DISTURBING FOOTAGE FROM TIBET CONFIRMS CHINESE FORCES USED EXTREME VIOLENCE AGAINST TIBETANS FOLLOWING MARCH 2008 PROTESTS
The Tibetan Government-in-Exile released rare footage this morning of Chinese forces brutally beating Tibetans in Lhasa following the unprecedented protests that took place in March 2008. The graphic footage also shows the fatal wounds inflicted by Chinese authorities on a young Tibetan man, Tendar, who was detained after attempting to stop Chinese police from beating a monk in Lhasa on March 14.
The graphic video footage is available at: Tibet.Net
“This extremely rare and shocking footage confirms our worst fears about the horrific pain and suffering Tibetans are experiencing at the hands of the Chinese authorities in the wake of last year’s uprising,” said Lhadon Tethong, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet. “The brutality of the Chinese authorities towards Tibetans in this footage is not the exception to, but rather the rule of, Beijing’s treatment of the Tibetan people over the past 50 years.”
This footage shows some of the only images available of the systematic and widespread torture suffered by thousands of Tibetans at the hands of the Chinese government in the aftermath of the uprising in Tibet last year. The Chinese authorities have gone to great lengths to prevent any evidence of their repression in Tibet from reaching the outside world. Foreign journalists are effectively banned from Tibet, and tourists are not allowed to travel freely to Tibetan areas. Tibetans who attempt to pass on any information about the protests or the crackdown to the outside world risk detention, torture and imprisonment. In November last year, Norzin Wangmo, a Tibetan woman and former Chinese cadre, was sentenced to five years in prison for passing information through the phone and internet about the situation in Tibet.
