Dharamshala: On 26th June, hundreds of people including Indians, foreigners, and Tibetans commemorated the 13th United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture. The petition and signature campaign was organized by the former Tibetan political prisoner group "Guchusum movement of Tibet", the group also made the point that such inhumane behavior is an essential element in Beijing's strategy against Tibetan political prisoners and dissidents, even those who simply use their freedom of expression.
As communities across the world commemorated the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June, the exiled group denounced the Chinese authorities long history in the use of torture against Tibetan detainees to obtain information or to intimidate them, without ever having had to fear any consequences. "Fifty long years have passed since china invaded Tibet. Up till 1979, 1.2 million Tibetans were brutally killed and more than six thousand monasteries razed to rubble according to a report by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. The situation over the years hasn't changed as the Chinese government continues to subject Tibetan people to various forms of physicals and mental tortures depriving them of human dignity and freedom, which all people are entitled to, irrespective of caste, color, creed and religion, by virtue of being a part of the same global family .i. e, humanity," said in a statement issued by the Tibetan group.
"In the book "The question if Tibet and the Rule of law" a report compiled by International Commission of Jurist, Geneva, reported gruesome methods of tortures on Tibetan people by the Communist party. Tibetan people are beaten to death, crucified, burned alive, and drowned, vivisected, starved, strangled, hanged, scalded, buried alive, disemboweled, and beheaded. These cruel acts are the gravest crime committed in the human history and it is worse than the sad century of Greece," the statement reads.
UN high commissioner for human rights, Pillay on yesterday warned torturers that they could not escape justice even if they might benefit from short term impunity. "Torturers, and their superiors, need to hear the following message loud and clear: however powerful you are today, there is a strong chance that sooner or later you will be held to account for your inhumanity," Pillay said.
"Torture is an extremely serious crime, and in certain circumstances can amount to a war crime, a crime against humanity or genocide," she added in a statement to mark Saturday's International Day for the Victims of Torture. "There is one aspect of all this that should cause even the most ruthless and self-confident torturers to stop and think: in time, all regimes change, including the most entrenched and despotic.
2010 report cites documentation of numerous atrocities, including the targeting of civilians, destruction of shelters, pillage, killing, rape, abduction and torture. It further alleges the Sudanese government used "artillery, ground troops, helicopter gunships and high-altitude bombers against the civilian population". ECOS estimates that 12,000 people died and 160,000 were forcibly displaced through such efforts.
