[Buddha-l] Tibetan monks arrested (and torutred?)

[Dan Lusthaus]

>From today's NY Times.

Dan

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/06/world/asia/06tibet.html

June 6, 2008
16 Monks Arrested in Tibet Bombings
By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG - The police in Tibet have arrested 16 Buddhist monks and accused
them of involvement in three bombings, a police spokesman in northeastern
Tibet said Thursday.

All three bombings involved homemade explosives and caused only property
damage, the spokesman said in a telephone interview.

The spokesman, in Qamdo, declined to give his name, and he referred further
questions to the Tibet Department of Public Security headquarters in Lhasa,
where a press officer said he had no information.

Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, reported on Thursday that the
Tibet Department of Public Security had arrested the 16 monks on May 12 and
13 in connection with bombings on April 5, 8 and 15 in villages near Qamdo.

All of the monks have said they are guilty, according to Xinhua.

Human rights activists and Tibetan exile groups have repeatedly accused
Chinese security forces of using torture to extract confessions. The police
in China also frequently delay announcing arrests until confessions have
been obtained.

Nicolas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights Watch, said
that while he had no specific information on the monks under arrest, he
doubted that their treatment would meet international standards.

"We have no confidence that these people get due process, and in particular
the issue of confession is always tricky because of the use of pretrial
torture and coercion in China," he said.

Judges in Tibet have also been outspoken in saying that their goal is to try
cases as quickly as possible and to preserve the territorial integrity of
China. "They don't pretend that they're giving people a fair trial," Mr.
Bequelin said. "They say they are fighting separatism."