FORUMDEATH IN LHASAby Václav Havel, Prince Hassan Bin Talal, Desmond Tutu, Vartan Gregorian, Yohei SasakawaTuesday, 14 April 2009
PRAGUE – On April 8,
two Tibetans, Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, were sentenced to death by
the Municipal Intermediate People’s Court in Lhasa. Both men were
convicted of committing arson that caused death against Chinese owned
businesses. Another two Tibetan activists, Tenzin Phuntsok and
Kangtsuk, received a suspended death sentence, and a third, Dawa Sangpo
was sentenced by the same court to life imprisonment.These
latest verdicts are the first death sentences meted out by Chinese
courts to those who took part in protests that swept Lhasa and other
Tibetan cities in the spring of 2008. Since these trials took place in
complete isolation from the rest of the world, with no impartial
observers or foreign journalists present, it is to be doubted,
strongly, that the defendants received anything remotely like a fair
trial in accordance with international judicial standards.We
therefore appeal to the authorities of the People’s Republic of China
to rescind the decision to execute these protesters, and to provide
them with an opportunity to be re tried in a judicial process that is
more in keeping with the international standards that China says that
it adheres to. And the first standard that must be met is that the
trial, first of all, must be verifiable and open to international
observation.But beyond the grim fates of the Tibetans that have
now been sentenced by the Tibetan court to death or life imprisonment
for the protests that took place a year ago, we are also concerned
about the hundreds of other detained protesters who have yet to be
tried by the Municipal Court in Lhasa. Indeed, it is our belief that
the recent death sentences could mark the onset of an avalanche of
highly doubtful Court rulings in Tibet, which could lead to a worrying
number of executions in that tense and troubled region.If China
is to gain an international position of respect commensurate with its
position in the world economy, as well as to benefit from its rise to
pre-eminence among the world economic powers, it is vital that China’s
representatives in Tibet acknowledge the need for due legal process for
all of its citizens, including its ethnic minorities.Tied to
that sense of due process of law is a call for the Chinese leadership
to allow representatives of the international community to have access
to Tibet and its adjoining provinces. For these provinces have now
been, for the most part, cut off from international observation ever
since the protests that wracked Tibet last spring.Only by
making its rule in Tibet more transparent for the rest of the world can
the government of the People’s Republic of China dispel the dark
shadows of suspicion that now hang over Tibet. Only by allowing an
international presence to report, dispassionately and truthfully, on
what is happening in Tibet, will China’s government dispel the idea
that its continued rule there means that even more severe human rights
abuses will be inflicted on members of China’s ethnic minorities.—The
above piece is reproduced from The Guatemala Times. VáCLAV HAVEL is a
former President of the Czech Republic; PRINCE HASSAN BIN TALAL is
President of the Arab Thought Forum; DESMOND TUTU, a Nobel peace prize
laureate, is Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town; VARTAN GREGORIAN is a
former president of Brown University and President of the Carnegie
Council; YOHEI SASAKAWA is a Japanese philanthropist. This column is an open discussion forum for Tibet related issues and the views expressed here does not necessarily reflect those of the Central Tibetan Administration.
