Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, June 12, 1997

WASHINGTON, June 12, 1997 (ICT) - The Chinese authorities in Tibet have, for the first time, admitted to execution of ten Tibetans in 1996 for supporting the Dalai Lama. Media reports from Beijing today quotes the chief prosecutor Thubten Tsewang as saying that ten Tibetans were executed _after trials in Lhasa and Shigatse, following encounters between Chinese security forces and followers of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama."

ICT President Lodi Gyari, who is in San Francisco accompanying the Dalai Lama on the last leg of his tour of the United States, has apprised His Holiness of the developments. The Dalai Lama regretted the report about the execution of the Tibetans and prayed for them.

Tsewang said there were 76 public trials in Tibet last year. The Tibet Daily of June 3 carried a report which said 98 people implicated in 47 cases of _threat to state security" were tried last year.

The admission by the Chinese authorities about the execution and trial of Tibetans specifically for their political activities corroborates reports about continued dissatisfaction against Chinese rule in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama leaves the United States today for Sweden.