By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, May 29: Tibet’s government in exile on Friday condemned the Chinese government’s decision of death sentence to one Tibetan and long prison terms to five others earlier this week, an official statement said.
“The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) is deeply concerned that the Chinese government has once again handed down a death sentence to one Tibetan and lengthy prison terms to five other Tibetans,” the minister for information and international relations of the Tibetan government Kesang Y. Takla said in the statement.
The Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court sentenced 23-year old Sonam Tsering to death with a two-year reprieve on Tuesday, making him the seventh Tibetan so far to be sentenced to death for the March 2008 anti-China unrest, including two already executed in October last year.
The same court on Tuesday also ordered jail terms of between three and seven years for five other Tibetans convicted of harboring Sonam Tsering in their homes following the riots and helping him prepare to flee abroad, Chinese official media reported this week.
“We strongly condemn the harsh sentences arbitrarily meted out without truly conducting an open and fair trial,” Takla said.
The recent verdict, she said, was against the spirit of China’s first national human rights action plan (2009-2010), which stipulates that every precaution shall be taken in meting out a death sentence and judicial procedures for death sentences will be stringently implemented.
In the statement, Takla also reiterated the exile government’s longstanding appeal that “China should release forthwith all prisoners of conscience and accept an international body to investigate the conditions in Tibet.”
Takla also called on the Chinese government and the international community, including the UN Human Rights Council, to “give due consideration on the deteriorating human rights situation in Tibet”.
The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile has also issued a separate statement condemning the sentencing of the six Tibetans.
“The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile strongly condemns the inhumane approach towards people who dare to express themselves either individually as writers or together in a peaceful mass demonstration,” the statement said.
Tibetan Youth Congress, the largest pro-independence group in the exile Tibetan community, carried out a candle light vigil here yesterday evening to highlight the fate of the Tibetans and condemn the Chinese government for the court sentences.
