Published by: World Tibet Network News Thursday - September 11, 1997

BEIJING, Sept 11 (Reuter) - Authorities in China's restive region of Tibet have granted early releases to 111 prisoners, some jailed for counter-revolutionary and separatist crimes, a court official said on Thursday.

The released prisoners were among 132 in Tibet whose sentences were commuted or who won parole because they behaved well while in jail and showed a penitent attitude, said the official of the Lhasa Intermediary People's Court.

Officials had released two prisoners jailed on counter-revolutionary charges after their original four and five year sentences were commuted by three months, the official said by telephone from Lhasa, capital of the devout Buddhist region.

Western human rights groups have accused China of using counter-revolutionary charges and the newer offence of "endangering state security" to impose harsh sentences on Tibetans who peacefully advocate independence for their Himalayan homeland.

The official Xinhua news agency quoted female prisoner Ciren Lamu, whose four-year sentence for endangering state security was cut by one year, as saying she had fully repented.

"I'm young and was hooked by others to advocate 'Independence of Tibet'... Now I have come to know I was wrong," Xinhua quoted her as saying.

A number of prisoners in Tibet would be granted sentence reductions every year, the agency quoted Losang Gelie, warden of the regional prison in Lhasa, as saying. It gave no details.

In the last decade, Tibet has been rocked by often violent demonstrations for independence from Beijing and for the return of the region's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Many were led by monks and nuns, who have since been sentenced to long jail terms.