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EU urged to call for enquiry into execution of Tibetan

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Press Release Free Tibet Campaign

Free Tibet Campaign, as part of the International Tibet Support Network (ITSN) – a global coalition of more than 120 Tibet organisations worldwide – has called on the Greek Foreign Minister Mr Georgios Papandreou to raise the cases of Lobsang Dhondup, Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche and a further five detainees during the EU Troika’s talks with China tomorrow (14 February). Members of the network sent urgent faxes and emails to the Greek Foreign Ministry and Embassy in Beijing earlier this week.

Lobsang Dhondup, a Tibetan political activist, was executed on 26 January for an alleged involvement in a bombing incident in Chengdu. Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a prominent religious leader from Kardze in Sichuan Province, has also been sentenced to death with his sentence suspended for two years. In connection with these cases reports indicate that four monks are in detention, a further two are missing and an elderly villager, Tserang Dondrup, has been sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for collecting signatures in support of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche.

Despite numerous representations to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the EU and many governments following the initial sentencing in December, the execution of Lobsang Dhondup was carried out and the appeal of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche was rejected. Requests from the EU for timely information about these cases were rebuffed, and the MFA claimed that a previous assertion that the cases would go before the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing prior to sentence being carried out was misunderstood.

“We urge Mr Papandreou to make the strongest possible verbal representations on behalf of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche and the other detainees during his meetings tomorrow” said Alison Reynolds, Director of Free Tibet Campaign. “We want an independent enquiry into the events leading up to Lobsang Dhondup’s execution, for Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche’s case to be re-examined, and for the credible reports of torture suffered by the detainees in these cases investigated.” she added.

Although it is usual practice for suspended death sentences to commuted to life imprisonment, this may be conditional on the prisoner’s ‘good behaviour’. Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche has continued to assert his innocence in a tape smuggled out of prison and he is understood to have shouted slogans in court in support of the Dalai Lama. He is further understood to have been on hunger strike and as such there are reasonable grounds for concern that his sentence may not be commuted.

The letter from ITSN requests Mr Papandreou to ask that all the remaining detainees are provided with access to the legal counsel of their choice and that independent legal observers are permitted to attend future legal proceedings. Finally, the letter calls on the EU to review its strategy concerning its dialogue process on human rights with China: the next session of the EU/China dialogue is scheduled to take place on 5 and 6 March. ITSN members have called on the EU to take immediate action to ensure that a resolution on China which highlights the case of Lobsang Dhondup is tabled by the EU at the forthcoming 59th session of the United Nations Commission for Human Rights.

Contact Alison Reynolds + 44 7711 843884, Anne Callaghan + 44 7905 922701 Free Tibet Campaign Office + 44 20 7833 9958

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