Published by: World Tibet Network News Saturday, October 25th, 1997

WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (AFP) - The US-based Physicians for Human Rights charged Friday that more than one in seven Tibetan refugees interviewed in India reported a personal history of torture by Chinese authorities.

Of 258 newly arrived Tibetan refugees in Dharamsala, India, 15 percent reported that they had been tortured and 47 percent said a relative or close friend had been tortured, the Boston-based group said.

Forms of torture included beatings, electric shock treatment, suspension, and deprivation of food and sleep, it said. Nearly half of the torture survivors said their torture had occurred since 1995.

Other forms included being forced to stare at the sun or having blood drawn

against their will, it said. Half the torture survivors had corroborating physical evidence such as scars or tremors.

"The high frequency of torture detected in this study suggests that torture

committed by Chinese authorities in Tibet may be a significant public health

problem among the 7,000 Tibetan refugees currently living in Dharamsala," it

said.

PHR advocacy director Holly Burkhalter cautioned that the sample was a refugee population, suggesting that the incidence of torture may not statistically represent the Tibetan population as a whole.

But she added that torture in Tibet was "ongoing and brutal ... and not just a problem for people thought to be involved in politics." Fifteen percent of the torture survivors were children under the age of 16.

"Obviously we're hoping both the president and members of Congress will bring the issue up" with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who arrives in the United States on a state visit Sunday, she said.

"Unlike many medical issues, torture is 100 percent preventable. It's not a mystery or an accident," Burkhalter said.

"You don't hold people incommunicado, you give them access to lawyers, you put windows in holding rooms. There just hasn't been a political decision to stop torture in Tibet," she said.

On a long list of chronic tensions between China and the United States, Tibet has garnered more attention in recent years as a human rights issue.

China annexed the Himalayan territory in the 1950s and is accused of widespread abuses there.

Under congressional pressure, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright agreed to appoint a "special coordinator" for US policy on Tibet by November 1, though the State Department could postone that appointment until after Jiang's visit.