Treatment of ex-political prisoner highlights concern over endemic torture in Tibetan prisons

Free Tibet Campaign activists have expressed their delight at China's decision to allow Tibetan nun Phuntsog Nyidrol (right) who, until her release in February 2004, had been serving the second longest sentence (17 years) of any female political prisoner in Tibet, to travel overseas for medical treatment (1).

Read Phuntsog Nyidrol's Statement of 22 March 2006.

The US based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) announced that 34 year old Phuntsog Nyidrol arrived in San Francisco on 15 March, in the company of an official from the US Embassy in Beijing. Former cell-mate and ex-political prisoner, Ngawang Sangdrol, welcomed her in an emotional meeting at the airport.

Phuntsog Nyidrol on her arrival in the USA,
March 2006 (copyright ICT)

Free Tibet Campaign said:

"We are delighted that Phuntsog Nyidrol will now be able to access medical treatment, which we hope will aid her recovery from the terrible treatment that she endured in Drapchi Prison.

"While making a gesture ahead of President Hu Jintao's planed visit to the USA in April, it is regretful that China persecutes ex-political prisoners and fails to uphold its obligation under international human rights law to abolish the use of torture and protect civil and political rights. Tibetan prisoners are still suffering from systematic torture and ill-treatment, a situation confirmed in December 2005 by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr. Manfred Nowak."

The recent findings by Dr. Nowak, who met Phuntsog Nyidrol during his fact-finding mission in Tibet last year, provide a further chilling account of the widespread use of torture and its endemic nature within the Chinese detention system. The Rapporteur described "a palpable level of fear and self-censorship that he had not experienced in the course of his previous missions" and provided 'a catalogue' of torture methods used by China's authorities. (2)

Phuntsog Nyidrol was the last of the 'Drapchi 14' to be released on 26 February 2004 after a reduction of one year of her sentence for good behaviour. Since then, she has been under close surveillance at her parents' home in Lhasa and has suffered from constant harassment and restrictions of her movements by the Chinese authorities. Her political rights were denied for five years, so she could neither rejoin her nunnery, nor receive adequate medical treatment. Her arrival in the USA is a successful result of the international campaign on her behalf by Tibet supporters and human rights groups.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

(1) Background information on Phuntsog Nyidrol: Phuntsog Nyidrol was a chant mistress from the small Michungri Nunnery near Lhasa. She was sentenced in 1989 to nine years in prison for taking part in a peaceful pro-independence protest with five other nuns in Barkhor Square, Lhasa.

In 1993 she was one of 14 nuns who secretly recorded protest songs in their Drapchi Prison cells. The tapes of these defiant and patriotic songs were smuggled out of Tibet and widely distributed in the West as the CD "Seeing Nothing But The Sky".

For her part in this activity Phuntsog was sentenced to a further eight years in prison, bringing her total sentence to 17 years. This was the second longest cumulative sentence faced by a female political prisoner. The severity of her punishment is thought to reflect her position of relative authority as chant mistress.

In 1998, during a visit of an EU diplomatic delegation to Drapchi Prison, the authorities brutally suppressed protests by the prisoners. Phuntsog tried to protect her fellow nun and prisoner Ngawang Sangdrol from beatings by Chinese warders. However, both nuns were beaten, tortured, held in solitary confinement and denied visitors for several months following the protest.

In her last years of imprisonment Phuntsog was seriously ill, suffering from a severe heart and lung condition and was reported to often "suddenly fall down", a condition aggravated by a poor diet (the amount of food visitors are allowed to pass to prisoners in Drapchi is limited and leads to severe food shortages as prison rations are insufficient to survive on).

(2) After more than a decade of negotiations the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Dr Manfred Nowak, concluded his fact-finding visit to China, Tibet and Xinjiang between 21 November and 2 December 2005. In a detailed statement the Special Rapporteur stated that he believes the practice of torture, though on the decline - particularly in urban areas - remains widespread in China: "In his interviews with detainees, the Special Rapporteur observed a palpable level of fear and self-censorship, which he had not experienced in the course of his previous missions. A considerable number of detainees did not express a willingness to speak with the Rapporteur, and several of those who did requested absolute confidentiality."

Although Dr Nowak recognised that the Chinese Government has undertaken a number of measures to tackle torture, and commended individuals in China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their professionalism, cooperation, and shared commitment to the objectives of the mission, he reported that other Ministries, including State Security and Public Security, attempted to obstruct or restrict his attempts at fact-finding: "The team were frequently under surveillance by intelligence personnel and a number of alleged victims and family members were intimidated by security personnel, placed under police surveillance, instructed not to meet the Special Rapporteur, or physically prevented from meeting with him."

The report speaks of some of the methods of torture used including: "beatings; use of electric shock batons; cigarette burns, submersion in pits of water or sewage; exposure to conditions of extreme heat or cold; being forced to maintain uncomfortable positions, deprivation of sleep, food or water; denial of medical treatment; and suspension from overhead fixtures from handcuffs". The report goes on to describe techniques that have been given particular terminology such as "exhausting an eagle" where detainees are "forced to stand on a tall stool and be subjected to beatings until exhaustion".

Dr Nowak listed a number of serious shortcomings in China's efforts to control torture, including the lack of an independent monitoring mechanism of all places of detention and a functional complaints mechanism. In the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Dr Nowak was told that no complaint had been received since 2003. Though Dr Nowak is fully aware that this does not mean there were no incidences of torture in Drapchi prison since 2003, Free Tibet Campaign strongly urges him to visit Dharamsala, where prisoners released from Drapchi since 2003 are in a position to provide testimony concerning their treatment.

In light of these findings, Free Tibet Campaign urge the UK Government to press China to undertake immediate and concrete measures to abolish the use of torture in Tibet and to fully co-operate with the various UN mechanisms and bodies to secure the protection and promotion of human rights.