United Nations, Geneva , 26 September – Last week the International Campaign for Tibet released a Tibetan translation of a UN human rights report related to the 2005 fact-finding mission to the Peoples Republic of China by Mr. Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. Mr. Nowak from Austria orally presented this mission report to the UN Human Rights Council last Wednesday.

The Tibetan edition of Mr. Nowak’s observations and recommendations following his visit to China, Eastern Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet, was released on 20 September afternoon during a briefing at the United Nations here. Ms. Tsering Jampa, Executive Director of Amsterdam-based International Campaign for Tibet Europe said that the main purpose of the publication was to ensure that more Tibetans, especially in Tibet have access to the UN report. The publication was a compilation of the report in three languages, Tibetan, English and Chinese. Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy did the Tibetan translation while the English and Chinese texts were the official documents issued by the United Nations.

The briefing, “Torture in China: State Implementation of Special Procedures’ Recommendations,” was addressed by Ms. Phuntsok Nyidron, Ms. Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China, Mr. Eric Sottas, Executive Director of World Organisation against Torture and Ms. Tsering Jampa. The briefing examined State’s cooperation with special procedures of the UN, as well as implementation of their recommendations, within the context of China Mission Report of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, issued in 2006.

Mr. Nowak in his oral presentation of the China Mission Report to the Human Rights Council said: “I recall that over the last several years my predecessors and I have received a significant number of serious allegations related to torture and other forms of ill-treatment in China , which have been submitted to the Government for its comments. These have included a pattern of torture related to ethnic minorities, particularly Tibetans and Uighurs, political dissidents, human rights defenders, practitioners of Falun Gong, and members of house-church groups. These allegations continue to be documented by international human rights organizations, in respect of which I regularly transmit communications to the Government for clarifications and urgent action.”

Mr. Sha Zhukang, China’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva reacted according to a UN press release, “…some sections of his report were based on partial information or were not accurate, as was the case with reference to Chinese legislation. It was also not accurate to state that torture was still a common practice, as there were isolated cases and those were tending to decrease in number. The Government had implemented measures, such as investigating criminal cases of abuse of power, and recent changes in the law would allow cases of forced confession to be fully investigated. The Chinese Government had also undertaken training courses for judicial personnel and police officers, including detention facilities officials to increase their human rights awareness. The Government was ready to continue cooperation with the human rights mechanisms, including the work of the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture.”

In his statement Mr. Nowak also added: “I believe that the practice of torture, though on the decline – particularly in urban areas – remains widespread in China . I was particularly concerned about the continuing practice of forced re-education of persons with dissident or non-conformist opinions, aimed at changing their personality and breaking their will, both in special re-education through labour camps, regular prisons, and even in pre-trial detention facilities. Such practices, in my opinion, constitute a systematic form of inhuman and degrading treatment and are incompatible with a modern society based on a culture of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”

While visiting Lhasa at the end of November 2005, Mr. Nowak became the first foreign delegation to be given access to the newly established Chushul Prison where on 27 November he met a number of Tibetan political prisoners, including Bagri Rinpoche and Jigme Gyatso. Describing the conversation with Jigme Gyatso, Mr. Nowak’s report stated: “He told the Special Rapporteur that the ill treatment was worst in Gutsa, where he stayed for one year and one month. Since the persons he was charged together with had already confessed, he also decided to confess. He then was transferred to Drapchi Prison in April 1997. In one incident in March 2004, he yelled out, “Long live the Dalai Lama,” for which he was kicked and beaten, including with electric batons. The electric batons were used on his back and chest with painful effect, and ceased once the Chief of Police came and stopped it. After this incident his sentence was extended for an additional two years. He recalled that the general conditions in Drapchi were better than in Quishi Prison: better food, the cells were better lit and ventilated, and the temperatures inside were not as extreme in summers and winters. He can spend 3.5 hours per day outside of his cell.”

It was during his visit to Drapchi Prison on 26 November 2005 when Mr. Nowak “requested to meet with a number of prisoners but was told only after a considerable delay that these individuals had been transferred in April 2005 to a newly established facility, Qushui Prison”. Mr. Nowak also visited Gutsa Prison on that day and his report identified Tsering Phuntsok as one of the prisoners he interviewed. Unconfirmed sources say that the UN Special Rapporteur met Nyima Choedon during his investigation of Drapchi Prison. On 29 June, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said that she was released on 26 February after serving 10 years of imprisonment.

Following the visits to prisons in Tibet, Mr. Nowak called for the release of the Tibetan prisoner he interviewed because the UN expert believed that they were convicted of a political crime, possibly on the basis of information extracted by torture. Mr. Nowak also recommended to the Chinese authorities that “prisoners are provided with recreational activities; are allowed to conduct religious worship; the temperature is adequately controlled, particularly in summer and winter months; and that the quality of food is improved.”

Despite the claims of the Chinese authorities, Mr. Nowak’s Mission Report on China noted that his visit was subjected to close surveillance and monitoring by Government authorities, against the terms of reference which specify confidential and unsupervised contacts with prisoners. Reports have now emerged that a Tibetan political prisoner Dolma Kyab was hidden away from the Special Rapporteur when he visited Tibet . Sources inside Tibet also has that Jigme Gyatso, one of the prisoners who spoke with the Special Rapporteur has been kept in isolation as a result.

When this UN human rights expert was conducting his investigations in Lhasa , the Chinese authorities launched a massive crackdown at Drepung Monastery and sources say that Mr. Nowak was immediately alerted about this development. According to another UN document submitted by Mr. Nowak called “summary of information, including individual cases, transmitted to Government and replies received”, it is mentioned that he along with the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief issued a Joint Urgent Action on 6 December 2005 to express their concern about the arrest of the five monks from Drepung Monastery to the Chinese authorities.

While asking for the abolition of re-education through labour practice of China , Mr. Nowak said: “In the opinion of the Special Rapporteur, the combination of deprivation of liberty as a sanction for the peaceful exercise of freedom of expression, assembly and religion, with measures of re-education through coercion, humiliation and punishment aimed at admission of culpability and altering the personality of detainees up to the point of even breaking their will, strike at the very core of the human right to personal integrity, dignity and humanity. It constitutes a form of inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment leading to submissiveness and a “culture of fear”, which is incompatible with the core values of any democratic society based upon a culture of human rights.”

The visit of the Special Rapporteur on Torture to the Peoples Republic of China has its origins in a 1995 request by the then Special Rapporteur, Sir Nigel Rodley, for an invitation to carry out a fact-finding mission, notes of Mr. Nowak’s report on China say. The note further add: “The Government responded in 1999 with an invitation for a “friendly visit” in May 2000, however, differences between the Government and the Special Rapporteur on the standard methodology for country visits by United Nations human rights experts (including unannounced visits to detention centres and private meetings with detainees) prevented it from being realised. In spring 2004, the Government extended an unconditional invitation to the then Special Rapporteur, Theo van Boven, for a two-week visit in June of that year, which was later postponed. Upon Manfred Nowak’s appointment as Special Rapporteur on Torture in December 2004, the Government renewed its invitation for a visit in 2005, accepting his Terms of Reference.”

By Ngawang C. Drakmargyapon
Phayul Special Correspondent