Torture Rapporteur's Report Discloses New Prison Near Lhasa

March 29, 2006

Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak learned of a new prison holding at least some Tibetan political prisoners during his November 20-December 2, 2005, visit to Beijing, Lhasa, and Urumqi, according to a March 10 "advance edited version" of Nowak’s report on his China visit. The new Qushui Prison is located in Qushui (Chushur) county near Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak learned of a new prison holding at least some Tibetan political prisoners during his November 20-December 2, 2005, visit to Beijing, Lhasa, and Urumqi, according to a March 10 "advance edited version" of Nowak’s report on his China visit. The new Qushui Prison is located in Qushui (Chushur) county near Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR).

During his visit to the TAR, Nowak visited three prisons in the Lhasa area and interviewed three Tibetan political prisoners serving long sentences, according to his report. He had asked to meet with an undisclosed number of prisoners at Tibet Autonomous Region Prison (TAR Prison, also called Drapchi Prison), but officials did not inform him until he arrived at the prison that most of the prisoners he had asked to interview were transferred in April to Qushui Prison. The report does not state whether or not Nowak knew of Qushui Prison's existence, but TAR officials did not mention it when they briefed him. The Special Rapporteur succeeded in visiting Qushui Prison, but travel and bureaucratic delays allowed him to interview only 3 of the 10 prisoners he asked to meet: Jigme Gyatso, Bangri Chogtrul Rinpoche, and Lobsang Tsultrim. (Click on "more" below for additional information about the interviews.)

Qushui Prison holds more than 300 male prisoners serving sentences longer than 15 years for "very serious crimes," according to the Nowak report, as well as prisoners sentenced as a "principal" criminal when more than one person commits a "joint crime" (See Chapter II, Section 3 - Joint Crimes, Criminal Law). For example, Article 103 of the Criminal Law stipulates that "ringleaders" committing the crime of "splitting the state" will be sentenced to 10 or more years of imprisonment, but an accomplice who takes an "active part" will be sentenced to not less than 3 years nor more than 10 years. The inmate population of the TAR Prison (Drapchi) numbers about 900 people, including prisoners serving sentences of 10 years or more (but who were not sentenced as principal criminals), according to the report. An August 2004 People's Daily article reported the same number of prisoners at the TAR Prison, suggesting that the addition of Qushui Prison has not reduced the population of the older TAR Prison.

Based on information in the CECC Political Prisoner Database, 40 Tibetan political prisoners currently held in the TAR are serving sentences of 10 years or more. Twenty-three of those 40 prisoners are serving sentences of 15 years or more. Only a few Tibetan political prisoners have been confirmed by name so far to be imprisoned in Qushui Prison, but at least 25 were transferred there in the summer of 2005, according to a January 20 report by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT).

Each of the Tibetan political prisoners that the Special Rapporteur interviewed at Qushui Prison told of previous abuse and harsh conditions at Qushui Prison.

  • Jigme Gyatso (Jinmei Jiacuo) Jigme Gyatso, a former monk who operated a restaurant in Lhasa, was charged with counterrevolution for leading a non-violent group that advocated Tibetan freedom. The Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court sentenced him to 15 years imprisonment in November 1996. He told the Special Rapporteur that the worst abuse was at the Lhasa Public Security Bureau (PSB) Detention Center (or Gutsa). In March 2004, while he was held in TAR Prison, he shouted, "Long live the Dalai Lama." Prison security staff kicked, beat, and shocked him with electric batons until a high-ranking police officer arrived at the scene and stopped it. After the incident, authorities extended his sentence two years. Jigme Gyatso told Nowak that the general conditions in TAR Prison (including food, cell lighting, ventilation, and temperature) were better than in Qushui Prison.
  • Bangri Chogtrul Rinpoche (or Bangri Tsamtrul, Jigme Tenzin Nyima, Jinmei Danzeng Nima) Bangri Chogtrul, a co-director of a Lhasa children's home, was convicted of inciting splittism and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Lhasa Intermediate People's Court in September 2000. The same court commuted his sentence to 19 years imprisonment in July 2003 and reduced his sentence by an additional year in November 2005, according to a February 28 Dui Hua report. He told the Special Rapporteur that after he was detained, security officials kept him handcuffed in a contorted position for five days and interrogated him continuously. For the next three months, he was kept handcuffed and shackled "most of the time" while interrogation continued in a "regular" manner, according to the report.
  • Lobsang Tsultrim (Luosang Chuchen) Lobsang Tsultrim, a monk of Drongsar Monastery, was detained in August 1995 and sentenced to imprisonment after he and two other monks removed and damaged signboards that were on a government office building and put up posters opposing Chinese rule of Tibet and supporting the boy the Dalai Lama recognized as the Panchen Lama, according to the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) 1999 Annual Report. He told the Special Rapporteur that security officials who interrogated him after he was detained used an electric baton to shock him all over his body, including on his face. After Tibetan inmates protested at a TAR Prison May Day ceremony in 1998, authorities tied his arms and legs together and beat him with a piece of plastic pipe filled with sand. He said that food and prison conditions were better at TAR Prison, and that Qushui Prison staff permit him only 20 minutes of free time daily outside his cell. The temperature in Qushui Prison cells is hot in summer, very cold in winter, and imprisoned monks are forbidden to pray. His sentence will expire in 2009 (confirming that his sentence is 14 years.) For additional information about political imprisonment of Tibetans, see Section VI - Tibet, Tibetan Culture and Human Rights, of the CECC 2005 Annual Report