Tibet Information Network

London, June 22 (TIN) Criminal trials in the Tibet Autonomous Region increased by more than 30% last year, according to the annual report of the Tibetan courts, published earlier this month. The report said that 98 people had been tried for effectively political offences in 1996, bringing the official total of political offenders in the TAR courts to at least 593 over the last nine years.

2,126 criminal cases were brought to court in 1996, an increase of 31% over

the previous year, said Bai Zhao, head of the Tibet Region's Higher Court,

in a speech printed in the official newspaper, the Tibet Daily, on 3rd

June.

The figure is more than the total number of criminal cases heard in the region's courts in the five years from 1988 to 1992. It indicates that the _striking increase" in serious crime which was first noted by the Tibet authorities in 1994 is continuing.

In 1995 violent crime increased further: murders rose by 20 percent and crimes involving guns by 54 percent compared with 1994. The 1997 court report does not give figures for increases in each type of crime. Just under 900 of the cases last year involved _serious threats to public order" and 44 cases involved corruption by officials, leading to the recovery of some 78 million yuan.

593 Tried for Political Offences Since 1988 -

Of the cases which reached the TAR courts last year 47 involved _endangering state security", the phrase now preferred by the Chinese authorities for offences formerly descried as _counter-revolutionary". 98 individuals had been brought to trial in the 47 cases, said the newspaper, the first indication of the number of political arrests in the region last year.

The official figure for counter-revolutionary trials in 1995 is unknown, but in 1994 there were 44 cases involving 164 people, according to earlier court reports, and 85 people tried for the same offence in 1993.

247 people were sent for trial for counter-revolutionary offences in the five year period from 1988 to 1992, nearly ten per cent of criminal cases in that period, according to an internal document obtained by TIN. This means that a total of at least 593 people have been tried for political offences in the Tibet region in 8 years since 1988, with figures for one year still unknown.

The number of people detained for political offences will have been much higher than this, since the official reports rarely give figures for those who are sent without trial to administrative detention centres or to re-education through labour camps, or for those awaiting a decision on their cases whilst in detention.

At least one political case last year appears to have been dealt with as an ordinary crime. According to the court report published in the Tibet Daily on 3rd June, fourteen _criminals" at Ganden monastery were accused of _inciting monks to shout reactionary slogans, organising illegal demonstrations, smashing up a police sub-station, beating up state functionaries, stubbornly following the Dalai clique, [and] vainly attempting to smash up the motherland."

The case - which arose from a protest at Ganden on 6th May last year when monks attacked Tibetan officials who had told them to remove photographs of the Dalai Lama - appears not to have been one of the 47 state security cases referred to earlier in the report.

The report did not say what sentences the monks had received, but said a tough, speeded up sentencing policy had been implemented in line with the nationwide _Strike Hard" campaign, which began in the TAR in May last year.

_The Lhasa Intermediate People's court adjusted major elements of the trial procedure and brought this case to a rapid conclusion, dealing a ruthless blow to the rampant arrogance of the splittists," said the annual report, referring to the Ganden case. During _Strike Hard" campaigns officials are obliged to use expedited legal procedures and to hand out stiffer penalties.

_The Anti-splittism and _Strike Hard" campaigns have achieved tangible results, protecting the social and political stability of Tibet," said Thubten Tsewang, the region's chief prosecutor, whose annual work report was also printed in the 3rd June edition of the Tibet Daily. He added that police and prosecutors should guard against _political, ideological and cultural infiltration of the Dalai Lama clique."

_We resolutely punished in accordance with the law those criminal elements who endangered state security and engaged in splittist activities," said Bai Zhao in his speech.

The Strike Hard campaign in 1996 led to the arrest and trial of 1,293 people in the TAR, of whom 1,173 were tried for _severely threatening public order". 75 of the 97 people charged with state security offences were tried during the Strike Hard campaign.

The court report lists seven cases of people who were executed in 1996, all of them convicted of robbery or murder, or both - Sonam Choedron and Trasang in Lhasa, Tenzin and Dondrup in Tingri, and Chen Zhaode, Guo Jianguo and Liao Dengfu in an incident on 21st April at Gongkar airport. _To the applause of all sections of society, we resolutely and in accordance with the law sentenced to death these reckless criminals guilty of the most heinous crimes, who were widespread scourges and were steeped in iniquity," said Judge Bai.

The seven executions cited in the annual court report represent a selection of last year's cases - other official newspaper reports last year listed 29 executions in the TAR last year, including at least 18 Tibetans. Five others are known from unofficial sources. None of the people executed have been described by the authorities or informed sources as political offenders.

Recent press reports in the west claiming that ten people had been executed in Tibet for political activities were based on a misreading of the 3rd June article and were incorrect.

Acquittal Rate: Low -

Defendants were found not guilty in eight of the 1,853 criminal cases on which the courts reached a verdict last year, giving an acquittal rate of 0.43%, and 25 defendants were released without punishment. Sentences of more than five years were handed down in 60% of the cases, according to the report.

The case involving the robbery and killing carried out by Sonam Choedron and Trasang was one of the first to occur after the _Strike Hard" campaign begun, and so was also carried out according to a new, accelerated procedure.

_After the request [by the Public Security Bureau] to bring charges in the Suolang Quzhen and Zhasang case, the Lhasa Procuratorate took just two hours, in accordance with the law, to bring charges against the two accused," said Thubten Tsewang, Chief Prosecutor, in his annual report. The murder by the two sisters took place on 4th May and they were tried and sentenced to death on 3rd June, according to other Tibet Daily reports.

_During the _Strike Hard" struggle, regional procuratorial organs upheld the principles of the policy of being _quick and hard" in accordance with the law and the _two basics"," said Thubten Tsewang. _Our region last year maintained a policy of _attack and defend at the same time, cure both the symptoms and disease", thus conscientiously enacting comprehensive security policies," said the court report.

$6,700 Compensation for Vigilante Abuse -

Two Tibetans received over 56,000 yuan - about $6,700 - from the Lhasa Police force in compensation for being abused by a group of voluntary police. Jamyang Dorje and Tashi Dorje took the _Joint Defence Team of the Unity New Village Police Sub-station" to court for _administrative infringement of rights", according to the annual court report. It gave no further details of the incident.

The success of the case against the Joint Police Team - a sort of vigilante squad made up of local volunteers and operated by sub-policestations - indicated that China's administrative laws, which allow citizens to sue officials for abusing their powers, can be effectively used in the region.

In 1992 Lhasa had 184 joint defence teams or similar teams involving 988 people set up to help the uniformed police. Four of the largest teams, which presumably do not wear uniforms, operated in the Barkor area of Lhasa and consisted of 71 unemployed youths, according to a Tibet Daily report last month. There were 2 million joint defence teams in China in 1990.