New Delhi
17 May 2008
Certain victims of the genocide in Tibet will testify in a Spanish court
on May 19. The victims, some of whom live in India, have had to travel to Madrid to
personally appear before the judge, Ismael Moreno, after India refused to set up a
Rogatory Commission that would have allowed the Tibetans to testify here.
One of the victims who will testify is Mr J Monlam, assistant director of the Dharamsala-
based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) and a former monk
from the Drepung monastery in Tibet. The TCHRD is the first Tibetan non-governmental
human rights organisation to be established in exile in India. It was founded in 1996. Mr
Monlam was tortured after the March 1989 crackdown in Tibet, when Chinese President
Hu Jintao was the secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet.
Mr Monlam hoped his testimony, and that of his fellow Tibetans, will impel the
international community to take a stand on protection of the human rights of the Tibetan
people. "I hope our testimony and the investigation of the case of Tibet in the Spanish
Courts will help to clarify the events that have taken place against our people. We trust
this case will contribute towards the international community’s finally taking a stand for
human rights, which come before commercial interests, and that China, host of the
Olympic Games, will respect the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people," he has said.
Also testifying will be Mr P Gyatso, another monk from the Drepung monastery, which is
one of the monasteries to be hit by the recent unrest in Tibet. He is the author of the
book, "Fire under the snow". He was arrested in 1959 for organising demonstrations by
a group of monks, and spent 33 years in prison. During his imprisonment he witnessed
the deaths of Tibetan prisoners as a result of torture and forced labour.
Mr P Gyatso is happy a court will hear him out. "After more than 50 years’ genocide
against my people, in which more than a million Tibetans have died as a result of the
military occupation, a court of justice is at last going to listen to our suffering. A few
years ago when I was being tortured in prison in Tibet, my dream was that one day a law
court would hear about the horrors endured by thousands of my brothers."
Sources told this newspaper that the "impossibility" of victims living in exile in India
being able to testify here has led Mr J Monlam and Mr P Gyatso to testify before the
judge, Ismael Moreno, at the Audiencia Nacional (Spain’s High Court) on Monday.
The Spanish judge has called two other victims to testify before him: Mr Bhagdro, a
former monk from the Ganden monastery, and Mr Tenzin Tsundue, a poet, writer and
Tibetan freedom activist.
Mr Bhagdro was arrested and tortured with 60 other monks in May 1996 for refusing to
cooperate with the patriotic re-education campaign in the Tibetan monasteries. The
campaign sought to vilify the Dalai Lama.
Mr Tenzin Tsundue (33), who was born in India, was jailed in 1997 by the Chinese
authorities for daring to visit his homeland. He advocates the non-violent, active
resistance popularised by Mahatma Gandhi.
According to the sources, Mr Tsundue might not be able to attend the legal proceedings
due to the short notice given by the Spanish judge.
The Spanish court admitted the matter on January 10, 2006 after it held that it is indeed
competent to judge cases of crimes against the Tibetans. In the lawsuit, seven former
Chinese leaders are accused of genocide, torture, crimes against humanity and
terrorism, including former President Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng.
The lawsuit also seeks to define China’s treatment of the Tibetan people. It points out
that over one million Tibetans were murdered or died at the hands of the Chinese
officials, and over 90 per cent of the religious and cultural institutions of the Tibetans
destroyed.
After the Chinese Government protested at the declaration of Mr Thubten Wangchen, a
genocide victim and director of the Fundacion Casa del Tibet in Barcelona, the Spanish
court decided that the victims would testify through Rogatory Commissions set up in
various countries. India, which is home to over one lakh Tibetan refugees, is the only
country with a sizeable Tibetan population not to cooperate with the Spanish
investigation. The United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands have
agreed to assist in the case. The Interpol had informed India of the Spanish court’s order
to collaborate in the questioning, through a Rogatory Commission, of victims and
witnesses. The Government of India responded by saying it does not recognise the
principle of universal jurisdiction. It argued that the apparent crimes had not been
committed on Spanish soil, so Spanish courts were not competent to try them, although
there is a legal precedent of a Spanish court pronouncing the late Chilean dictator
Augusto Pinochet guilty.
This newspaper has reported on February 16 how Dr Jose Elias Esteve, a Spanish
lawyer fighting an unprecedented battle against the Chinese authorities for genocide in
Tibet, toured India to encourage Tibetans living here to testify before a Madrid court.
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