from burning garbage at the prison, as a result of which some suffered chest pains I saw prisoners hanging (from the ceiling) with ropes tied to their arms behind their backs, suspended so that their feet did not touch the ground. Two had their shoulders dislocated I saw a group hanging together, about 12 or 13 people. This was to show the rest of us that the same thing could happen to us. 4.7

A shop assistant in Lasa, arrested on 5 March 1988 for "participating in a demonstration and shouting slogans" stated that after being taken to Gutsa prison, he was hit with electric batons, had three cuts on the head and became unconscious. "We were beaten quite often. One night they made me stand outside without sleep. It was very cold. They punched and kicked us. Sometimes they used sticks and electric truncheons-they poke the truncheon in the stomach, hit the bottom of your feet. If you don't answer what they want, they will beat you again * I was taken to see some prisoners tied up and hanging from the ceiling, to frighten me. I was told that if I did not confess, I would be treated like this. They (the prisoners) were kept hanging all night They could not use their hands for three days or more afterwards." The shop assistant was' released in late July 1988, without being given any specific reason, after spending nearly five months in detention without charge.

4.8

* *

* *

A young worker in Lasa was arrested by Public Security officers at his home on 6 March 1988. According to his account, he was handcuffed, thrown into a truck, kicked and hit with rods on the way to the prison. He was unconscious by the time he arrived at the prison. There, he was thrown into a tub of very cold water. When he regained consciousness, he was pulled out of the water, questioned and beaten until he again lost consciousness. The interrogation and torture continued during the next three days. The police interrogators questioned him about some letters found at his house which contained some discussion of Tibetan independence. They alternatively tortured him and made promises of rewards if he cooperated with them. When he refused to answer questions, he was kicked, beaten with 'rods and given electric shocks with electric batons.

He was eventually released in July 1988, having spent several months in detention without being tried or charged with a crime. When he was released, he could only walk with great difficulty; his fingers were infected from being broken and split open during the first few days of his detention.

4.9

Gyaltsen Lokho, Gyaltsen Tenzin, Gyaltsen Keljoh and Ngawang Dolma, four nuns from a nunnery in Lasa, were arrested during a peaceful demonstration staged by a small group of nuns in the center of Lasa in March 1988. They were released after being detained for several weeks without charge. After being arrested, they were taken to a police station or detention center and put into separate rooms. According to their testimony, they were stripped naked, handcuffed, made to lean with hands on the wall and legs apart, and beaten. One later reported that she was prodded continually with electric batons by three or four guards; another was kicked and stamped on after being thrown to the floor.

4.10

A, a nun from Lasa, was among another group of nuns arrested for taking part in peaceful demonstrations by small groups of nuns and monks in Lasa in April 1988. She was arrested twice. The first time, she was held for only one day and questioned about her involvement in a demonstration early that day. While being questioned, she was reportedly kicked, beaten with rods and sticks and prodded with an electric baton.

She was arrested again in late April and taken to Gutsa prison. According to her account, upon arrival, she was stripped naked and placed in a room with two policemen and two dogs which were apparently trained to attack her whenever she moved. The policemen proceeded to hit her with rods until she tried to move away, at which time the dogs would attack her, lacerating her arms and legs. Throughout this, the policemen continually questioned her about her involvement in the demonstrations and the involvement of others.

She was eventually put in a cell where she remained for about three months. She was released in July 1988, without having been charged with a crime.

Several other nuns arrested at the same period are also reported to have been stripped naked and prodded with electric batons, either in the vagina or in the mouth.

4.11

According to a former prisoner, a 22-year-old monk who was held in Sangyip prison in Lasa after the October 1987 demonstrations was given frequent injections, in prison, of an unknown substance that caused him to become partly paralyzed. The paralysis is said to have been such that he could not feed himself. Transferred at some point to the Tibetan Medical Institute in Lasa, he was seen arriving there walking bent double. His present condition and whereabouts are unknown.

Despite the release of a significant number of prisoners in recent months, Amnesty International is concerned that those who remain in prison may still be at risk of torture. It is also concerned that arrests are continuing and that those arrested recently may be subjected to torture or other ill-treatment. As long as incommunicado detention remains prevalent, Amnesty International believes there is a likelihood that torture and ill-treatment will persist.

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA-TIBET AUTONOMOUS REGION

ONE YEAR UNDER MARTIAL LAW: AN UPDATE ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION

(By Amnesty International-March 1990)

During the year since the 7 March 1989 imposition of martial law in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Tibetans have continued to be detained for peacefully exercising their right to hold and express opinions. Many are held without charge or trial or have been sentenced after trials that fell far short of international standards for fairness. The use of torture and ill-treatment has continued to be reported.

Since March 1989 at least 53 people, some of them aged under 18, have been given administrative sentences of two- or three-years "re-education through labor," or detained pending such sentencing, on charges of taking part in demonstrations or engaging in "counterrevolutionary activities." Since January 1989, at least 29 people have been sentenced to prison or "reform through labor" terms ranging from four years to life on charges of counterrevolutionary crimes, espionage or using violence during demonstrations. Amnesty International believes that some are prisoners of conscience held solely for exercising their right to hold and express non violent opinions.

The authorities in the TAR appear to be increasing political controls over some Tibetans, particularly Buddhist monks and nuns and students, who have been subjected to "screening" procedures aimed at "assessing" and "remolding" their political stand and warned not to support or take part in any "unusual event" they may witness.

Eye-witnesses in Lhasa estimated the civilian death toll from the suppression by security forces of demonstrations in Lhasa from 5 to 7 March 1989 to be above 60, and said that at least 200 people were injured. A senior Tibetan official has acknowledged that police brutalities had occurred. Amnesty International is concerned that under provisions of the TAR People's Government decrees implementing martial law, law enforcement personnel might have been encouraged to arbitrarily use lethal force.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Continuing political unrest in Tibet

During the year since the 7 March 1989 imposition of martial law in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) of the People's Republic of China (PRC), Tibetans have continued to be detained for peacefully exercising their right to hold and express opinions. Over 1,000 people were believed to have been arrested in the days after martial law was declared and in subsequent months. Many are still held in incommunicado detention without charge or trial. Some, including prisoners of conscience, are known to have been sentenced to periods of imprisonment through administrative proceedings without charge or trial while others were sentenced after trials that fell far short of international standards for fairness. Torture and ill-treatment have continued to be reported in use in at least three of Lhasa's prisons and detention centers.

Amnesty International has in the past been concerned at reports of arrests, untried detention and unfair trials in Tibet. The organization documented cases of torture and ill-treatment of Tibetans in a paper published in February 1989 (see People's Republic of China: Torture and Ill-Treatment in Detention of Tibetans, Al Index ASA/17/04/89). The present document summarizes reports of arrests, admin

istrative detention and trials of Tibetans involved in proindependence protests since martial law was decreed in March 1989.

Martial law was imposed at midnight on 7 March 1989 following pro independence demonstrations and violent confrontations with police forces from 5 to 7 March 1989. The security forces were reported to have carried, out indiscriminate beatings and shootings to suppress the protests. Sixteen civilians and one armed police officer are offlially acknowledged to have been killed during the unrest, although eye-witnesses in Lhasa estimated the civilian death toll to be above 60, and said that at least 200 people were injured. Unofficial sources have reported police killings of unarmed civilians during and after the March demonstrations and of severe beatings of demonstrators and detainees by police. A senior Tibetan official has acknowledged that police brutalities had occurred in March. The official Tibet Daily newspaper quoted Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme, an ethnic Tibetan vice chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's legislative organ, as saying in August that "during the riots, some members of the armed Police failed to obey discipline and prior instructions and opened fire on innocent people."

Whereas martial law imposed in parts of Beijing in June 1989 was formally lifted in December, martial law remains in Lhasa. Tanks were reportedly moved into the city in early March and public celebrations of the Monlam prayer festival, a major event in the Tibetan Buddhist calendar, were banned. Under martial law, according to travelers and journalists, guard posts are placed at almost all crossroads and checkpoints are set up before party and government offices, temples and monasteries. Political controls over Tibetan religious activities have been sharply increased: "work teams" have been dispatched to monasteries to screen monks and nuns for their political attitudes; the enrollment of Buddhist novices has reportedly been restricted as were the activities of Buddhist teaching institutions which had been allowed to re-open during the 1980s after their forced closure during the previous two decades.

Since the imposition of martial law in Lhasa, proindependence demonstrations by Tibetans have taken place mostly on the octagonal pilgrimage path known as the Barkhor, which circles the Jokhang Temple. Most have been small, although one on 25 October 1989 reportedly drew about 1,000 protesters.

1.2 Patterns of intimidation

According to the official Tibet Daily, city police authorities indicated at a mass sentencing rally held on 24 September that those who "dare to test the law by themselves" and "persist in being enemies of the people" will be "resolutely dealt with and shown no mercy.” The police described a demonstration held on 22 September as "counterrevolutionary" and "aimed at splitting the motherland."

Monks and nuns are subject to "screening" procedures aimed at "assessing" and "remolding" their political stand. Students at Lhasa's No. 1 Middle School have been ordered, on pain of expulsion, not to support or take part in any "unusual event" they may witness. Monks in a temple in Gyantse, a town southwest of Lhasa, have been warned by political study officials that independence should be renounced. They were told that they needed to study to "clarify” their thinking. Monks in Gyantse and Lhasa have reported that their living quarters had been searched for unauthorized literature.

The official Tibet Daily argued in an editorial comment on 7 August 1989 that the current wave of unrest in Tibet was caused, among other factors, by past laxity towards religious activities. This comment, appearing after the crackdown on prodemocracy demonstrators in Beijing in June 1989, was part of a nation-wide drive to reassert the primacy of central policies, including that of tolerating only a limited role for religious bodies in China.

The degree of autonomy to be granted TAR government authorities appears to be an issue with some bearing on the implementation of legal provisions on the tolerance of religious activities in the TAR: NPC vice chairman Ngapoi Jigme, in an interview published in November, expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude of some central administrative departments in Beijing. He seemed to suggest they do not sufficiently take into account Tibet's nominal autonomy, enshrined in the Regional Autonomy Law of the PRC promulgated in 1984 and in the Basic Law of the Xizang Tibetan Autonomous Region of the PRC. These provide, among other things, for the freedom to use and develop the Tibetan language and to ensure that Tibetans are adequately represented in the civil service. The implementation of the law appears, however, to be defective. Ngapoi Jigme apparently suggested that other Beijing authorities than those normally involved in work on minority nationalities issues should take their special character into account. The interview noted that:

* *

** The phenomenon of [Chinese central authorities] failing to take into account the reality of national autonomous areas and regarding resolutions, decisions, decrees and instructions for these areas as the same as for ordinary areas is still a grave problem... The [Regional Autonomy] Law is not effective The State Council and its departments have not yet formulated rules and provisions to implement the law * It is wrong to think that nationalities work should be done only by minority nationalities areas and departments in charge of minorities." Martial law regulations have been set out in decrees of the TAR People's Government published on 7 and 8 March 1989. TAR People's Government Decree No.1 of 7 March 1989, Article 2, prohibits "all assemblies, parades, workers' and students' strikes, petitions and other gatherings. Decree No.2 of 7 March 1989, Article 1, also prohibits "instigation of separatist actions against the country, instigation of riots, and gatherings which seek to attack State organs, destroy public property, or engage in such sabotage acts as beating, smashing, looting, etc, in any place."

Under Decree No. 2, Article 2, law enforcement personnel in the region are given the "right to take the necessary forceful measures to expeditiously put an end" to acts prohibited under martial law. The same Article also states that "people committing such acts can be detained immediately. In case of resistance, (law enforcement personnel) may take action against them in accordance with the law." Decree No.1, Article 6, gives law enforcement personnel "the right to search people suspected of causing riots, places where criminals may be concealed and other suspicious places" without securing search warrants.

Decree No. 6 of 8 March 1989 provides that all personnel responsible for enforcing martial law, including agents of the Public Security Bureau, Armed Police officers, and People's Liberation Army soldiers, shall "strictly observe the regulations on the use of arms and police weapons by the people's police. This provision appears to subject all personnel both civilian and military to regulations on the use of firearms to which only Public Security Bureau officers are normally 'subjected. Amnesty International is concerned, despite this provision, that other martial law provisions, especially Decree No. 2, Article 2 and Decree No. 1, Article 2 and 6, may encourage the use of unnecessary force, including the use of firearms, by law enforcement personnel.

Amnesty International is further concerned at provisions, under martial law Decrees No. 2 and 5, which increase the likelihood that prisoners may be given unfair trials and be denied the opportunity to present an adequate defense. Decree No. 2, Article 4, provides that "criminals" under the Decree's provisions shall be "punished severely and swiftly" under the provisions of various "Decisions" passed by the NPC in 1983. These allow for summary trial procedures and require more severe punishments, including the death penalty, of a variety of offenses than are normally provided for by the Criminal Law. Courts are to inform prisoners of charges against them only three days prior to trial, and to reduce the time allowed for appeals to three days following sentencing.

2. Arrests and administrative sentences

Since March 1989 at least 53 people, some of them aged under 18, have been given administrative sentences of two- or three-years "re-education through labor," or detained pending such sentencing, on charges of taking part in demonstrations or engaging in "counterrevolutionary activities." People thus sentenced do not appear before a court and are unable.to present a defense. One Tibetan member of an official political consultative body has been detained on political charges stemming from his alleged unwillingness to accept official pronouncements concerning the political situation in Tibet. His case is described below (see Section 2.5).

Municipal authorities in Lhasa confirmed in October 1989 that over 400 people had been arrested since March and said that "almost all" of those who took part in riots before 19 May 1989 had been released as of October 1989, because "they had confessed their mistakes." However, about 250 people arrested since March 1989 are believed still to be held without trial. Some people who had been arrested after demonstrations in 1987 and 1988 and subsequently released, in what was described as a measure of leniency, have been re-arrested and formally charged with "counterrevolutionary activities."

There were reportedly around 600 prisoners in Lhasa's Sangyip prison as of mid1989. Sangyip, together with two other main prisons in Lhasa, Drapchi and the Gutsa detention center, are believed to have a total capacity of 1,700 and to have been full following the March 1989 demonstrations, although not all prisoners were said to have been arrested in connection with the unrest. Amnesty International is unable to confirm these numbers, but it has received numerous reports since March 1989 of people being arrested at their homes following night house searches.

2.1 Nuns accused of involvement in a demonstration on 2 September 1989

On 8 September 1989 nine nuns, mostly from Chubsang and Shangsep nunneries near Lhasa, were sentenced without trial to two- or three-year terms of "re-education through labor." They were charged with breaking martial law regulations by chanting proindependence slogans during a drama performance at the Norbulingka, the Dalai-Lama's former summer palace, on 2 September. The performance was part of the traditional Shoton festival. The six nuns given three-year sentences were Ngawang Chosum, Ngawang Pema, Lobsang Chodon, Phuntsog Tenzin, Pasang Oolma and Oawa Lhanzum. Mass sentencing rallies are large meetings held throughout China at which attendance by selected workers and students may be mandatory. Charges and sentences are read out to the prisoners, who are not able to present a defense.

2.2 Nuns accused of involvement in a demonstration on 22 September 1989

At a public sentencing rally on 24 September 1989 Rinzen Chordren (please see the note on the transcription of Tibetan names at the end of the document), Choenyi Lhamo, Tashi Chozom, Sonam Chodren and Gongjue Zhuoma, nuns from Shangsep nunnery, were sentenced without trial to three-years "re-education through labor' on charges of having "shouted [proindependence] “slogans” on the Barkhor on 22 September. A sixth nun, Rinzen Choenyi, aged 19, was arrested with the five others but was kept in detention pending a formal trial (see Section 3.6 below). Rinzen Choenyi had previously been detained for having allegedly taken part in a demonstration in June 1988 but had been released for good behavior.

2.3 Nuns accused of involvement in a demonstration on 14 and 15 October 1989

Four nuns, Tenzin Wangmo, Phuntsog Sangye, Kelsang Wangmo and Tenzin Dorje, accused of demonstrating on 14 October 1989 were sentenced without trial on 22 October to three-years' "re-education through labor," according to a report in the Tibet Daily, which also said that Phuntsog Nyidron and Phuntsog Palmo, nuns from Michung nunnery accused of having led the 14 October demonstration, were awaiting trial. Kelsang Oolkar and Tsichoe, apparently lay people, were respectively given two- and three-year terms on charges of taking part in the same demonstration. Two other nuns, Lobsang Dolma and Ngawang Tsultrim* received three-year terms for staging a demonstration on 15 October.

2.4 Monks accused of involvement in a demonstration on 30 September 1989

On 3 November 1989 Liecuo, Pujue*, Lhakpa and Trinley, monks from Palhalupuk monastery near Chakpori, were brought before a mass sentencing rally in Lhasa and sentenced without trial to three years of "re-education through labor" for having allegedly taken part in demonstrations on the Barkhor. Tenzin, a monk from the same monastery, received the same sentence on charges of taking part in a demonstration on 30 September, holding the Tibetan national banner with snowcapped mountains and snow lions. Dawa Tsering, also a monk from Palhalupuk monastery, was accused of having organized separatist activities and taken part in the September demonstration and in ""rioting" on 5 March 1989. He is reportedly in custody awaiting trial.

2.5 Arrest of a consultative assembly member

On 28 November Tashi Tsering, a member of the Shigatse prefectural committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), was arrested and apparently charged with engaging in "counterrevolutionary propaganda" and "inflamatory agitation." Shigatse is a large city southwest of Lhasa. The CPPCC is a nationwide network of consultative assemblies whose membership includes nonmembers of the Communist Party, members of ethnic minorities and other prominent personalities.

According to a report on Lhasa radio, Tashi Tsering had for a long time "shown dissatisfaction" with the Party. In 1989 he allegedly wrote 73 "slogans and leaflets" in support of Tibetan independence, "venomously slandering the Party and the socialist system," and put them into "complaints letter boxes" in various places in Shigatse. His removal from CPPCC membership was announced at a local CPPCC meeting after his arrest. His trial is not known to have taken place.

2.6 Arrests of middle school pupils

On 8 December, Lhasa radio announced the arrest of six Tibetan pupils from Lhasa's No. 1 Middle school. Five of the pupils were accused of having formed a "counterrevolutionary" organization called the Gangchen Mountain [Range] Youth Association, having posted "reactionary" posters in various parts of central Lhasa and having called for Tibetan independence. It is not known what sentences, if any,