The tortured truth
According to the United Nations torture is widespread and routine in China and Tibet.Torture is used as a weapon to silence dissent, to extract confessions and to punish. In Tibet you can be tortured simply for flying the banned Tibetan flag.
Methods of torture include being hung in the air, the wrist or feet and being shocked by electric batons.
Pema, a 27-year-old Tibetan, was detained during the 2008 protests in Lhasa. He was held for three weeks in a disused railway hall where he underwent brutal torture.
"...Suddenly, one of the soldiers standing next to me took out an army knife which was strapped to his waist and stabbed me in my left thigh then screwed the knife back and forth inside my leg. I cried out in agony... Then they brought salt and put it right into the wound. I felt today may be the last day of my life."
Watch the testimony of Tsering, a Tibetan nun tortured simply for wanting to escape from Tibet.
