Palden Gyatso, Bagdro & Monlam in Spain to bring China to the High Court for Genocide

After more than fifty years’ impunity regarding the genocide of the Tibetan people, victims will finally testify about their sufferings on 19th May 2008 at 9:30 in Court nº 2 of Spain’s Audiencia Nacional. Foremost among the voices to be heard is that of Palden Gyatso. A monk from Drepung monastery (where the first protests arose in this latest repression) and author of the book “Fire under the snow”, Palden was arrested in 1959 for organizing demonstrations by a group of monks, and spent 33 years in prison. During his imprisonment he witnessed the deaths of many Tibetan prisoners as a result of torture in prison and forced labour in veritable extermination camps. Hearing he was to travel to Madrid, the Tibetan monk declared: “After more than fifty years’ genocide against my people, in which more than a million Tibetans have died as a result of the military occupation, a court of justice is at last going to listen to our suffering. A few years ago when I was being tortured in prison in Tibet, my dream was that one day a law court would hear about the horrors endured by thousands of my brothers.”

Also to testify is Jampel Monlam, another former monk from Drepung monastery, who was tortured after witnessing what was until now the worst crackdown in Tibet, that of March 1989, which was ordered personally by then Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet, Hu Jintao, currently President of China. Mr. Monlam is now director of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in exile in Dharamsala, India, and before leaving for Spain he declared: “I hope our testimony and the investigation of the case of Tibet in the Spanish Courts will help to clarify the events that have taken place against our people. We trust this case will contribute towards the international community’s finally taking a stand for human rights, which come before commercial interests, and that China, host of the Olympic Games, will respect the fundamental rights of the Tibetan people”. The judge has called two other victims to testify: Bhagdro, a former monk from Ganden, who was arrested and tortured with 60 other monks in May 1996 for refusing to cooperate with the patriotic re-education campaign in the Tibetan monasteries that was responsible for vilifying the Dalai Lama among the monks; and lastly, the activist, Tenzin Tsundue, who has not been able to attend the legal proceedings due to the short notice given him by the judge.