page_title: Human rights in Tibet
section_title: Physical abuses
hierarchical_section_title: Human rights in Tibet / Human rights in post-1950 Tibet / Types of abuses / Physical abuses
caption_attribution_description: English: A trilingual (Tibetan - Chinese- English) sign. I took this photo above the entrance to a small cafe in Nyalam, Tibet in 1993
context_page_description: Human rights in Tibet are a contentious issue. Reported abuses of human rights in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion, belief, and association; arbitrary arrest; maltreatment in custody, including torture; and forced abortion and sterilization. The status of religion, mainly as it relates to figures who are both religious and political, such as the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama, is a regular object of criticism. Additionally, freedom of the press in China is absent, with Tibet's media tightly controlled by the Chinese leadership, making it difficult to accurately determine the scope of human rights abuses.
  According to a 1992 Amnesty International report, judicial standards in China, including in autonomous Tibet, were not up to "international standards". The report charged the Communist Party of China government with keeping political prisoners and prisoners of conscience; ill-treatment of detainees, including torture, and inaction in the face of ill-treatment; the use of the death penalty; extrajudicial executions; and forced abortion and sterilization.
context_section_description: According to a UN report regarding the adoption of its Tibetan resolution in 1965, "The Chinese occupation of Tibet has been characterised by acts of murder, rape and arbitrary imprisonment; torture and cruel, inhuman and degraded treatment of Tibetans on a large scale."
  According to a secret PLA document purportedly captured by the guerrillas fighting the Chinese army, 87,000 deaths were recorded in Lhasa between March 1959 and September 1960. Regarding this document, Chinese demographer Yan Hao wonders why "it took six years for the PLA document to be captured, and 30 years for it to be published" ("by a Tibetan Buddhist organisation in India in 1990"), adding that it was "highly unlikely that a resistance force could ever exist in Tibet as late as in 1966."
  The 10th Panchen Lama said in relation to atrocities by Chinese forces: "If there was a film made on all the atrocities perpetrated in Qinghai Province, it would shock the viewers. In Golok area, many people were killed and their dead bodies rolled down the hill into a big ditch. The soldiers told the family members and relatives of the dead people that they should celebrate since the rebels have been wiped out. They were forced to dance on the dead bodies. Soon after, they were also massacred with machine guns...In Amdo and Kham, people were subjected to unspeakable atrocities. People were shot in groups of ten or twenty... Such actions have left deep wounds in the minds of the people"
  Since March 10, 2008, exiled Tibetan sources have documented that 228 Tibetans have died under the crackdown, 1,294 have been injured, 4,657 arbitrarily detained, 371 sentenced and 990 disappeared. Four Tibetans were executed in Lhasa on 20 October 2009, while the Chinese authorities confirmed only two. 11 Tibetans were sentenced to life imprisonment. In the majority of cases the defendants had no independent legal counsel and when a lawyer of choice represented the defendants, the authorities blocked representations either through intimidation or on procedural grounds. Amnesty International have stated that there have been a number of detainees in prisons and detention centres in Tibet have "reported to have died in custody, or within weeks of their release, apparently as a result of ill-treatment or lack of medical care in detention."
  In one case a Tibetan from Sichuan province, Paltsal Kyab, died five weeks after he had been detained by police in connection with the 2008 protests. His family was not allowed to visit him while he was detained, and received no news until being informed of his death. When claiming his body, family members found it bruised and covered with blister burns; they discovered later that he also had internal injuries, according to Amnesty International. The police told the family that he had died of an illness, though relatives claimed he was healthy when detained.
  In another case a Tibetan, Jamyang Samten, said he was given electric shocks with a cattle prod, chained to a wall and hit in the stomach by a Chinese guard wearing a metal glove, and if he made a minor mistake in his interrogation, he would be beaten with a chain, saying that "The way the Chinese tortured was terrifying, they beat us using their full strength. Sometimes they forced us to take off our clothes. We were locked up in a room with our arms and legs handcuffed and they beat us. The chain injured the surface but not the inside of the body. If they hit us with the electric baton, our entire body trembled and gradually we were unable to speak." Jamyang Samten was eventually released and fled to Kathmandu in Nepal.
caption: "Police Attention: No distributing any unhealthy thoughts or objects." A trilingual (Tibetan - Chinese- English) sign above the entrance to a small café in Nyalam Town, Tibet, 1993.
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