Rights group: China used force at Tibetan protests
Posted on 23 Juli 2010By Keith B. Richburg, Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 22, 2010; 9:54 AM
BEIJING — The New York-based group Human Rights Watch, in a report released Wednesday, said Chinese security forces used “disproportionate force” against peaceful, unarmed protesters and “acted with deliberate brutality” in suppressing widespread rioting in Tibet in March 2008.
The 73-page report accuses the security forces of engaging in “a pattern of deliberate brutality” against the protesters, and then systematically torturing detainees in prison while seeking evidence that exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was behind the uprising. Human Rights Watch accused China of violating international law in quelling the protests.
“The scale of human rights violations related to suppressing the protests was far greater than previously believed,” the report concludes. It also says “violations continue, including disappearances, wrongful convictions and imprisonment, persecution of families, and the targeting of people suspected of sympathizing with the protest movement.”
The report said the Chinese government has kept the Tibetan plateau locked down for the past two years — rarely allowing independent visits by foreign journalists, diplomats or the International Red Cross — mainly to cover up the activities of the security forces.
In response, China’s foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, in a statement faxed to The Washington Post in Beijing, said Human Rights Watch “always has prejudice toward China.”
“It was absolutely not so-called ‘peaceful protest’ or ‘non violence’ behavior, but severe violent crimes, which caused serious loss to the lives and property of the local people and destroyed the order of the local society seriously,” Qin said.
Qin said the security forces in Tibet acted “in accordance with the law and in a civilized manner from the beginning to the end.” He added, “The judicial rights of the defendants were fully guaranteed, as well as their ethnic customs and personal dignity. This is the fact.”
The Chinese government has consistently rejected claims that its forces acted excessively, and has refused previous demands for an international inquiry, saying Tibet is a domestic matter.
The government has also touted the economic development it has brought to Tibet, including a new rail line linking Lhasa to Beijing, and a fourth civilian airport that opened this year in Ngari, in the far western part of the autonomous region.
The new report, titled “I Saw It With My Own Eyes,” was based largely on interviews with 203 Tibetan refugees and visitors who left the area, as well as some official Chinese government sources. The report attempts to paint an even-handed picture of the 2008 unrest, saying, “Some protests clearly devolved into violence” and acknowledging that security forces had a responsibility to restore order.
But the bulk of the report is highly critical of China for using lethal force on at least four documented occasions against unarmed protesters, and subjecting other demonstrators to “brutal” treatment.
“In several protests, witnesses describe security forces deliberately hitting and kicking protesters with batons and rifle butts; systematically punching and kicking subdued protesters as they were arrested or taken away; and beating individual protesters until they remained motionless on the ground,” the report said. “Witnesses to several different incidents reported seeing security forces load inanimate bodies on trucks.”
The report said the number of people arrested, detained, prosecuted and sentenced in relation to the unrest remains unknown. But by the Chinese government’s own count, there have been thousands of arrests, and more than 100 trials. “However, the charges and the trials were so highly politicized that it is impossible to distinguish which cases were justified and which were arbitrary,” the report said.
The report sheds no new light on the number of people killed in the unrest but suggests the total could be higher than the official figure of 21 killed in Lhasa. The report cites eyewitness accounts of troops opening fire on protesters in Lhasa and in three other locations.
Doctors and hospital workers were prohibited from discussing casualty figures with foreign journalists and human rights workers. The report said at least two people were arrested for disobeying those instructions, and one, a retired doctor, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for espionage.
Human Rights Watch called on the Chinese government to release all remaining detainees from the Tibetan uprising and give accurate information about all those killed, injured and imprisoned. It also called for an independent inspection of prisons and detention centers in Tibet by the International Red Cross, which has so far been denied access.
The organization also calls on the United Nations and foreign governments to pressure Beijing to agree to an international investigation into the Tibetan unrest.
Tsering Woeser, an outspoken Tibetan poet and blogger in Beijing, said, “I believe that this report tells the truth. I also interviewed some Tibetan witnesses after the riot. As far as I know, what the report says is in accordance with the facts.”
“The report will be very helpful to improve the situation of Tibetans,” Woeser said. She added, “Tibetans badly need the attention of the international community.”
Researcher Zhang Jie contributed to this report.