News 97/05/23 23:00 GMT

"Canberra Times"-- Australia Friday, May 23

By Ian McPhedran

Foreign Affairs Reporter

Buddhist monks and nuns are being locked in freezers, starved and

shocked with electric cattle prods by Chinese guards, according to a

letter smuggled out of the notorious Drapchi prison in the Tibetan

capital Lhasa.

Chinese officials have denied there are any political prisoners in

Tibet, but according to Amnesty International, there are 1018

prisoners of conscience, including 153 mostly monks and nuns at

Drapchi aged from 15 to 70 years.

The letter from inside the prison has been issued by the Australia

Tibet Council which plans a series of demonstrations against China's

third ranking political leader Vice-Minister Zhu Rongji who arrives

in Perth tonight at the beginning of a week long Australia tour.

Mr Zhu will visit Adelaid on Sunday and he arrives at Fairbairn RAAF

base late on Monday afternoon for a two-day visit to Canberra for

meetings with Prime Minister John Howard and senior ministers.

He goes to Sydney on Tuesday night before making a brief visit to

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef on Thursday.

According to the prison letter which is dated March 10 and was

smuggled out of the country to India, the prisoners are exposed to

"cruel and degrading" methods of torture such as deprivation of fodd,

air and water and attacks bu guard dogs.

"On political grounds prisoners are required to denounce from their

heart His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Tibetan freedom and to pledge

their love for the Communist Party," the letter says.

If they refuse prisoners are tortured, beaten and padlocked for days

on end.

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that the

Government took seriously allegations of human-rights abuses in China

including Tibet.

"The Government is committed to promoting human rights in China," the

spokesman said.

The president of the Australia Tibet Council, Alex Butler, said the

letter had been written by the very people the Howard Government

abandoned when it refused to sponsor a United Nations resolution

criticising China.

"Their hopes of an improvement in their conditions or an early

release from prison have been diminished by Australia's actions," Ms

Butler said.

Mr Zhu has acknowledged that his visit at the request of Premier Li

Peng was a reward for Australia's actions in the United Nations Human

Rights Commission.