Tibet a big prison and Tibetans, prisoners under Chinese rule: TWA president on international Prisoner’s Justice Day.
DHARAMSALA, 10 Aug: Under the Chinese rule, Tibet has been turned into a big prison, and every Tibetan, prisoner deprived of basic human rights and suffering injustices, Tenzin Dolma the president of Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA) said as it commemorated International Prisoner’s Justice Day.
“We are commemorating the day to express solidarity with the millions of people imprisoned unjustly by the Chinese Communist Party and to highlight their plight,” The TYC President said.
On the significance of commemorating the day, she said: “Under the Chinese rule, Tibet has been turned into a big prison and every Tibetan, prisoners deprived of basic human rights and suffering injustices.”
“Therefore we have a special responsibility to highlight the sufferings endured by Tibetans inside Tibet and to fight for their justice.”
The TWA has organized a photo exhibition to highlight the gross injustices, horrendous tortures and sufferings inflicted on the Tibetan political prisoners by the Chinese authorities and to highlight the geocode crimes in the concentration camps in Tibet and in East Turkistan.
The TWA stated in their statement that “since the Chinese occupation of Tibet, Tibetans in Tibet for long, have been victims of arbitrary detentions, extreme torture and involuntarily disappearance only for exercising their basic human rights.”
It added that China seldom informs the families of the detainees and added that mercilessly tortured inside the Chinese prison, many Tibetan prisoners do not make it out alive.
The TWA stated that most Tibetans are detained on charges of National Security Crimes and without due process, are held in incommunicado for months and cited the case of the 11th Panchen Lama Gendun Chekyi Nyima, the world’s youngest political prisoner who has become one of the world’s longest-serving political prisoners.
Born on 25 Apr 1989 in Lhari County in Nagchu region of eastern Tibet, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima was recognized as the 11th Panchen Lama by His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama at the tender age of 6 on 14 May 1995.
Three days after his enthronement, the 11th Panchen Lama was kidnapped by the Peoples Republic of China and has been held captive since 17 May 1995 along with his family members. He has not been seen in public ever since.
Even after 26 years, the 11th Panchen Lama and his family’s whereabouts and condition still remain unknown. In his place, another child named Gyaltsen Norbu was appointed as the 11th Panchen Lama by the Chinese government.
The TWA further urged the UN and international human rights groups around the world to press China to come clean on the whereabouts and the wellbeing of the 11th Panchen Lama and his family and to provide a list of all the Tibetans imprisoned by China since its occupation of Tibet.
The group further called on China to respect international and domestic laws and allow Tibetans, Right to a fair and public hearing.
International Prisoner’s Justice Day, is observed annually on 10 Aug to mark the death anniversary of Eddie Nalon, a prisoner who bled to death in a solitary confinement unit at Millhaven Maximum Security Prison, Canada, when the emergency call button in his cell failed to work in 1974.
Since then the day is being observed as an international day of solidarity for the prisoners and their supporters to honor the memory of those who have died unnatural deaths in prison and to express solidarity with the millions of people on the inside of prisons who are demanding changes to a criminal justice system that dehumanizes and brutalizes them.
