BEIJING (Associated Press) - China has imprisoned and often tortured hundreds of Tibetan independence supporters during the past two years, including children,
Amnesty International said in a report to be released today (May 30, 1995).
The report by the human rights group, based in London, lists in detail the names and cases of 628 prisoners held in Tibetan jails by the end of 1994 for their political beliefs, including 182 women and 45 people under age 18 - some as young as 12.
Chinese authorities have confirmed the arrest of 45 juveniles, the report said.
"In violation of both Chinese and international law, children have been reportedly held incommunicado, denied trials, beaten, made to do heavy labor with adults and subjected to electric shocks," Amnesty International reported.
It cited the case of a 12-year-old girl from the Tibetan capital of Lhasa who lost the use of an arm and a leg after being beaten with electric batons and forced to work digging excrement and loading it unto trucks.
The group urged the Chinese government to release all political or ideological prisoners, investigate all reports of torture and ensure fair and prompt trials.
It also called on China to observe the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bans torture, corporal punishment and any other cruel or degrading treatment of children.
The Chinese government had no immediate comment. Beijing frequently blames anti-Government or anti-Chinese activities in Tibet on small numbers of "splitists" backed by the government-in-exile of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader.
China invaded Tibet in 1959 but claims to have held sovereignity over the remote Himalayan region since the 13th century. There have been demonstrations for independence in Tibet since 1987.
Since large-scale anti-Chinese riots in 1989 provided an opportunity for Beijing to declare martial law, authorities have allowed only a few Western reporters into Tibet.
In the past two years, Chinese authorities have tightened measures to counter a resurgence in peaceful pro-independence demonstrations, particularly among Tibetan Buddhist monks and nuns, the report says.
The youngest Tibetans known to have been held by Chinese authorities were 12 years old; the oldest is thought to be more than 80.
Some of those detained during 1993-1994 were held without charges or trials. Others were sentenced to terms of imprisonment from two to 15 years, the report said. Confessions are often extracted under torture.
The Tibet Information Network, in London, reported yesterday that a dancer was subjected to daily beatings after he shouted slogans and handed out leaflets praising Dalai Lama on March 4, 1995.
Prison authorities have requested that Lodroe Gyatso be executed for the outburst, and the Dalai Lama government believes that a death sentence has already been approved by a lower court.