China denies torturing prisoners at CAT/ENG

2015. november 20./Phayul.com/TibetPress

eredeti cikk

By Tenzin Monlam

DHARAMSHALA, November 20: China on Wednesday denied imprisoning political prisoners or torturing them saying it prohibits the use of torture.

"The Chinese government prohibits torture and prosecutes any personnel or state organs for torture activities," Li Wensheng, Deputy Director-General of the legal affairs department in the ministry of public security, told the UN Committee against Torture on in Geneva as the UN torture watchdog concluded two-day scrutiny of China on Wednesday.

Despite UN experts pressing the Chinese officials on allegations of rampant Chinese police brutality especially on political prisoners, the Chinese delegation denied mistreatment of prisoners held in police stations and even denied the deaths in their custody.

The Chinese officials also refuted the allegations of using electric shocks and rigid interrogation chairs by stating them as a means to ‘guarantee the safety of the detainee, to prevent the detainee from escaping, from self-harm or attacking other people’.

“The Chinese delegation largely denied the existence of issues related to torture, and even appeared to apply different standards with regards to what constitutes torture according to international law. This is inacceptable”, said Kai Müller, Head of the UN Advocacy Team at the International Campaign for Tibet, in Geneva.

Mandie McKeown from the International Tibet Network said, “It was a whirlwind week with team members, including Golog Jigme, having direct contact with committee members, which enabled us to talk directly about key issues and urge them to raise them directly during the CAT.The media were also really very interested, particularly in Golog Jigme's reaction to the responses from China in relation to having suffered torture himself.”

Golog Jigme, former Tibetan political prisoner currently residing in Switzerland, voiced disappointment after the Chinese officials refuted all allegations of mistreating political prisoners. "Back in Tibet I was used to Chinese propaganda and to hearing lies each and every time there were communications by the Chinese government," he told Reuters.

"I can honestly say there was not the slightest truth in anything they said today. Regarding the interrogation chair, which was highly debated today, they said it was for the detainee's safety. Look at my wounds, on my hands and feet, in fact it was brutal torture," Jigme said.

Tibetan poet and activist Tenzin Tsundue, said, “I myself have been a victim of Chinese incarceration when I was arrested in Tibet and jailed for three months many years ago. I have also witnessed prisoners of conscience being abused in a jail in Lhasa. China may buy International silence on Human Rights but they cannot shut up the truth, Chinese people know this intimately.”

The Tibetan Advocacy Group, a coalition of several groups, have however expressed satisfaction that China had been compelled to raise the issue of Trulku Tenzin Delek’s death though China denied that his death was due to denial of medical treatment.

Reports by various rights groups have shown that the conditions of human rights in China, Tibet and Xinjiang have deteriorated.

The 2015 annual report of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) has marked the year 2015 as ‘another punishing year for human rights in China’.