Rights group: China used force at Tibetan protests

BEIJING -- The New York-based group Human Rights Watch, in a report released Wednesday, said Chinese security forces used "disproportionate force" against peaceful, unarmed protesters and "acted with deliberate brutality" in suppressing widespread rioting in Tibet in March 2008.

The 73-page report accuses the security forces of engaging in "a pattern of deliberate brutality" against the protesters, and then systematically torturing detainees in prison while seeking evidence that exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was behind the uprising. Human Rights Watch accused China of violating international law in quelling the protests.

"The scale of human rights violations related to suppressing the protests was far greater than previously believed," the report concludes. It also says "violations continue, including disappearances, wrongful convictions and imprisonment, persecution of families, and the targeting of people suspected of sympathizing with the protest movement."

The report said the Chinese government has kept the Tibetan plateau locked down for the past two years -- rarely allowing independent visits by foreign journalists, diplomats or the International Red Cross -- mainly to cover up the activities of the security forces.

In response, China's foreign ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, in a statement faxed to The Washington Post in Beijing, said Human Rights Watch "always has prejudice toward China."

"It was absolutely not so-called 'peaceful protest' or 'non violence' behavior, but severe violent crimes, which caused serious loss to the lives and property of the local people and destroyed the order of the local society seriously," Qin said.

Qin said the security forces in Tibet acted "in accordance with the law and in a civilized manner from the beginning to the end." He added, "The judicial rights of the defendants were fully guaranteed, as well as their ethnic customs and personal dignity. This is the fact."

The Chinese government has consistently rejected claims that its forces acted excessively, and has refused previous demands for an international inquiry, saying Tibet is a domestic matter.

The government has also touted the economic development it has brought to Tibet, including a new rail line linking Lhasa to Beijing, and a fourth civilian airport that opened this year in Ngari, in the far western part of the autonomous region.

The new report, titled "I Saw It With My Own Eyes," was based largely on interviews with 203 Tibetan refugees and visitors who left the area, as well as some official Chinese government sources. The report attempts to paint an even-handed picture of the 2008 unrest, saying, "Some protests clearly devolved into violence" and acknowledging that security forces had a responsibility to restore order.

But the bulk of the report is highly critical of China for using lethal force on at least four documented occasions against unarmed protesters, and subjecting other demonstrators to "brutal" treatment.

"In several protests, witnesses describe security forces deliberately hitting and kicking protesters with batons and rifle butts; systematically punching and kicking subdued protesters as they were arrested or taken away; and beating individual protesters until they remained motionless on the ground," the report said. "Witnesses to several different incidents reported seeing security forces load inanimate bodies on trucks."