Write to your Senator |
Condemn suspended death sentences
Write to your elected representative, condemning the executions of two Tibetans in
US representation
Write to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
United States Senate
476 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Fax: (202) 228-0282
You can use the sample letter below:
Dear (name of Congressman/woman or Senator)
I am writing to you to urge you to intervene with the Chinese Embassy in
Washington in the cases of four Tibetans whose whereabouts, welfare and
legal status are unknown and who are at risk of execution.
The four Tibetans are: Penkyi, a Tibetan woman aged 21 from Sakya
county; Tenzin Phuntsog, Kangtsuk and Pema Yeshi.
Penkyi, Phuntsog and Kangtsuk were all given suspended
death sentences after being found guilty by a court in Lhasa in April of
arson attacks on buildings in Lhasa in March 2008 that led to the
confirmed deaths of Chinese citizens. In closely related cases two other
Tibetans, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, were also sentenced to death with
no reprieve. Serious concerns have been raised that the evidence
presented in these cases was unsound and that the convictions are
consequently unsafe.
No independent observers or journalists were present at the trials in
April 2009 and very little information on the cases has been made available
by the Chinese authorities. But a report on the sentencing issued by the
official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, quoted a court spokesperson
stating that Tenzin Phuntsog had been convicted on the basis of a
confession. This immediately gives cause for concern that the evidence
used against all the Tibetans sentenced to death was unsound: as
recently as November 2008 the UN Committee Against Torture stated its
deep concern that in China and Tibet there is "routine and widespread
use of torture... especially to extract confessions or information to be
used in criminal proceedings" and "Continued reliance on confessions as
a common form of evidence for prosecution..."
In October sources inside Tibet reported that Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak
had been executed. The executions were not reported in the official
Chinese press and were not conducted in public. They were only confirmed
by the Chinese authorities (through the Chinese Embassy in London and at
a press briefing in Beijing) after Free Tibet and other advocacy groups
focused accountability on the Chinese authorities by reporting the
executions to the international media, ensuring coverage.
Pema Yeshi, was given a two year suspended death sentence in November 2009. Pema Yeshi, a farmer from Nyarong county in the eastern Tibetan region of Kham (Ch province: Sichuan) was sentenced in November 2009 according to exile Tibetan sources who have contacts in the area that Peam Yeshi was sentenced. Pema Yeshi’s sentence was not announced in official press reports, and according to the sources that reported the sentencing, Pema Yeshi’s family was only informed of the sentence after the trial took place, a violation of Chinese Criminal Procedure Law. The sources also reported that Pema Yeshi was held at an undisclosed location for five months after being detained in March 2009.
In view of the lack of transparency surrounding all the trials of Tibetans given suspended death sentences, together with the secrecy with which the two executions in
October were carried out, serious concerns must remain regarding the
welfare of the four Tibetans who were given suspended death sentences.
I am therefore urging you to:
* Write to the Chinese Ambassador to Washington, Mr Zhou
Wenzhoung, requesting that he requesting that he clarifies the legal status, welfare and whereabouts of: Penkyi from Sakya
county, Tenzin Phuntsog and Kangtsuk and Pema Yeshi.
* Write to Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, requesting that
she contacts her Chinese counterpart in Beijing to seek similar
clarification as above.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Name:
State:
Zip:
| Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak were executed in Lhasa on 20 October 2009, after receiving death sentences in April 2009. |  21-year-old Penkyi is one of three Tibetans who received suspended death sentences around the same time as Lobsang and Loyak and who are at severe risk. |
 There are too many Tibetan political prisoners to list them all, but here you will find profiles on some of those currently serving sentences in Tibet today. |  There are currently more than 1,000 Tibetans missing after the March 2008 protests. Their whereabouts unknown, there are serious concerns for their wellbeing. |
