Torture |
Dr Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture concluded, following his 2005 visit that "torture remains widespread in China". Dr Nowak managed an on-site inspection of Drapchi Prison and the recently opened Chushur (Chinese: Qushui) Prison near Lhasa, and noted his particular concern with sanctions placed on Tibetan monks, including prohibition on prayers and religious worship.
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"Right from the first time I was detained, Chinese officials used different torture instruments on me to break my spirit ... my fellow political prisoners and I were subjected to electric shocks from different types of electric batons and prods... Other nuns and I were hung in the air with our arms tied behind our backs for extended periods of time and we were frequently made to stand in the direct sun or freezing cold for extended periods of time and if we collapsed ... we were beaten ... This torture and mistreatment occurred through most of my life in prison." Ngawang Sangdrol (pictured) was first imprisoned for nine months when she was 13 years old. She was re-arrested when she was 15 years old and served 11 years of a prison sentence totalling 21 years for peaceful protest. |
Torture remains widespread in Tibet and is used by the authorities to send a clear signal to Tibetans that political dissent is dangerous and often deadly. Women, children and men are all know to have been subjected to torture. The prevalence of torture in Tibet is in many ways the consequence of a political system that persecutes those seeking to express their human rights peacefully. Torture is also commonplace in other institutions where prisoners are held in administrative forms of detention, such as detention centre reform through labour camps.
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'Throughout those 33 years the only motivation to stay alive was that I was determined to tell the outside world what was happening in Tibet ... These events may be taking place in a land so far away that it hardly seems real. But pain, torture and anguish are real. I know. You have the chance to make sure that hope is also real." Tibetan Buddhist monk Palden Gyatso was first jailed by the Communist Chinese forces in 1959 for being a "reactionary element." He spent the majority of the next 33 years in jail, enduring brutal physical and psychological abuse and torture by the Chinese authorities, attempting break his will. In 1992, he finished serving his sentence and escaped to India, smuggling with him several torture instruments used on him in jail. |
Common torture methods in Tibet are: beatings, use of electric shock batons, submersion in pits of sewage, exposure to conditions of extreme heat or cold, deprivation of sleep, food or water, prolonged solitary confinement, denial of medical treatment and hard labour, dogs and being hanged upside down. 88 confirmed cases of prisoners have been reported who died while in prison due to torture. The Chinese authorities have taken steps to reduce the numbers of prisoners dying in custody by occasionally releasing prisoners in immediate danger of dying to the care of their families, so that their death does not take place in prison.
In September 2007 four school children aged between 14 and 15 years who allegedly wrote free Tibet slogans on the local police station in Amdo region were beaten and tortured. One boy was hospitalised and required ongoing hospital treatment. (For more information on this case, see Free Tibet’s Urgent Action.)
According to a witness account Chinese authorities tortured a group of men and male children who were captured after the Nangpa La shooting. Jamyang Samten, 15 testified that they were taken to a police station and interrogated for three days. Children aged 15 and over and the adult males in the group, mostly monks, were beaten with electric cattle prods. "It went on until I fainted," Jamyang stated. After three days they were transferred to Shigatse, the second largest city in Tibet. There the beatings continued. "A guard wearing a metal glove would hit us in the stomach." Jamyang also said people were chained to walls during the interrogation and were forced to work in a labour camp, digging ditches. Women received beatings with belts. Children under 15 were forced to do cleaning work and were only allowed outside to play for one hour each weekend. (For more information, see Free Tibet’s Urgent Action.)
UN official’s report on torture in Tibet
At the end of 2005, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Manfred Nowak, visited China, Tibet and Xinjiang. The visit came after ten years of negotiations to visit prisons.
In 2006 Dr Nowak produced a report about his discoveries. In it he stated that he “was struck by the strictness of prison discipline and a palpable level of fear and self-censorship when talking to detainees". Dr Nowak pointed out the incentives for the police and security officials to obtain confessions through torture.
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“I don’t think maltreatment of prisoners in Tibet has decreased, there has been no improvement so far. If anything it deteriorated. One of the reasons is the fact that the police has a strong motivation to improve their performance records so that more funding will come from the higher authorities, and to improve the standing of the officers in question. The police need to be able to show high rates of cases solved. If they have a low rate, they will be criticised. So they will just go out and arrest people, beat them and force a confession. In that way they are able to show high rates of arrests and high rates of cases solved. So this contributes to more maltreatment of prisoners and a high chance for forced confessions. Here in India or in the west, the police are worried if there is an increase in crime. In Tibet, the police benefit from and prefer an increase in crime. This gives officers more power, more responsibility, and more funding for their departments. A policeman is more important, more powerful, if there is more crime.” A former policeman now living in exile in India. |
The CAT (Convention Against Torture, ratified by China in 1988) requires the state to prevent torture and punish those in violation of the law. China, as Dr Nowak pointed out, has not amended its own laws to comply with Article 1 of CAT.
Dr Nowak also noted the “lack of independent, fair and accessible courts and prosecutors, as well as the ambiguity of the domestic law regarding political crimes, policies of re-education and sanctions of freedom of religion, expression and association. The situation in Tibet is aggravated by discriminatory treatment of Tibetans and the targeting of political prisoners."
During his mission to Lhasa, Dr Nowak held on-site inspections of detention facilities in Drapchi Prison and the recently opened Chushur (Chinese: Qushui) Prison. Despite time constraints and limited co-operation by the authorities (such as limited access to prison registers, staff and inmates), the Rapporteur was able to assess the level of repression and maltreatment using information from alternative sources such as ex-prisoners' testimonies. The Rapporteur was particularly concerned with sanctions placed on Tibetan monks, including prohibition on prayers and religious worship. He expressed concern that some prisoners are only "allowed outside of their cells for 20 minutes per day" and noted complaints about "the food, the extreme temperatures experienced in the cells during the summer and winter months and a general feeling of weakness due to lack of exercise".
Despite meeting a number of local officials, including the Vice-Chairman of the TAR Nima Tsering, no-one informed Dr Nowak of the existence of the newly established Chushur Prison, near Lhasa; a prison to which many Tibetan political prisoners had been transferred months before. His attempts to meet ten Tibetan political prisoners were therefore unsuccessful and he was finally able to meet only three: Lama Jigme Tenzin (Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche), monk Lobsang Tsuitrim and Jigme Gyatsu.
The three political prisoners testified to being subjected to severe torture during their interrogation, including beatings, electric shocks and deprivation of food and medical treatment. The report noted that they are still subject to mental and physical torture. Specifically, the report mentions that Bangri Rinpoche suffers from heart disease and gall stones, which are not being treated. The Rapporteur concluded in all three cases that "since (they have) been convicted of a political crime, possibly on the basis of information extracted by torture, the Special Rapporteur appeals to the Government that (they) be released".
To read the full report, Civil And Political Rights, Including The Question Of Torture And Detention, click here.
