China executes 4 Tibetans

According to latest information received by Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), as many as four Tibetans were executed on Tuesday for their alleged involvement in the 2008 anti-China unrest in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

TCHRD, which monitors human rights situation in Tibet, said Thursday it received confirmed information from reliable sources that at least four Tibetans were executed under the supervision of the Lhasa Municipality Intermediate People’s Court on Tuesday.The centre said Lobsang Gyaltsen, Loyak, Penkyi and an unnamed Tibetan were executed. Tibetan Government-in-exile has also confirmed the execution report. A report on its official website said Lobsang Gyaltsen, aged 27, born in Lhasa; Loyak, aged 25, of Tashi Khang, Shol Township, Lhasa and Penkyi, aged 21, born in Sakya County were executed in Lhasa on Tuesday. It said the identity of the fourth person is not known.

Sources told TCHRD that the dead body of Lobsang Gyaltsen from Lubug, located on the outskirt of Lhasa city, was handed over to his family and his dead body was later known to have been immersed in Kyichu River. The centre said it was not clear whether the victims were allowed to appeal their cases to the Supreme People’s Court.

On April 8, 2009, Lhasa Municipal Intermediate People’s Court handed down death sentences to Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak, and two others, Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk, to suspended death penalties and another Dawa Sangpo to life imprisonment.The five were convicted of torching five shops in Lhasa that allegedly left seven people dead during the March 14 unres.

On April 21, 2009, Chinese state media reported that the same court sentenced a Tibetan girl to death with a two-year reprieve and two others to long jail terms for setting fires that allegedly killed six people in the Lhasa protest last year. While Penkyi, a 20-year old of Norbu village, Dogra Township in Sakya County, received suspended death sentence, the other two girls, one of them named also Penkyi, aged 23, of Thantoe village, Margkyang township in Nyemo County, was sentenced to life imprisonment and the other 20-year-old Chime Lhamo, of Sholtoe village, Namling township in Shigatse Namling County, was sentenced to jail for 10 years.

TCHRD says it is highly concerned about the fate of remaining Tibetans facing suspended death sentences. Condemning the execution of four Tibetans, the centre has urged the Chinese government to show restraint and ensure fair trials to others facing death sentences and other charges.Centre has also called on UN Special Rapporteur on Extra Judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Execution and the international community to pay urgent attention to situation inside Tibet.

TCHRD said said no information on the execution of four Tibetans was reported anywhere in the Chinese state media and added that it was waiting for further information.Meanwhile, five major Tibetan NGOs have called for a massive peaceful candle light vigil here this evening to pray for the four Tibetans and to highlight the situation inside Tibet.