World Tibet Network News Thursday, June 11, 1998
BEIJING, June 11 (Reuters) - Chinese courts in Tibet acquitted less than one percent of defendants between 1992 and 1997, the Tibet Daily said in an edition seen in Beijing on Thursday. Courts in the remote Himalayan region tried 6,291 people in the past five years and found 0.73 percent not guilty, the newspaper quoted Bai Zhao, president of the People's High Court, assaying. More than half of the defendants were given sentences ranging from five years to death, Bai said. He did not say give a break down as the number of death sentences meted out by Chinese courts is a state secret. He also did not say how many of the defendants were Tibetans. Of the defendants, 4,114 were convicted of murder, robbery, rape, assault, burglary, bombing, drug trafficking and kidnapping, Bait old local parliament last month.
A police crackdown on crime in 1996 netted 1,286 people, he said. Bai said courts ``dealt a vigorous blow'' to separatists by crushing two cases in which temples endangered national security. He did not elaborate. Many Tibetan monks and nuns have been jailed for clamouring for independence. Tibet's chief prosecutor Tudeng Caiwang urged the judiciary to``increase their political sensitivity and remain clear-headed''against separatists, the newspaper said.
Qiazha Qiangbachilie had been dismissed as vice chairman of an advisory body to the local parliament and charged with endangering national security, the chief prosecutor said. He gave no further details. On Wednesday, Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, said in Vienna he was ready to talk to China about a ``middle way'' for his homeland's future. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against communist rule. The offer follows Chinese criticism of the Dalai Lama for defending India's nuclear tests. Beijing has accused the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner of plotting independence for Tibet. The Dalai Lama said he remained in favour of Tibet securing autonomy -- or a ``middle way'' -- as the Himalayan region would struggle without China's economic cooperation.
