Press Statement
Dharamsala, June 26 – The United Nations General Assembly officially proclaimed 26 June as the UN International Day in support of Victims of Torture in 1997. Every year, the day is commemorated in support of victims of torture and to eliminate torture throughout the world.
In 1986, the Chinese Government signed the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CAT) and ratified it in October 1988. Despite its ratification, China is responsible for innumerable acts of abuse through its repressive system of surveillance, intimidation, and persecution inside Tibet’s prisons and detention centres. The revised Chinese Criminal Procedure Law, which came into effect in October 1997, outlaws certain forms of torture.
TCHRD has documented a variety of torture techniques used against Tibetan detainees and prisoners including hand and foot cuffs, electric shocks, exposure to extreme temperature, long period of solitary confinement, and deprivation of food, water and sleep, forced labour and forced exercises. Prisoners are denied timely and effective medical attention.The function of torture in Tibet seeks to break the physical and moral resistance of an individual. Aside from the physical assault, it is the mental trauma and harassment that a victim is highly affected throughout their life.
According to TCHRD record, 84 known political prisoners have died as a direct result of torture while in Chinese custody or after release since 1987. Torture is used as a means of intimidation, information gathering and insult to detainees in Chinese administered prisons and detention centres. In 2002, TCHRD recorded 208 known political prisoners in a network of prisons, detention centres and labour camps throughout Tibet.
To cite an example of torture-related death, Lobsang Dhargyal died on 19 November 2002 in a “reform through labour” camp in Machen County, Golog “Tibet Autonomous Prefecture” (“TAP”), Qinghai Province, due to brain haemorrhage. His death is attributed to prison torture and maltreatment.
On the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, TCHRD calls upon the Chinese authorities to release all political prisoners in Tibet and to end all forms of torture and maltreatment of prisoners. TCHRD demands China to adhere to its domestic laws as well as its obligations with regard to UN treaties particularly the CAT. TCHRD urge Beijing Government to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit China and to provide him unlimited access to assess the situation on the ground.
Mr. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, in his message on the day, calls for “ratification by all States of Convention against Torture and Optional Protocol as a concrete step in the struggle to prevent torture in the world”. Mr. Annan condemns the torturers who “seek to break the will and spirit of the victim” and reaffirmed “our unbroken will and spirit to stamp out this vile practice, bring the torturer to justice, and care for his innocent victims.” Torture is a barbaric violation of human dignity and human rights. No political, military, religious or other cause can justify it, he added further.
