Human rights activists worried about self-immolation and torture of political prisoners in Tibet

The worsening human rights situation in the Tibetan autonomous region was raised at a side event during the 28th session of the Human Rights Council at Palais des Nations in Geneva.

Representatives of various human rights organizations and Mr. Ven. Golok Jigmy Gyatso, a former political prisoner of Tibet, attended the event.

Gyatso, who now lives in Switzerland, said Tibet will eventually be free from Chinese occupation.

"This is a movement of Tibetan people and the spirit of Tibetan people is very strong. So, definitely, Tibet will get its own freedom. It will take some time, but definitely truth will prevail. And, being a freedom struggler myself, my spirit is even stronger. I have not lost any hope," Gyatso told ANI.

Human rights activists believe that arbitrary detention, sentencing, disappearances, interrogation and torture of Tibetans has become a common practice. As a result, Tibetans of all ages and from walks of life across the Tibetan plateau have resisted the Chinese repression through the drastic acts of self-immolation in the last few years.

Elena Gaita, a policy and advocacy officer at the International Campaign for Tibet in Brussels, said, "We have seen a degradation of worsening of human rights situation in Tibet since 2012 and the beginning of 2013 when President Xi Jinping assumed power in China. We have seen a worsening with regard to many subjects, both civil, political rights and economic, social and cultural rights. Freedom of religion is something we are really worried about. We have been continuously reporting about the freedom of expression, assembly association and so on. One of the biggest examples of this unrest is self-immolation wave as 137 cases of self immolation cases reported in Tibet since 2009. Latest case occurred on 5th of March, the first case of 2015."

She added, "The Chinese government, instead of addressing the causes of this unrest, has replied with stronger repression and crackdown on civil society."

"We have published a report in February 2015 which records 29 cases of torture and impunity of political prisoners, where we document the widespread use of torture since the protest of 2008 in Tibet. We have documented 14 cases of political prisoners who have died in state custody due to torture and mistreatment, said Elena.

The worsening human rights situation in Xinjiang autonomous region of China was also raised during the event.

Dolkun Isa, Executive Chairman of the World Uyghur Congress, said, "China not only is persecuting Tibetans or people in the Uyghur area, it is also seeking territorial expansion. China has territorial problems with all neighboring countries, including Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Pakistan, India and many others."

Isa also mentioned the presence of about 8000 Chinese soldiers in Gilgit-Baltistan, which actually is Pakistani territory.

Gyatso rejected the Chinese leaders worry about the incarnation of Dalai Lama. He said that recently, they had warned that the Dalai Lama must reincarnate and on their terms.

"The issue relates to Tibetans and Tibetans have the capacity to decide. It's very surprising that the Communist Chinese, those who don't believe in religion, they are now trying to interfere in religious affairs, by saying that the Dalai Lama should incarnate. That's very surprising, because the Chinese say religion is poison. Only we can decide his next incarnation. But now, the problem is that the Chinese are interfering too much. Even if the Chinese decide on someone to be the next Dalai Lama, the Tibetans will never accept this," he said.

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