Phayul
Tenzin Dharpo
November 13, 2015
An artist’s impression of Tiger Bench, an ancient torture method still employed by China
The report, ‘No end in sight: Torture and Forced Confessions in China’ launched on Tuesday documents a compilation of interviews with 37 human rights lawyers and advocates who had undergone firsthand ordeals of torture and interrogation by Chinese police and law enforcement authorities during pre-trail detention and detention.
The report also elaborates on why torture is a prevalent practice in China, ‘the structural defects in the law itself and its implementation that allow under its watch such norms in modern day China.’
The report’s author Patrick Poon told Gaurdian that the ‘model in question’ is not restricted to the mainland but found in all the corners of China. He said, “From Beijing to Hunan to Heilongjiang to Guangdong – there are cases of torture in many, many places. The problem is still very widespread in different provinces. It isn’t just concentrated in a certain area of China,”
The forms of torture and other ill treatment include beatings, bound by cuffs for a long period, use of contraptions to unnaturally disfigure limbs and body parts, sleep deprivation, deprivation of food and water, repeated recitation of rules of detention facilities, inadequate medical facilities among others. “The Amnesty International carried out a keyword search for the phrase “extraction of confession through torture” (ch. xingxun bigong), retrieving 1,898 court decisions that make mention of the phrase”, the report mentions.
Lawyer Yu Wensheng who was arrested twice in 2015 says, “I know from personal experience how widespread torture is in China’s current law-enforcement environment. I hope one day to see torture classified in China as a crime against humanity.”
The report, although not mentioning Tibet in isolation, says that torture and forced confessions are found in all corners of the country.
Political prisoners in occupied Tibet suffers equally inhumane if not graver means and methods of torture while in custody such as electric shocks and ice beds as recounted in former political prisoner Ven. Bagdro’s autobiography ‘Hell on Earth’ and attested by a long list of Tibetans who have had similar experiences.
The Director of Gu-Chu-Sum Political Prisoners’ Movement based in Dharamshala and a former political prisoner, Lukar Jam Atsok told Phayul, “The report by AI is accurate. The use of torture is a prevalent practice in Tibet. The efforts by the Chinese government in tackling torture and implementation of remedial and preventive measures has brought only cosmetic changes and the reality on the ground is apparent through cases like the death of Tulku Tenzin Delek recently and the crackdown on lawyers in China. The judicial arm in China is but twisted and not ‘independent’ as it regularly claims to be.”
