By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, November 25: Tibetan exiles and supporters held a candle light vigil here this evening to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and to highlight the grave treatment Tibetan people, especially the women, face inside Tibet under Communist Chinese regime.
The rally organized by the Tibetan Women’s Association (TWA), one of the largest non-governmental organizations of Tibetan exiles, was joined by members of a local Indian women’s organization Jagori Himachal and several vesting tourists.
A statement released by TWA to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women said Tibetan women inside Tibet were commonly subjected to “torture, or other cruel, inhuman or degrading forms of treatment or punishment” if found guilty of raising pro-Tibet or pro-Dalai Lama expressions.
The statement said forms of violence are also routinely perpetuated against pregnant women by the Chinese authorities by forcing them to undergo abortions, “sometimes as late as seven or eight months into their term”.
According to the statement, Tibetan Buddhist nuns are often held in prison indefinitely for calling for “freedom in their country, uttering the words ‘Dalai Lama’ or simply for possessing a picture of His Holiness.”
These nuns are tortured brutally, sexually, and without any regards for the rights that are theirs as women and human beings” the statement said.
The statement says, by committing such kinds of atrocities against Tibetan people, especially women, Chinese government is guilty of violating the provisions of the “Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which China ratified in September 1980, and also the “Declaration of the Fourth World Conference on Women” held in Beijing in 1995.
Such kind of violations of women’s rights in Tibet reveals China’s lack of commitment to internationally recognized standards of women’s basic rights, the statement said.
China has, however, shown little willingness to address such issues.
Earlier this month it refused to answer questions from a United Nations human rights panel about the alleged torture and disappearance of dissidents, or provide official figures on the mistreatment of detainees in its prisons.
A UN panel investigating torture allegations and Human Rights campaigners have criticised China for its secrecy and lack of transparency on the issue, but China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, said his government had “zero tolerance for torture”.
Felice Gaer, the UN Committee Against Torture’s rapporteur on China, said she was frustrated at a lack of information, details or statistics on individual cases of rights abuses.
She said she was “concerned not so much about an absence of statistics, but an unwillingness to make these statistics public,” noting Beijing’s frequent use of the State Secrets Act to withold information.
The Committee, in its concluding observations of China’s report on its adherence to the UN Convention against Torture, last week expressed, in its section on Tibet, deep concern about allegations of “longstanding reports of torture, beatings, shackling and other abusive treatment, in particular of Tibetan monks and nuns, at the hands of public officials, public security and state security, as well as paramilitary and even unofficial personnel at the instigation or with the acquiescence or consent of public officials.”
The Committee asked China to provide, within one year, a response to reports of widespread excessive use of force and other abuses related to the spring demonstrations in the Tibetan Autonomous Region and neighbouring Tibetan prefectures and counties.
Nevertheless China on Sunday reacted by calling the UN torture report “untrue and unprofessional outcome”, saying it had prejudiced and politicized its members.
Following this year’s unrest in Tibet, the Tibetan Government-in-exile, based in India, accused China of killing atleast 200 Tibetans, injuring hundreds and arbitrarily detaining many more during its violent crackdown on Tibetan demonstrations. Tibetan exiles and observers have regularly expressed fear that as many political prisoners, including women, are routinely going through harsh and degrading treatments, a common practice prisoners face in number of prisons set up by Chinese Communist authorities inside Tibet.
Beijing, however, maintained only 22 people were killed in the “riots” and refused to allow any independent body or foreign media to report the incident, making it almost impossible for the outside world to assess the whole situation objectively.
