LONDON, December 2 – Free Tibet Campaign today participated in a global campaign push to save the life of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a prominent Tibetan religious leader. Tenzin Deleg remains under sentence of death in the Tibetan region of Kham (Sichuan, People’s Republic of China) despite numerous governments’ expressions of profound concern to the Chinese leadership about his sentence.
“Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche was unjustly sentenced to death and we are determined to raise his profile so that China will find politically impossible to execute him. We appreciate the concern that our government has expressed about his case but they cannot afford to be complacent,” said Anne Callaghan of Free Tibet Campaign. “The detention of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche is an extremely sensitive case politically, and injustices such as this will only end when Tibet is free.”
The ‘countdown’ campaign coincides with the first anniversary of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche’s death sentence, suspended for two years, passed in Kham (Sichuan Province, People’s Republic of China). The victim of an unfair trial, Tenzin Deleg could face execution as soon as April 2004. See below for more details on his case.
Activists wearing Chinese Army uniforms, and others holding face masks of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, protested outside the Chinese Embassy this morning. This will be followed at 4.15pm by a Parliamentary Lobby in the House of Commons. Members of both Houses will meet local campaigners and hear Tibetan ex-political prisoner Ganden Tashi describe the likely conditions in Tenzin Deleg’s jail. To date 72 Members of Parliament have signed an Early Day Motion in support of Tenzin Deleg, and a constituency-based national lobby involving more than 500 supporters of Free Tibet Campaign is continuing.
The day will be rounded off by a Candlelit Vigil at the Chinese Embassy.
Other Tibet campaigners across the United States, Europe and Asia will carry out campaign activities to mark the anniversary of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche’s death sentence.
Background to Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche’s case
A respected Buddhist leader in the Tibetan region of Kham (Sichuan Province), Tenzin Deleg has been targeted by the Chinese authorities because of his support for the Dalai Lama and his prominent standing in the community. He was arrested in April 2002 and sentenced to death, with a two-year suspension, on 2 December 2002 after an unfair judicial process. He had been charged, with Lobsang Dhondup, of “incitement to separatism” and having an involvement in “causing explosions.” Lobsang Dhondup was executed on 26 January 2003, immediately after the conclusion of an ‘appeal’, and without the Chinese authorities meeting various commitments made to foreign governments concerning these cases. Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche has not been seen since this date.
China has produced no evidence to support the accusations against Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche. So far, international pressure has prompted the early release of five Tibetans arrested in connection with this case. In March, a Chinese official told an EU human rights delegation that the EU “paid more attention to the ethnicity of the criminals than to the crime committed”. A recent delegation from the UK raised Tenzin Deleg’s case but China gave no new information about his case. It is expected that an EU delegation raised the case with their Chinese counterparts during the human rights dialogue on 27 November, but no information is as yet available about the outcome of those discussions.
In China, the precedent is for suspended death sentences to be commuted to life imprisonment. However, with torture and ill-treatment endemic in Tibetan jails, this could in itself constitute a death sentence.
Contact: Anne Callaghan: 07905 922 701, Alison Reynolds: 07711 843 884
