By Phuntsok Yangchen
DHARAMSHALA, June 22: Department of Health of the Tibetan government in exile and Gu Chu Sum Former Political Prisoner’s Movement today jointly observed the International Day in Support of Torture Victims at TCV Day School here.
This year’s theme of the International Torture Day is Fighting Impunity. Tibetans observed the day four days earlier due to Kalachakra in Ladakh.
Tsering Wangchuk, Tibetan Minister of Health; Sonam Dorjee, Dharamshala Settlement officer, Golok Jigme and local Tibetans attended the brief ceremony. A minute of silence was also observed in solidarity with all the Tibetan martyrs.
Addressing the ceremony, Wangchuk said, “Today, we observe International Torture Day in solidarity and support of all the people around the world who are subjected to or undergoing torture.”
Calling Tibetan Torture Survivors Program an important program under Department of Health, Wangchuk said that it had provided help to around 600 former political prisoners and is currently looking after 80 former political prisoners.
Golok Jigme, a Tibetan monk who assisted in making of a documentary film Leaving Fear Behind shared his experience and torture in Chinese prison.
He said that he was subjected to torture for over a month in a Chinese prison and so does all the other political prisoners.
Golok Jigme was first arrested in March 2008 from Labrang Tashi Khyil and was detained for about seven months during which he was “brutally tortured and beaten.” He was rearrested in March 2009, during which he was kept in custody for about 40 days. Since then, he was rearrested many times.
On 12 December 1997, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 26 June the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, with a view to the total eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
