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(New York) – The Chinese government is misusing criminal charges to repress political, cultural, and religious expression in Tibetan communities, sentencing a prominent lama to death, Human Rights Watch said today.

In a new 108-page report, Human Rights Watch said the persecution of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a highly-respected Tibetan lama facing a death sentence on unproven allegations of involvement in a bombing, highlights the ongoing strictures placed on Tibetans in China. In recent years, the Chinese government has consolidated secular control at the expense of monastic influence.

“In spite of China’s rhetoric about legal reform, Tenzin Delek’s case shows that when it comes to Tibet, the Chinese government still does not tolerate uncontrolled political or religious activity,” said Mickey Spiegel, a senior researcher in the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch.

Human Rights Watch called for the immediate release of Tenzin Delek pending a new trial conforming to international standards.

Tenzin Delek was last seen on December 2, 2002, when a prefectural court in Sichuan province sentenced him to death. His sentence has been suspended for two years and, if Tenzin Delek does not violate the terms of the suspension, will be commuted to life in prison. His alleged co-conspirator, Lobsang Dondrup, was executed on January 26, 2003, immediately after a higher court rejected both men’s appeals. On February 4, 2004, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs informed a European counterpart that Tenzin Delek was being held in Chuandong No.3 Prison, a high security facility in Dazu county more than 600 kilometers from his home.

Human Rights Watch’s report, Trials of a Tibetan Monk: The Case of Tenzin Delek, documents how government officials sought to silence Tenzin Delek for more than a decade. Human Rights Watch provides new information indicating that he was tried on what appear to be unproven bombing charges. Official Chinese sources claimed in court that Tenzin Delek and Lobsang Dondrup were responsible for a series of explosions in Sichuan and for inciting “splittism,” a Chinese term for pro-independence activities.

Chinese officials, who assert that state secrets were involved, refused to open Tenzin Delek’s trial to public scrutiny or release the indictment, verdict or any of the evidence presented. They refused to permit lawyers chosen by members of his family to defend him at appeal.

“The Chinese government is once again using a charge of state secrets to silence Tibetans who try to improve conditions in their communities,” said Spiegel. “Tenzin Delek played by the Chinese government’s rules, but still fell afoul of the system. As one of his colleagues said, they make the laws but they’re the ones who break them.”

For more than 10 years, Tenzin Delek struggled to develop social, medical, educational and religious institutions for the impoverished nomadic Tibetan communities in Sichuan province. He also worked to preserve the area’s fragile ecological balance in the face of unbridled logging and mining activities. In response, local officials increasingly restricted his rights. Officials limited his right to move about, to meet and speak freely with his followers, and to practice his religious beliefs. At least twice, in 1997 and 2000, he fled to the nearby mountains to escape arrest.

The crackdown on Tenzin Delek also targeted the residents of Nyagchu (in Chinese, Yajiang) county, Tenzin Delek’s home area, who rallied around the popular lama. Between April 2002 and January 2003 alone, police interrogated some 60 Tibetan community members. More than 100 residents fled because they feared rough treatment and imprisonment.

At least six of Tenzin Delek’s supporters were sentenced to jail; two received harsh sentences for associating with the lama. Human Rights Watch called for the immediate release of these two men, the monk Tashi Phuntsog and businessman Taphel, who are, respectively, serving seven- and five-year terms.

“This isn’t a story only about Tenzin Delek, it’s about the entire Tibetan community,” said Spiegel. “It’s a snapshot—actually more like a long-running tape—of Chinese attempts to quash Tibetan cultural and spiritual identity in Tibetan areas all over China.”

The report includes extensive interviews with 47 eyewitnesses, many of whom are now scattered around the world but are still fearful of Chinese government retribution against them or their family members who are still in China. The report features a transcript of an extraordinary audiotape in which Tenzin Delek, facing arrest in 2000, explains his work on behalf of a rural Tibetan community and how Chinese officials depicted his efforts as crimes. The report also includes the transcript of a Radio Free Asia interview with one of the judges who condemned Tenzin Delek to death.

Many of the interviewees had tried to ensure that the story of Tenzin Delek’s arrest and secret trial reached the international community. Others had supported his institution-building and environmental efforts in the 1990s—particularly his victory over the local officials who supported clear-cutting of the region’s forests.

Human Rights Watch said that the international community should raise Tenzin Delek’s case at every opportunity in meetings with Chinese officials and press the Chinese government to bring to account those officials who have persecuted this man and his community.

“If China truly wants to join the international community, Chinese officials must stop turning cultural and religious expression into political crimes,” said Spiegel. “Releasing Tenzin Delek and his supporters would be a good start.”

Tenzin Delek In His Own Words

“I have always carried out my work within one country, meaning the People’s Republic of China. The work I have undertaken has been to unite people, to develop their welfare, to protect the environment, to promote economic development for the people, and to promote education….
Everything I did, they considered a crime.

“Recently, I was called to the Religious Affairs Bureau and the United Front Work Department. They told me, ‘You cannot have photos of the 14th Dalai Lama, the young Panchen Lama, or pictures of yourself.’ And they said, ‘The pictures are getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and you cannot do that. And you cannot have a lama’s title.’ I told them…that I did not need the title of lama; I did not need the title of monk, but I did need the rights of a human being.”

“Unexpectedly, I received a call from Public Security officials who ordered me to go to the police station in Dartsedo alone without telling anyone…but I don’t want to go there quietly by myself without telling anyone. They can just come and arrest me. My arrest can be announced publicly from loudspeakers on top of a car. They can come with chains. If I have committed crimes, they should come and arrest me this way. I would not let anyone protest.”

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