CTA Yet to receive Confirmation of Release of Tibetan Prisoners
Saturday, 21 June 2008, 3:52 p.m.
Dharamshala: “We are yet to
receive independent confirmation of the release of these [Tibetan]
prisoners,” said Thubten Samphel, information secretary of the Central
Tibetan Administration based in Dharamshala, while reacting to a Xinhua
news agency’s report that the Chinese government has released 1,157
people, who were charged with minor offences.
“If this is true it is a welcome first step,” Mr Samphel said.
Earlier
on Thursday, human rights group, Amnesty International, has called on
the Chinese government to release hundreds of Tibetans detained after
the peaceful protests, which engulfed many parts of the three
traditional provinces of Tibet in March.
A new report from Amnesty says over a thousand people are
detained without charge in the Tibetan autonomous region and the
neighbouring Tibetan-populated areas.
The report 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.
Meanwhile, forced arrests, beatings and killings of Tibetan
people by the Chinese armed police continue to take place unabated in
Lhasa and other Tibetan-inhabited areas.
According to reliable information, an unidentified Tibetan
girl, who came from a village, was shot dead using a silencer gun by
the People’s Armed Police (PAP) outside the southern gate of the
Tsuklakhang temple, in Lhasa, at about 12:00 noon somewhere around 20
May.
The Chinese government also claimed that defendants from
minority ethnic groups were provided with interpreters at court
sessions, which ensured their rights.
On the other hand, the Chinese government has thwarted some
Chinese lawyers, who have volunteered to offer legal assistance to
Tibetan detainees and suspended the licenses of two prominent human
rights lawyers involved in this campaign.