Thursday, 19 March 2015
14:49
Steve Shaw, Tibet Post International
London - A report has been submitted to the United Nations
Committee Against Torture that documents the repression, state
violence, and torture in Tibet that followed the Tibetan uprising
against Chinese rule in March and April 2008 and continues into the
present.
Produced by
Tibet Watch, with support from Gu-Chu-Sum and Free Tibet, the
Torture in Tibet report uses in-depth and shocking testimony from
survivors to highlight incidents of torture and torture-related
deaths.
It also
highlights11 incidents since 2008 in which Tibetans have been
killed when security forces fired upon protests, and how China used
political pressure to block a case put before the Spanish National
Court (Audiencia Nacional), under the principle of universal
jurisdiction. The case accused former Chinese officials of crimes
against humanity, genocide, torture and terrorism against the
Tibetan people.
Forms of
torture documented include the handcuffing of one prisoner to a
burning stove, beatings with electric batons and electric shocks to
the mouth, immersion in cold water and suspending prisoners in the
air from their handcuffs.In one of the most shocking testimonies,
torture survivor Golog Jigme who was arrested following his
involvement in the Tibetan documentary, Leaving Fear
Behind, described to
Tibet Watch how he was tortured while shackled to an iron
chair
"I was put
onto the chair without any clothes and they tried all sorts of
tortures while I was there, like beating my back with tiny metal
sticks, kicking me and giving electric shocks to my mouth. The pain
the chair caused was too extreme to feel any of the pain caused by
the metal sticks and kicking. When they gave me electric shocks, I
could feel nothing. I only smelt the burning of my own
flesh."
He suffered
horrific wounds as a result of the torture and continues to be
haunted by the ordeal.
"During all my
time under arrest, this was the worst form of torture I suffered.
One of my ribs was broken and my joints suffered very badly.
Whenever I remember that chair I feel scared, even to this day. I
felt like it would be better to die than survive being tortured on
that chair. I was kept on the chair days and nights. At one point,
my feet got swollen and, to my horror, all my toenails fell
off.
"Besides the
iron chair, the pain of thirst was the second worst torture. Due to
the blood loss from my body, I felt like I was dying from thirst,
but was only given a very small amount of water. Over time, I got
used to hunger and sleep deprivation, but never to being
thirsty."
Tenzin
Namgyal, another torture survivor described beatings, which were so
severe they left him with permanent damage to his legs and detailed
the agony of electrocutions:
"The weather
is really cold in Tibet between March and April. It is the time for
snow and some rivers freeze. They forced me to sit in cold water
with only underwear and my feet were stuck to the ice. Then they
burned my body using electrical currents, even my
tongue.
"They tortured
me through various ways but I didn't admit any wrongdoing so they
hung me on the door by my hand chains. Due to this, I have many
scars on my hand even today. We were many political prisoners
together and they mistreated us all the same way. All the political
prisoners were beaten and tortured. None of them were treated
better than me, but some were treated worse than me."
The report
also highlights three cases of political prisoners dying as a
result of torture and notes that there has been a pattern of
gravely ill Tibetan political prisoners in China being released
early in order to reduce the number of deaths in
detention.
The submission
urges the UN to take action and warns that without effective
mechanisms to enforce China's theoretical ban on the use of
evidence obtained by torture, it is highly likely that security
forces will continue to use torture with impunity.
"In recent
years, China has drawn its own Iron Curtain around Tibet, making it
increasingly difficult and dangerous for former political prisoners
and victims of torture to escape and tell their stories," said
Lhagyari Namgyal Dolkar, Vice President Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of
Tibet.
"Despite this, the voices and stories that come from Tibet make
very clear that China's control still depends on brutalising anyone
who it sees as any sort of threat. We're pleased to be able to
provide the UN with first-hand evidence of that brutality but what
we can offer only scratches the surface. Our thoughts are with
those still imprisoned in Tibet and bravely enduring the mental and
physical torture that still goes on."