MB Civic

Tibetans Jailed, Tortured For Displaying Banned Flag

NEWSPost India – New Delhi, India

Thursday 28th of June 2007 As China
beautifies its capital Beijing for the Olympic
Games next year, its prisons still abound
with terrible tales, including severe torture
and long sentences for trivial ‘offences’,
says a Tibetan prisoner who escaped into
exile after spending 11 years behind bars.

Sonam Dorjee, a 38-year-old Tibetan who
managed to escape from China-controlled
Tibet Autonomous Region recently, is
trying to highlight the appalling condition
in the Drapchi and Chushur prisons, where
prisoners, mostly Tibetans, are
systematically tortured.

‘Prison guards asked me to stand on the
chair placed in the middle of the room, and
tied my thumbs to the thin nylon thread
that was hanging from the ceiling,’ Dorjee
said in a graphic description of the torture
methods circulated by the New York-based
International Campaign for Tibet (ICT)
organisation late Wednesday.

‘Once the chair on which I was standing on
was kicked away, I was hanging from the
ceiling and was beaten again…

‘After hanging for three minutes from the
thin thread, my entire body from the tips
of my toes to the ears started burning and
hurting and I began to hear a ringing
noise. I fell unconscious.

‘The interrogation started again once I
regained consciousness, with the same
questions, and at the same time I could
hear haunting screams from the other
cells.’

In 1992, when China imposed martial law in
Tibet, there were several protests by
Tibetans, all of them suppressed ruthlessly.

Dorjee and four other farmers were
arrested in June 1992 for displaying a
home-made version of the Tibetan
national ‘snow lion’ flag, which is banned
in Tibet, and a banner with the words
“Independence for Tibet”.

They waved both at a township meeting
and raised slogans like ‘Chinese must leave
Tibet’, and ‘independence for Tibet’ for
about 15 minutes when they were arrested.

One of the protesters, Sonam Rinchen, a
young farmer in his 20s, was given electric
shocks, with an electric wire attached to
the nails of each finger.

‘There is a sensation that every strand of
skin is being torn apart from the flesh,’
Dorjee told ICT. ‘For a few days after
experiencing that ordeal, the body is
rendered almost lifeless.’

Rinchen died in prison in 1999.

Two more protesters, Thubten Yeshe and
Lhundrub, are still in prison. The fifth
member of the group, Kunchog Lodoe, was
released on medical parole in 1996 and is
still in poor health.

Dorjee also says that the Chinese are using
Tibetans to torture Tibetan prisoners.

‘The Chinese would mostly use electric
batons while Tibetans would use sticks (to
beat us). Tibetans would scold us, saying
that we should be more grateful to the
Chinese as general conditions have
improved much since the Chinese
overthrew the old Tibetan government.

‘The Tibetan guards had to beat us or risk
demotion or worse, (political
condemnation.

‘Since we are struggling against the
Chinese, it does not hurt my heart when
they torture us. On the other hand, when
Tibetans torture us, it hurts from within.’

The ICT said that China has stepped up
efforts to prevent information about
political prisoners reaching the outside
world. Sometimes it takes years to confirm
details about prisoners serving long
sentences for acts of peaceful protest.

Even after they are released, Tibetan
political prisoners continue to face severe
hardship as they are perceived as ‘a threat
to state security’.