By Tenzin Sangmo
New Delhi, July 9 – Tibet Support Group (Comité de Apoyo al Tibet) is set to file an augmentation of their initial lawsuit that was admitted January 10, 2006 accusing Chinese leaders Li Peng, Jiang Zemin and five others for crimes of genocide, torture and terrorism committed against the Tibetan people. If held accountable on these charges by the Spanish Court (who has alleged that it is competent to judge cases of crimes against Tibetans) any of these leaders traveling to a country with which Spain has an extradition treaty could be detained.
The Group is all set to file an extension of their previous lawsuit on July 10 2008 in the Spanish High Court for various crimes committed during the March unrest which bears further legal proof and striking resemblance to the crimes denounced in their initial lawsuit.
On May 9, the investigative judge of Court Nº 2, Ismael Moreno listened patiently to three Tibetan torture victims from India testify and give evidence of their terrible suffering, but limited both the number of questions that he had previously accepted and the answers.
The extension to the lawsuit denounces the new wave of oppression that began in Tibet on 10th March 2008, and goes to prove that acts of genocide continue to be committed against the Tibetan people. As far as can be verified, there have been at least 203 deaths, over a thousand injured and 5,972 people arrested.
Prosecuting lawyer, Dr. José Elías Esteve said, “The international crimes that continue to be committed in Tibet as the Olympic Games approach and that are denounced in this extension to the lawsuit, question the lukewarm attitude of most of the international communities when it comes to demanding effective protection of human rights. This case demonstrates yet again the double standard that exists when demanding that the most elementary mandates of international law be adhered to, particularly when the county violating them is China.”
The extension describes how military repression is being carried out amidst the greatest censorship in China and Tibet, with the result that a large number of crimes still remain pending inclusion. The judge has been requested to agree to send a Rogatory Commission to the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations and to the European Parliament, for them to set up an impartial and international investigative commission to visit Tibet in order to confirm and clarify the extent of the international crimes denounced in said extension; an initiative requested months ago by the International Commission of Jurists, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Human Rights Federation (FIDH).
The extension to the lawsuit also denounces China’s manipulation of the global war against terrorism in its attempt to justify and cover up crimes against humanity committed against the Tibetan people. This new repressive strategy began in 2003 with the summary execution of Lobsang Dhondup and the arrest of the Tibetan lama, Tenzin Delek Rimpoche, accused of participating in a series of bomb explosions in Eastern Tibet, and whose so-called confessions were obtained through torture. Lastly, the extension to the lawsuit denounces the continued systematic practice of torture, confirmed by the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations, Manfred Nowak, and the assassinations in the Himalayan frontier posts used by Tibetan refugees when fleeing into exile. A specific case is described, that of Nangpa La, which was filmed by Romanian mountaineers and shows the assassination of two girls by Chinese military forces.
The extension accuses five political and military leaders: Zhang Qingli, current Party Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in the Autonomous Region of Tibet; Wang Lequan, current member of the Politburo in Beijing; Li Dezhu, head of the Ethnic Affairs Commission; General Tong Guishan, commander of the People’s Liberation Army in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital; and General Zhang Guihua, political commissary of the Chengdu military command.
Alan Cantos, Director of Comité de Apoyo al Tibet (CAT) stated, “If the excuse for granting the hosting of the Olympic Games to one of the countries with the least Olympic spirit was to give it the opportunity to improve its human rights situation, the recent events that we have all witnessed clearly show the exact opposite. This cannot be ignored if we wish to maintain any credibility in the democratic values that our governments like to boast about.”
With input from CAT.
