China and Human Rights
There are an estimated 200 political prisoners in [Chinese-occupied] Tibet, almost all monks and nuns whose only crime is to have pledged support to the Dalai Lama, the head of the Buddhist faith, who leads a government in exile in India but whom Beijing regards as a separatist threat.
The London-based human rights group Free Tibet, says torture "forms a part of these prisoners' everyday lives". Human Rights Watch reports document the "mistreatment in detention" of religious figures and activists, citing Tibet as one of the two regions in China where torture is most rife. Beijing denies this, but none of the numerous claims of torture has been investigated by the Chinese authorities.
Life outside the prison walls is also tough, say rights activists. Since direct rule was imposed by Beijing in 1950, the authorities have denied charges of restricting basic freedoms.
Funny, Amnesty International didn't compare the Chinese prisons to "Soviet Gulags"... Then again, the Chinese papers and always filled with good news and you can't blame Amnesty or any other group from relying on those reports, right? Our friend Moynihan again: "If the news papers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people."
NEWS FROM CHINA [Andrew Stuttaford]
"Ngawang Sangdrol was just 13 when she was first imprisoned by China in Tibet. She was so small her prison guards found it easy to pick her up by the legs and drop her, head first, on to the stone floor of her cell. They beat her with iron rods, placed electric shock batons in her mouth and left her standing in the baking heat until she collapsed of exhaustion. They called her the "ballerina", because when the pain became too much for her, she would stand on the tips of her toes like a dancer. "The more we cried out in pain," she said, "the more they laughed."
China is the host nation for the 2008 Olympics.
The London-based human rights group Free Tibet, says torture "forms a part of these prisoners' everyday lives". Human Rights Watch reports document the "mistreatment in detention" of religious figures and activists, citing Tibet as one of the two regions in China where torture is most rife. Beijing denies this, but none of the numerous claims of torture has been investigated by the Chinese authorities.
Life outside the prison walls is also tough, say rights activists. Since direct rule was imposed by Beijing in 1950, the authorities have denied charges of restricting basic freedoms.
Funny, Amnesty International didn't compare the Chinese prisons to "Soviet Gulags"... Then again, the Chinese papers and always filled with good news and you can't blame Amnesty or any other group from relying on those reports, right? Our friend Moynihan again: "If the news papers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people."
NEWS FROM CHINA [Andrew Stuttaford]
"Ngawang Sangdrol was just 13 when she was first imprisoned by China in Tibet. She was so small her prison guards found it easy to pick her up by the legs and drop her, head first, on to the stone floor of her cell. They beat her with iron rods, placed electric shock batons in her mouth and left her standing in the baking heat until she collapsed of exhaustion. They called her the "ballerina", because when the pain became too much for her, she would stand on the tips of her toes like a dancer. "The more we cried out in pain," she said, "the more they laughed."
China is the host nation for the 2008 Olympics.