Contacts: Thubten SamphelSonam N DagpoSecretaryDepartment of Information & International RelationsPh: 01892 222510, 224662
For immediate release:22 April 2009
CTA Condemns Tibet Sentences
“The
Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) is deeply concerned that one
Tibetan girl has been sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve and
two other girls have been given long-term imprisonment,” Kalon Kesang
Yangkyi Takla, Kalon for the Department of Information and
International Relations of the Central Tibetan Administration, said
Wednesday. “We strongly condemn the harsh sentences arbitrarily meted
out to the three girls without truely conducting an open and fair
trial,” Kalon Kesang Y Takla said.Penkyi, twenty-year-old of
Norbu village, Dogra township in Sakya County, has been sentenced to
death for her alleged role in the last year’s peaceful protests in
Lhasa by the Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court. Two other girls,
Penkyi, aged 23, of Thantoe village, Margkyang township in Nyemo County
has been sentenced to life imprisonment and 20-year-old Chime Lhamo, of
Sholtoe village, Namling township in Shigatse Namling County, has been
sentenced to jail for 10 years. The recent verdict is totally
against the claims of “China’s tremendous achievements in the promotion
and protection of human rights” during the UN Human Rights Council’s
periodic review of China’s human rights record. The head of the Chinese
delegation to the UN, Mr Li Baodong, said since the founding of New
China in 1949, “ a fundamental social and political system for the
promotion and protection of human rights has been established.”
Moreover, China’s first national human rights action plan stipulates
that “every precaution shall be taken in meting out a death sentence
and judicial procedures for death sentences will be stringently
implemented”. We are deeply concerned that despite these
pledges, in addition to three Tibetans who were given death sentences
on 8 April, another Tibetan has been given death penalty, Kalon Kesang
Y Takla said.The Central Tibetan Administration once again
appeals to the Chinese goverment and the international community,
especially the UN Human Rights Council to give due consideration on the
deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet.Kalon Kesang Y
Takla reiterated the Central Tibetan Administration’s longstanding
appeal that China should release forthwith all prisoners of conscience
and accept an international body to investigate the conditions in Tibet.
