2008 Tibetan Uprising

"As the Olympic torch relay travels to Lhasa, Amnesty International today urged the Chinese government to provide information about the over 1,000 people detained during the protests last March and called for free access to Tibet by independent observers". Click Here to read the full story on Amnesty International Website, and find out how "police and security forces have confiscated mobile phones, computers and other communications equipment in hundreds of raids on monasteries, nunneries and private homes, physically preventing thousands from communication with the outside world". There are reports that several hundred people were brutally murdered by the Chinese 'security' forces as they crushed the 2008 uprising.

Information on Tibetan Refugees in Northern India

Fleeing Tibetans knowingly undertake the treacherous journey across the Himalayas to flee from persecution in Tibet. Although a good majority safely cross the Himalayas into Nepal and India, many of them perish en route either due to shooting by Chinese border security forces, falling into crevasses, of hunger or by getting lost in the mountain ranges. In 2007, 2,338 Tibetans managed to safely reach the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Dharamsala, North India (As per the record from 1 January - 31 December 2007 of the Tibetan Refugee Reception Centre in Dharamsala, North India. Quoted in, 'Human Right in Tibet', annual report 2007, page 9). As per the usual pattern, minors below 18 years of age once again accounted for around half the total number of refugees in 2007. Many refugees suffer from frostbite of varying degrees, some are wounded by Chinese bullets and almost all are malnourished. First hand observations by The Beats That Give Back representatives can confirm that conditions in the refugee centres are poor and much assistance is required.

TORTURE IN TIBET

The following are excerpts from a report submitted to the U.N. detailing torture in Tibet: " TORTURE IN TIBET - A Report Submitted To The - UNITED NATIONS COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE On VIOLATIONS BY THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF TIBET - Submitted By SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, CENTRAL TIBETAN SECRETARIAT DHARAMSALA-176215, INDIA April 2000.

"A disturbing variety of torture techniques employed in Tibetan prisons and detention centres has been documented since 1996. Some of the most common are electric shocks delivered by cattle prods to the genitals, mouth, eyes, and other sensitive areas; beatings with 'metal rods, sticks, pistols or rifle butts, plastic hoses filled with sand, [and] pieces of furniture; exposure to extreme heat or cold; and aerial suspension or restraint by rope in painful positions. Other documented torture techniques include starvation, forcing victims to stare at the sun for prolonged periods, attacks by ferocious trained dogs, and sexual assaults, as well as psychological tortures, such as mock executions, forcing victims to witness others being tortured, urinating in victims' mouths, prolonged solitary confinement, and death threats" ( page 7).

"According to a 1997 report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), 94 percent of interviewees who had been detained for political activities also suffered torture. Even among non-political detainees, torture is far from uncommon. Fifty-eight percent of Tibetan torture victims whom PHR interviewed had been detained for non-political, and often trivial, reasons, such as arguing with Chinese shopkeepers, neighbours or government officials" (page 6-7).

"Virtually all Tibetan political detainees face torture prior to trial or administrative disposition. According to the [International Court of Justice] ICJ, one police officer from a county in the Tibetan region of Amdo testified that '100% of detainees are tortured,' and 'Amdo Sangye, a former judge of the Qinghai High Court in Xining, told the ICJ that not a single case came to the court in which the defendant [was] not beaten by the police, and when the defendant is a Tibetan political prisoner, the beating is much worse.'" (International Court of Justice, quoted in the above specified report, page 7-8).

"Caple's recent report recounts the example of Yungdrug, a 25-year old artist apprehended without charge for painting portraits of the Dalai Lama. Yungdrug suffered torture while detained for 58 days at the Gutsa detention centre. Upon release, he was discovered in a public toilet in a severe state of shock. Recent research conducted by the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet suggests that, despite their age, children suffer similar treatment. One interviewee, for example, a 12-year-old girl who was detained at a local police station for carrying a friend's religious writings to her home town of Lhokga, described being beaten with sticks and shocked with cattle prods during interrogation" (page 8).

"Tibetans also suffer torture while serving sentences in China 's prisons and 'reform through labour' camps. Routine forms of torture in prison include hard labour, the forced extraction of blood, inadequate and unhygienic food and water, and 'forced exertion.' According to [Tibet International Network] TIN, 'forced exertion' has now been systematically imposed at Drapchi and Trisam, where many Tibetan political prisoners serve their sentences. Virtually all political prisoners except the very old or infirm must participate. In two daily shifts of three hours each, PAP [People's Armed Police] personnel conduct what they refer to as 'training.' Prisoners, usually in a weakened and unhealthy state, are overtaxed by the martial regimen. Collapse is reportedly common and an attempt by one prisoner to aid another will lead to a beating" (page 8).

"These forms of torture apply generally to all detainees. But prison personnel at times single out Tibetan monks and nuns for forms of psychological torture designed to humiliate and degrade them on the basis of their religious beliefs. Some, for example, described being forced to carry human faeces on their backs over a thanka (a sacred Tibetan religious painting). And nuns, in particular, suffer rape and sexual abuse intended to cause severe psychological trauma" (page 8).

"Tibetans who express political dissent in prison for example, support for the Dalai Lama, demands for independence and improved human rights, or the recital of Tibetan nationalist slogans also suffer torture and abuse. 'Without any known exception, punishment for prison protest has included sustained or repeated beating, electric shocks and solitary confinement. This is particularly troubling in view of the recent rise in prison demonstrations, particularly in Drapchi" (Page 8).

"Reports since 1996 have also documented a disturbing rise in the number of Tibetans who have died as a result of torture inflicted on them while in detention" (page 8).

"Jampel Thinley, a monk detained for plastering 'counter-revolutionary' posters on a monastery, died four hours after his release. By his own account, he suffered nine days of torture during which time he received neither food nor water. Yeshe Samten, who served a two year 'reeducation through labor' sentence for his alleged role in the 1996 upheavals at Ganden monastery, suffered beatings both at Trisam and, prior to sentencing, at the Gutsa PSB (Public Security Bureau). 'By the end of his sentence, he was unable to walk without crutches and he died six days after his release'" (Page 9).

"No Tibetan is yet known to have mounted a successful defence against any politically nuanced charge, nor is an appeal against conviction known to have been successful" (Page 10).

To download the full report on Torture in Tibet