Amnesty calls on Beijing to release Tibetan detainees

Thursday, 19 June 2008, 1:56 p.m.

Dharamshala: Human rights
group, Amnesty International, has called on the Chinese government to
release hundreds of Tibetans detained after the peaceful protests,
which engulfed the Tibetan plateau in March, Radio Australia reported
Thursday.

A new report from Amnesty says more than 1,000 Tibetans are still detained without charge.

The Olympic torch will pass through the Tibetan capital, Lhasa,
on Saturday, and Amnesty’s Asia-Pacific director, Sam Zarifi, said the
event should draw attention to the missing and those in prison.

“There is very little information coming out of Tibet, but the
information we have paints a dire picture of arbitrary detentions and
abuse of detainees,” the Associated Press quoted Zarifi as saying.

“With the torch relay about to enter Tibetan areas, this should
be an opportunity to shine some light on the situation there,” he
added.

He said: “Hundreds of people languish in Chinese prisons for
peacefully expressing their opinions, in appalling conditions and
without their relatives even knowing where they are.”

Amnesty International’s Roseanne Rife says the human rights group has appealed to Beijing to release those detained immediately.

“Hundreds, over a thousand, people are unaccounted for in the
Tibetan autonomous region and the neighbouring Tibetan-populated
areas,” Ms Rife said.

“The Chinese government, through official media reports, has
told us about numbers who’ve surrendered, who’ve been detained, and
then who’ve been charged and sentenced – and there’s a huge
discrepancy.”

“Those hundreds of people are unaccounted for,” she said.