China reacts with more helpless persecution – Family members of suicides are being criminalized

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses China's authorities of reacting to the self-immolations in Tibet with even more helpless persecution – rather than trying to find the real reasons. "It is tragic to see that China's government has not managed to find an adequate way to react to the wave of self-immolations by Tibetans. It is a violation of Chinese laws and international humanitarian laws that China persecutes family members of suicide victims," said the STP's expert on questions regarding Asia, Ulrich Delius, in Göttingen on Wednesday. "Obviously, China's government has no effective plan on how to stop the increase of self-immolations Tibet. It is a flagrant misuse of the justice system to declare suicides as cases of "murder" to be able to persecute and punish family members and friends." On Wednesday, a Tibetan monk had burned himself in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu to protest against China's Tibet policy. This was the 100th Tibetan self-immolation since February 2009. 

As a reaction to the massive increase of self-immolations since October 2012, China systematically punishes family members and friends of people who committed suicide. On February 1, 2013, six Tibetans were sentenced to prison terms of up to 12 years because they did not hand over a suicide-corpse to the authorities. On January 31, the Tibetan Lobsang Kunchok was sentenced to death (sentence suspended for two years), in a show trial for allegedly inciting the suicide of 8 Tibetans. Five of these eight supposed suicides never actually occurred. According to the authorities, the respective Tibetans had given up their suicide plans after consultations with the police. His nephew Lobsang Tsering was sentenced to ten years in prison for "intentional homicide".

These sentences are not to be seen as isolated cases. On February 2, 2013, the authorities arrested the 42-year-old Yarphel – an uncle of Lhundup Dorjee, who recently burnt himself. Several Tibetans were arrested or sentenced to prison terms for the alleged disclosure of information about self-immolations. Friends who tried to condole were not allowed to visit the surviving relatives, were intimidated or threatened with a cancellation of financial aids. According to new orders, the government will provide no more financial support for villages in which self-immolations took place. Several relatives were offered large sums of bribe-money if they were to publicly declare that their family members committed suicide because of private family reasons. In at least one case, a husband was arrested for refusing to make a false statement.

Dhonue, husband of the Tibetan woman Dolkar Tso, was arrested in early November 2012. She had committed suicide on August 7, 2012. Dhonue did not accept a bribe and refused to publicly declare that his wife had killed herself due to family reasons. A high bribe was also offered to the families of the suicide Sangay Gatso in October 2012. They were supposed to claim that the Tibetan had not killed himself for political reasons.

The four monks Tashi Gyatso, Kalsang Gyatso, Jigme Gyatso and Kunchok Gyatso – from the Dokar monastery (Gansu Province) were arrested between the 14th and 17th of October, because they had taken care of the body of a self-immolation victim and had also taken photos. In June 2012, the Tibetan monk Lho Younten Gyatso was sentenced to seven years in prison in Ngaba Prefecture (Sichuan Province) because he had sent information about a self-immolation to Tibetan exiles living abroad.