C2) How are Tibetan political prisoners treated?
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This article is from the Tibet FAQ, by Peter Kauffner Peter.Kauffner@bearsden.org and Nima Dorje tibet@acs.ucalgary.ca.
C2) How are Tibetan political prisoners treated?
The following quote is from a 1988 news story that appeared in _The
Washington Post_. It is based on the statements of two former prisoners
arrested on March 5, 1988 during a large pro-independence demonstration.
Both former prisoners were held at the Gutsa detention center near Lhasa.
[The released lay prisoner] said that interrogators beat seven monks
from one monastery, and then stuffed all seven into a small confined
water channel. The guards then "stomped all over their bodies," he said.
"They beat us with whatever was at their disposal, including wash
basins and mugs," he said. "They kicked us and used pistol butts and
...wooden sticks on us."
The released prisoner said that interrogators used electric cattle
prods as an instrument of torture. Some prisoners also underwent the
"Chinese rope torture," he said.
"I saw people hanging from ropes tied to their arms behind their
backs, suspended with their feet off the ground. Two of the people I
saw had their shoulders dislocated by the rope. Many became
unconscious as a result."
Both former prisoners said that those who were treated most harshly
in the prisons were Tibetan nuns. Most of the imprisoned nuns have
been released from prison but were said to be reluctant to talk about
the experience.
The most brutal of the guards were said to be Tibetans, not Chinese.
[Southerland88]
A recent Amnesty International report includes a list 628 Tibetans who spent
at least some time in prison during the period 1992-94 as result of their
political beliefs. [Strib95]
The 10th Panchen Lama gave the following account of human rights conditions
in Tibet in a 1987 speech delivered in Beijing:
In 1959 there were rebellions in Tibet.... People were arrested and
jailed indiscriminately. There were no interrogations. On sight
Tibetans were taken to jail and beaten. Things like this are still
common in Tibet....
If there was a film made on all the atrocities perpetrated in Qinghai
province, it would shock the viewers. In Golok area, many people were
killed and their dead bodies were rolled down the hill into a big
ditch. The soldiers told the family members and relatives of the dead
people that they should all celebrate since the rebels had been wiped
out. They were even forced to dance on the dead bodies. Soon after, they
were also massacred with machine guns. They were all buried there....
In Amdo and Kham, people were subjected unspeakable atrocities. People
were shot in groups of ten or twenty. I know that it is not good to
speak about these things. But such actions have left deep wounds in the
minds of the people. [Donnet94]
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