By Phurbu Thinley

Dharamsala, March 20: Tibet’s Government in exile Friday released, what it calls, rare video footages showing Chinese paramilitary police resorting to extreme brutality on Tibetan protestors after last year’s March unrest against Chinese rule.

One of the three footages from a combined video release, which was screened at a press conference here today, showed Chinese police beating several Tibetans captives as they lay down handcuffed and tied.

“This is one of the rare footages of Chinese police beating Tibetans who participated in the massive and widespread protests that erupted throughout Tibet since 10 March 2008,” said the Department of Information and International Relations (DIIR) of the Central Tibetan Administration in its press statement.

“We are told that these beating of protestors took place in or near Lhasa after 14 March 2008,” the statement added.

Thupten Samphel, information secretary, and Sonam N. Dagpo, international relations secretary, of the DIIR, presided over the press conference.

Describing the footages as being “very disturbing”, Samphel said the acts of brutality violated the “international norms regarding treatment of captives.”

Death of Tendar

A second footage is of a young Tibetan named Tendar, who succumbed to his injuries after he was brutally beaten and tortured by Chinese police officials.

Tendar, a staff in the China Mobile company, met his evil fate on March 14, 2008, after he tried to stop Chinese authorities from beating a lone monk while on his way to his office.

Tendar later suffered inhumane treatments at the hands of Chinese authorities, DIIR statement said.

According to the press statement, Tendar was “fired at, burned with cigarettes butts, pierced with a nail in his right foot, and severely beaten with an electric baton.”

The footage showing the “wounds and the bruise marks visible on his body is a testimony of the brutality he was subjected to by the Chinese authorities,” the statement said.

Tendar was further “denied basic medical care” at the military hospital and was later shifted to the TAR (Tibetan Autonomous Region) People’s Hospital in Lhasa.

Doctors at the hospital removed “about 2.5 kgs of his body part” in order to clean out the “rotten wounds” caused by prolonged delay in medical treatment.

“Due to covering his wounds with polythene, his wounds began to rot as clearly seen from the footage,” the press statement said.

According to the statement, despite efforts made by his family in meeting huge medical expenses, doctor’s at the people’s hospital failed to bring improvement to Tendar’s ailing body.

He died due to his injuries on June 19, 2008.

When his corpse was offered to the vultures according to the tradition, the statement said a nail was found in his right foot.

Brutality under “virtual martial Law”

Third footage shows the heavy Para-military presence in Lhasa in the run up to the 50th Anniversary of March 10 Tibetan National Uprising this month.

“Lhasa and all other areas of Tibet still remain under virtual martial law,” the exile government said in the statement.

After unrest erupted in March 2008, Beijing swiftly poured more troops into TAR and Tibetans areas in surrounding provinces to smother any protests.

The exile Tibetan government says about 220 Tibetans have died, over 1294 have been seriously injured and more than 1000 have disappeared since the crackdown last year. It says over 5600 people have been arrested and 290 are sentenced so far.

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that sent the Dalai Lama into exile, paramilitary police and soldiers swarmed cities and villages in Tibet to quell possible repeat of last year’s unrest.

China has repeatedly denied the use of torture in Tibet, and has maintained that Tibet has remained relatively calm in recent months.

In November 2008, the Chinese Foreign Ministry rejected the U.N. panel’s report on the widespread use of torture by Chinese police, calling the report as “untrue and slanderous” and accused the committee members as being “prejudiced” against China.

However, the DIIR’s press statement says, the stunning footages received from Tibet “testify to what is truly happening in Tibet as recently as 2008.”

Following last year’s unrest and the crackdown that followed, Dagpo said, Chinese authorities in Tibet continued resorting to “brutal beatings and torture of the captive Tibetans.”

“We are waiting to receive more such footages in future,” Dagpo said, responding to a media inquiry during the press conference held here at the premises of the Tibetan Government-in-exile.


Watch Video: China’s Brutality in Tibet Exposed.