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Four Tibetans executed in Lhasa for arson in 2008

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A file photo of Loyak, one of the four Tibetans executed by the Chinese authorities on charges of his involvement in “arson” causing deaths during protests in Lhasa in spring 2008.TCHRD handout

Chinese authorities have executed four Tibetans for their alleged involvement in arson during last year’s mass protests in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, reports the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD).

The four Tibetans — Lobsang Gyaltsen, Loyak, Penkyi and one unnamed — were executed on Tuesday, 20 October 2009, under the supervision of the Lhasa Municipality Intermediate People’s Court, says TCHRD.

The body of Lobsang Gyaltsen, who was from Lubug on the outskirts of Lhasa, was handed over to his family, who later immersed it in the Kyichu River.

According to the Chinese official mouthpiece Xinhua, dated 8 April 2009, Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court sentenced two people to death (Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak), two to suspended death penalties (Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk), and another (Dawa Sangpo) to life imprisonment, on charges of arson causing deaths. The five were convicted of torching five shops in Lhasa, killing seven people, during the 14 March riots of 2008.

The same court on 21 April sentenced three more Tibetans (Penkyi of Nyemo County, Penkyi of Sakya County and Chime of Namling County) to suspended death, life, and 10 years’ imprisonment respectively, for setting fires that allegedly killed six people in Lhasa last year.

TCHRD condemns the executions of the four Tibetans, and urges the Chinese government to show restraint and to grant its citizens fair trials and abide by the basic human rights of all of its peoples, regardless of their ethnicity.

The Chinese government is known to be executing more people each year than any other nation in the world.

TCHRD says that death penalty has never been shown to have any special deterrent effect, nor should a state use it to justify the wrong done by the defendant. In the case of the two Tibetans Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, the state media earlier reported that both “have to be executed to assuage the people’s anger.” Such an eye-for-an-eye approach is in no way a justification for giving the death sentence.

The execution of the four Tibetans is further proof of China’s unwillingness to abide by the United Nations Global Moratorium on the Death Penalty adopted in 2007, which establishes a suspension on executions with the view to abolishing the death penalty.

Around 500 exile Tibetans and about 100 tourists in Dharamshala took part in a candle-light vigil organised by five non-governmental organisations — Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Gu Chu Sum Movement of Tibet, National Democratic Party of Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet (India) — to condemn the executions.

The NGO leaders appealed to the international community, particularly to the world leaders, to intervene in the cases of those who have been sentenced, or are awaiting trial to provide them fair judicial process.

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

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