No justice for the victims of violence

Following the sentence of the death penalty against two participants in the demonstrations in Tibet in 2008 the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) accused the Chinese authorities today, Wednesday, of denying any justice to the victims of violence in Tibet. "The death sentences are an expression of a notion of justice which ignores all internationally recognized fundamental principles of justice”, said the GfbV Asia consultant, Ulrich Delius. So the accused were denied any proper legal representation. The sentence was fixed in principle before the beginning of the trial.

The two men were sentenced to death today by a Chinese court for their involvement in violent protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, in March last year. The sentence will not be carried out straight away, but has a delayed effect. It is usually converted after a certain time into lifelong imprisonment.

"Instead of investigating the causes of the outbreaks of violence in Lhasa Tibetans have for months now been arbitrarily sentenced in secret trials in order to stifle at the outset any new protests”, said Delius. But Peking must at last stop the immigration to Tibet from other parts of China to prevent a further escalation of the violence. The human rights expert criticised also the fact that Chinese security forces responsible for the deaths of more than 200 Tibetan demonstrators have not yet been brought to justice.

Today’s sentence is the first death sentence to be pronounced against Tibetans since the beginning of the disturbances in March 2008. "While the protests were peaceful in the majority of the Tibetan areas there were also violent attacks in Lhasa by Tibetans”, reported Delius. The Chinese authorities have still not investigated why precisely in Lhasa the protests did not remain peaceful. "One main reason for this violence is the huge immigration of an increasing number of Han Chinese into the Tibetan capital. Today Tibetans make up only 20 percent of the population of Lhasa and so the tensions are increasing between Tibetans, who are becoming progressively poorer, and the new Chinese immigrants.